Creative Bag of Tricks #6.2 - Short forms

 Reinforce the imperfect and conditional tenses with "Chinese portraits"

Un portrait chinois

A Chinese Portrait (portrait chinois) is a metaphorical description of yourself through a comparison with animals, objects, places, people, characters, foods... the list goes on!

The portrait is based on the imperfect/conditional formula: “If I were a(n) X, I would be….” e.g.    If I were a writer, I would be Charles Dickens             If I were a plant, I would be a cactus

Ø     Using the target language teachers could brainstorm categories and/or possible items within those categories Ø    Teachers could provide a template such as the one below to support learners Ø     Using completed poems, learners could take part in a guessing game where anonymous poems are read at random and the object is to listen and guess the writer of the poem.

Portrait chinois template

The Other Tongue competition

Supplementary guidelines and information for Other Tongue entries

• Teachers may issue appropriate support materials to help learners write their poems just as they normally would in writing activities.

• It is acceptable for a similar approach to be used in a number of poems entered by the same centre, but efforts should be made to ensure poems represent learners' own work.

• It is acceptable to use approaches that draw from published materials like novels, poems, films, adverts, leaflets, newspapers, etc. provided that poems produced represent learners' own work.

• Very restricted approaches may disadvantage learners in terms of originality. 

• Teachers should encourage learners to aim for accuracy in terms of spelling, grammar, syntax, etc.

• Judges will be mindful of the fact that poems may play with language or use non-standard structures for effect. However, where it is obvious that there are errors and/or these detract from the overall effect, judges may take this into consideration.

• Learners are invited to provide a brief summary of their poem in English. This is not compulsory but it may assist the judging process to know more information about the poem/poet. This should require no more than a few sentences. The competition does not prescribe the content of these summaries but some examples may be;

• The learners reasons for choosing to write about a particular subject

• Their general feelings about the poem or the experience of writing a poem in another language

• The thinking behind their choice of words and/or use of figurative language

• Details of any materials they have drawn upon and what they thought of these

Creative Bag of Tricks #6.1 - Short forms

A supportive structure helps learners to enjoy writing cinquains.

Short poetry forms are particularly appealing to learners because of their length, use of repetition and easy to follow structures. In this post, we look at cinquains.

Cinquains

Traditionally, cinquains are one stanza poems of a specified number of lines, syllables and stresses. 

This version has been adapted so that instead of syllables and stresses, the number and classification of words in each line is specified. 

Here is a suggested structure for a cinquain poem. However, the rules can be tweaked to suit your learners! (Click image to enlarge)

• Verbs may be written in their infinitive form
• A cinquain organiser like this one might be useful
• Examples of cinquains in French
• Examples of cinquains in Spanish
• Example of cinquain in German

Creative Bag of Tricks #5 - Cut-ups

What do David Bowie, T.S. Eliot and Julio Cortazar all have in common? They all used methods known as "cut-ups" to write their own poems and songs!

"Cut-ups" are a range of techniques involving cutting up and rearranging texts, or borrowing from other texts, in order to create a new text such as a poem or song. In this post, we suggest three creative writing activities inspired by cut-ups, suitable for a range of learners and stages. 

Mother Tongue Other Tongue at King's Park primary school

Primary 7 pupils at King's Park primary school, Glasgow, have kicked off their activities for the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition with an afternoon of Scottish Book Trust Live Literature  poetry workshops. The aims of the afternoon were to build confidence, to stimulate enjoyment in reading and writing poetry and to support learners in finding and developing their own poetic voices in whichever languages they speak.

"See me, ah ken when tae tell folk tae back aff!"

In "See Me", a workshop led by poets Jill Bennet and Elizabeth Cordiner, learners were encouraged to use their knowledge of Scots to write poems about the kinds of things that drive their hopes, fears and desires. They then had the opportunity to consider, and thus extend, their understanding of poetic features such as rhythm and word choice by integrating their work successfully into a whole class poem.

Learners writing "See Me" poems about what makes them tick

Taking notes in "Windows"

In Ken Cockburn's workshop, learners were encouraged to use familiar phrases from their mother tongue languages to take part in an oral game in which they created a rhythmic, whole-class spoken poem. The poet then gave a reading of the German poem, Das Fenster (The Window) by Sarah Kirsch, in German and in English, leading to a discussion about cognates and false friends. Taking the theme of windows as a basis for their own poems, learners started by making notes about the kinds of objects and activities they might observe from a window. Using a template, they began to write their own poems comparing and contrasting life observed through several different windows.

We were very grateful to the eager volunteers from each group who read their work aloud to a captive audience of their classmates, teachers and poets. Feedback from learners in both workshops was very positive. On the whole, they enjoyed having the opportunity to read, write and talk about poetry and languages. 

The class is treated to a poetry reading

The Creative Bag of Tricks #4 - "I am" poems

Learners see things from a different perspective in these "I am" poems. 

• "I am" poems allow teachers to develop personal language in a more interesting and varied way.

• Since the learner is not necessarily the subject of the poem, they can focus on expressing characteristics, thoughts, senses and feelings without having to relate these directly to themselves.

The Process

• An "I am" poem is made up of 1 - 3 stanzas of 5 - 6 lines each.

• The first stanza begins and ends with the words "I am..." and all subsequent stanzas end this way. 

• The verbs used in each line relate to senses, thoughts and feelings.

