Blog #2: Poets Need Exercise, Too!

Question: What poetry exercises will students enjoy and actually help them develop their writing skills?

Answer: "Entering the Image" is one exercise that is a great way to stimulate the imagination of high school students. Because poetry heavily relies on the use of imagery and symbolism, it would make the most sense to give the students paintings, photographs and drawings to inspire their writing. By looking at a variety of art, students could write a poem about the action of a certain image. They could also pick more than one image and write a poem about how those two images could be related. For example, if there is a picture of a bicycle and a drawing of a woman bathing, a student could make a connection and write about how the woman is taking a bath after a long, scenic bike ride. Another exercise using images is writing a poem from the perspective of the image's artist or photographer.

Writing poems from first, second and third points of view can help students understand how different one event or character could be approached. I also feel that writing poems using the "Entering the Image" exercise, will help students turn these poems into short stories. This would be an exercise used after we have compared the structures and styles of different poets; students could adapt the structures of their poems accordingly, or come up with something completely original. Personally, music gives me just as much imagery when I am looking for inspiration, so age appropriate songs could be played for the class. The structure of a song is very similar to that of poetry, so students could also be inspired by the lyrics and rhythm of the song writer.

http://catherineowen.suite101.com/writing-exercises-that-teenagers-will-enjoy-a77944