Summer Rhyme Time in Poetry Sessions
Tamesin Quinn
/ Categories: News, General
Selected students in Years 7, 8 and 9 have been getting creative in poetry writing workshops.
Year 12 AS Literature students, Beth Johnson, Atteager Johnson and Olivia Wallwork, joined the sessions as mentors to inspire and promote creativity.
The challenge for students was to write poems and then present them to their peers. Based on the theme of summer, students were encouraged to plan, edit and rework their poems as well as reading other poems by a range of authors to stimulate their imaginations. The lessons also focused on enabling students to further develop their oracy skills by sharing and developing their ideas in pairs and small groups.
Mrs Wilson, Head of English, said:
‘By undertaking this activity students were able to really extend their thinking skills and use their imagination! They also had the opportunity to write for ‘real audiences’ and show off their skills to their wider community.’
The Year 7s involved in the workshop read their poems aloud to their peers and also volunteered to perform them to our Year 12 helpers.
She added:
“It is important to find real audiences for our students in order for them to contextualise their skills and written work. It also offers them the opportunity to have a real sense of ownership and pride in their writing by sharing this with others and celebrating their success.”
The work will continue with some students deciding to use poetry as a starting point to develop their own project further and even one keen Year 8 student setting her poetry to music!
Students will also be entering the NACE poetry competition and some will be entering the Manchester Book Festival Competition where they have been asked to produce a ‘cartoon strip’ and accompanying narrative either going back to the past or creating a futuristic world.