Poetry: Strategies Inspired by Boogie Down Productions
The Haiku Mixtape Prelude
Poetry is the language of imagination/ Poetry is a form of positive creation
-KRS-ONE, “POETRY”
Intro
As a kid, I read a lot of poetry. ee cummings. Audre Lorde. T.S. Eliot. It led me to my love affair with hip hop. The boom bap was a natural accompaniment to the rhythm of words and I was never without my discman or my backpack full of cds.
One of those albums in my backpack always featured KRS-One. “The teacher” would always astound with his lyricism, wittiness, consciousness, and braggadocio. Before his solo career, he was one half of Boogie Down Productions with DJ Scott La Rock. If cummings, Lorde, and Eliot introduced me to poetry, BDP, Rakim, and Big Daddy Kane cemented poetry as a passion.
This series of mixtapes will explore how poetry can be implemented in classrooms in a way that doesn’t involve much fuss or confusion. Poetry, with its freedom, rhythm, and creativity, should be something that every student should have an opportunity to experience.
Why Haiku?
1. They’re really short poems
Haiku is a Japanese poetry form that’s made up of only three lines. Each line has a predefined number of syllables it should contain. The most popular version has a pattern that has five syllables in line one, seven syllables in line two, and five syllables in line three. Syllabication is a skill we first encounter in the early years of school so that even our youngest learners can be successful writing these poems.
2. Vocabulary acquisition
The greatest thing about haiku is how forces students to find different ways to express thoughts because of the limitations that the syllables per line impose. This will allow you to introduce the use of synonyms, antonyms, and how to use a thesaurus. Exposure to new ways to express a sentiment is never a bad thing. Plus, it will force students to be both concise and precise in their language. It like the Twitter of the poetry world.
3. Adaptability
These poems can literally be used for any activity in which a student is observing or describing something. Quick writes? Check. Describing a process? Check. Science observations? Check. Exit tickets? Check. The limits to implementation are literally your own imagination.
- Studying the techniques of haiku poets could be beneficial to your students. Try this lesson from PBS: https://vegas.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/pe08.rla.genre.poetry.lphaiku/exploring-selected-haiku-by-issa/#.WqafYJMobwc
The SETUP
See I am a professional, This is not a demo/ In fact call it a lecture, a visual picture/ sort of a poetic rhythm-like mixture
-KRS-ONE, “POETRY”
Templates are always good when you’re introducing new structures in your class. You don’t need a fancy one either. One of the best ways to display your templates for a haiku is by building your templates into a table.
Tables will define the task and space very visually. It will also help the students that might be reticent about writing when they see large amounts of blank space on a page.
For example, this might be a haiku template for a science experiment. Students would write in the blank column.
Building tables is a capability of many of the popular tools you might already be using in your classroom. G-Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides), Microsoft (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) and Mac (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) all give you the ability to add tables easily.
Remember that the only “RULE” of haiku is the syllabication for each line. I give student free rein to construct their haiku in a way that makes sense to and for them. If they have issues with determining syllables, you can steer them to How Many Syllables.
Make it Pretty
I am a poet, you try to show it, yet blow it…
-KRS-ONE, “POETRY”
If you want to go beyond just writing haiku, there are ways you can add a cool visual element to it. Many students either have devices capable of taking photos of their own or provided via the school.
One of my favorite ways to have students visualize their poems is by using Adobe Spark. Adobe spark post allows students to create social media style posts. Adobe Spark Page can allows students to very quickly create stylish blogs that can contain images, video, and text. Adobe Spark Video creates video slide shows that are slick and easy to implement.
Canva is another tool that is great for students to build graphics.
