Playing with the Language of Poetry: Setting the Stage and Prewriting

An Excerpt from "Meaningful English: Motivating Language Learners (as Well as English Speakers) through Poetry Writing" (Classroom Notes Plus, April 2007)

Poet and author Ingrid Wendt offers two activities for engaging students in painting word pictures about themselves, moving from tips for prewriting and modeling through writing and sharing.

In this excerpt the author gives some tips for getting started.

Setting the Stage and Prewriting

Experienced writing teachers usually have a repertoire of ideas for setting the stage and warming students up to writing. Outlined below are a few of the ways I begin the prewriting phase. If students do not have the English fluency to benefit from the first two steps, I simply skip them. The important thing in bilingual classes is to enjoy writing in a new way, and to learn new English words. Conceptual knowledge about poetry can always come later.

Reading Aloud

I begin most in-class writing sessions by reading a poem or two—sometimes only a few lines—to illustrate the particular poetic device (the “building block”) of the day. I never explicate. I focus on how the poet says something strange or new or interesting.

Modelling Poetic Devices Informally

I like putting sample poems on the overhead, and I try to adopt a serious or dramatic tone as I read. See a list of poems I like to use below.

Suggested Poems for Use with This Activity

“The Comfort of Wood”
Naomi Shihab Nye
from Different Ways to Pray (Far Corner Books, 1980)

“Make Me Feel It,” and “The Big One”
Marge Piercy
from Living in the Open, reprinted in Early Grrrl: The Early Poems of Marge Piercy
(Leapfrog Press, 1999)

“The Delight Song of Tsoai-Talee”
N. Scott Momaday
from In the Presence of the Sun: Stories and Poems (St. Martin’s Press, 1992)

“Lava”
Galway Kinnell
from Mortal Acts, Mortal Words (Houghton Mifflin, 1980)

“Apotheosis”
Barbara Kingsolver
from Another America (North Point Press, 1998)

Sometimes I ask students to take turns reading lines. Other times I may not read a poem at all, but will orally model the kind of poetic devices we’ll be trying. Many good examples of metaphor can be found in the many new bilingual poetry anthologies and poetry books by single authors, designed especially for young readers. 

In bilingual as well as mainstream classes I avoid “naming” these poetic devices until students have grown confident using them. If we’re having fun comparing things, I’ll wait until later to give the names “metaphor” or “simile” to what we’re writing. Depending on the level of the class, and the scaffolding within it, I might not use those terms at all. First comes the love of playing with words and the internalization of the method. Then the willingness to name what it is we’re doing!  

Creating an Ambiance

Other ways I set the mood for writing include arranging the space or creating an ambiance. Sometimes I ask students to separate their desks so that each has her or his own “private office,” and/or I might turn down the lights.

One idea is to bring in a string of decorative colored lights, creating a special aura of mystery. Another is to create a respectful tone in the class with a CD of classical adagios playing softly in the background. These are just two of many possible ways to help students to focus.

Ingrid Wendt is a visiting poet in K-12 and postsecondary schools, and author of five books of poetry, many articles on writing, and a teaching guide that offers more than 40 writing activities for the classroom.

Wendt is also a member of the NCTE Professional Development Consulting Network. Visit her consulting page at www.ncte.org/profdev/onsite/consultants/wendt