Prospective Poets
Many of our pupils have been faced with an empty page and may have felt a sense of panic about what to write or how to begin.
by Kate Wilkinson-Brindle
Many of our pupils have been faced with an empty page and may have felt a sense of panic about what to write or how to begin. Our pupils have a whole host of things that they are supposed to consider as they write, so it is entirely understandable for them to feel hesitant. This reluctance to write can particularly affect pupils when asked to write poetry.
Recently, I was fortunate enough to talk with some enthusiastic young writers at Croxby Primary School. We discussed many aspects of writing poetry, including the delicious prospect of breaking writing conventions to give your poetry its own unique style. And as you can see from the Pie Corbett inspired example below, the pupils at Croxby really took on board the advice about impactful vocabulary choices.
After analysing Alfred Noyes's 'The Highwayman' and LbQ's homage to it, 'The Highwaywoman', this Croxby poet used powerful imagery to create their own version of this classic poem.
For Croxby's younger poets, we discussed the use of rhyme and number of syllables in one of LbQ's poems 'Oh, I Wish I Had a Little Pet Bee!'. The pupils then wrote versions of their own by imagining which unusual animal they would like to keep as a pet.
A credit to themselves and their school, these inspirational young wordsmiths showed very little hesitance or reluctance when applying their knowledge of poetic devices and their imagination to writing their own fantastic poetry. Croxby pupils, you are poets!
If your young writers are hesitant to write poetry, I can recommend a brilliant and moving book called 'Love That Dog' by Sharon Creech. It is an extended narrative poem about a reluctant writer called Jack who evolves from a stubborn poetry skeptic to a fully fledged poet by the end of the book. Jack says, "Poetry is just making a picture with words", and the Croxby pupils have demonstrated that beautifully.