Possible support

• Glossaries, word banks or dictionaries

• A completed model poem

• Pre-reading comprehension of texts on a particular theme or topic

• Look at this "I am" poem lesson which incorporates work on metaphor from the Creative Bag of Tricks #2.

Possible activities

• Learners write a collaborative "I am" poem where each member of a group contributes a line or stanza

• Learners write an "I am" poem from the perspective of a mystery object selected from a box

• Learners write an "I am" poem from the perspective of a fictional character from a novel, play or film

• Learners write an "I am" poem about a well-known person then let others guess who it could be

Resources

Use this existing template or adapt to make your own:

• I am

Supporting the "Mother Tongue" commentary

Some guidelines to ensure Mother Tongue commentaries are the best they can be!

• Encourage learners to write at a length that allows them to develop their thoughts, feelings and ideas. 

• Use of scribes, translators and other supporters is permitted as long as the ideas expressed are the learner's own.

• Steer learners away from providing solely literal interpretations of their chosen poems. Where appropriate, encourage them to comment on the creative aspects, language, wider themes or social/cultural/political impact of the poem.

• Learners should consider the appeal of their commentaries on an emotional or imaginative level. Those commentaries which elaborate on the personal experiences, feelings or attitudes that have influenced their choice are more likely to engage the reader than those which offer very general statements about its broad appeal.

• Commentaries must be submitted in English.

• Click here to read some Mother Tongue commentaries from MTOT North West.

English as an Additional Language and MTOT

Two EAL teachers in Glasgow City Council have developed an exciting programme of Mother Tongue Other Tongue poetry activities for their learners.

Kirsten Barret and Claire Stevenson have created a group plan for the Mother Tongue Other Tongue competition, mapping a variety of creative writing activities against Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes in Literacy and English, and Health and Well-being: 

MTOT Group Plan developed by K Barret and Claire Stevenson

Follow Kirsten and Claire on Twitter to see more! #MTOT

The Creative Bag of Tricks #3 - Calligrams

Celebrate European Day of Languages (26th of September) and World Animal Day (4th of October) with calligrams!

Conceptualise key themes and ideas in an imaginative and visual way.

Esto es mi pez dorado
Silencio, silencio
Es tranquilo
Nada y piensa
Se llama Estrella

Why calligrams?

• An accessible form of poetry focusing on imagination with fewer worries about accuracy

• Allows learners to transform familiar language in a new and interesting way

• Ask learners to conceptualise key ideas

• Is adaptable to different ages and stages

L'Afrique, c'est exotique
L'Afrique est exotique et étrangère
...est exotique, étrangère et pittoresque
...exotique, étrangère, pittoresque, immense
Mes souvenirs d'Afrique

Creating calligrams:

• Research animals in the target language. See SCILT animal day resources.

• For younger learners, start by making visual images of key words before moving on to sentences.

• For intermediate learners combine with a lesson on adjective poems.

• Ask advanced learners to think about objects associated with a character from a book, film or play you are studying. Using the form of the object, make calligrams based on the character's personality traits or key quotes.

• Read and discuss a selection of calligrams in the target language.

• Animal calligrams powerpoint presentation 

C'est mon chat, Shah,
Miaou, miaou,
Miaou, miaou,
Noir et blanc,
miaou, miaou,
Il saute,
Miaou, miaou,
Il dort,
Miaou, miaou, miaou.

Other Ideas:

• Create a classroom display of your calligrams and share with us!

SCILT wants to hear from you!

Tell us how your learners are taking part in Mother Tongue Other Tongue.

Have you experimented with ideas from our Creative Bag of Tricks yet? We would like to hear feedback, tips and other comments from you and your learners about their experiences. Leave these in the "Post a Comment" box under each post. 

We also welcome articles, lesson ideas or any other MTOT stories that we can share and celebrate on our blog. Please send these to victoria.henry@strath.ac.uk

Are you on Twitter? Follow @scottishcilt and use the hashtag #MTOT to tag any news you tweet about your school’s MTOT activities.

The Creative Bag of Tricks #2 - Metaphor

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” 

― Joseph Chilton Pearce

Using images or a selection of objects, encourage learners to create metaphors by brainstorming and seeing things in different ways.

What is this? 

Snow on grass? 

A bed of nails? 

Frosty stick men dancing?

Microscopic hairs on a snowman's arm?

And, what is this? 

A sunflower in a field? 

A tall man in a crowd? 

An excited fan sitting on someone's shoulders in the audience at a music festival?

Before creating metaphors in the target language:

• Work on some examples. Ask learners to select the relevant plain speech description of an image from a mixed selection - including some red herrings - written in the target language:

• Next, give learners a choice of possible metaphors for the image written in the target language. Ask them to decode the metaphors. Discuss the associations that are made and the effectiveness of these:

• To which characteristics does it relate? 
• Does it remind you of anything? 
• Is it obvious or obscure? 
• How does it taste, look, smell, sound, feel? 
• Which do you prefer and why? 

When creating metaphors in the target language:

• Free-associate: Ask learners to note all the things that they associate with the image or object including things with similar qualities.

• Think outside of the box: the less obvious the association, the more interesting the metaphor!

• This activity could lead on to writing "Ezra Pound Couplets" in the target language where the plain speech statement is followed by a metaphor. 

• See how this activity features in a lesson plan about perceptions (also available in French and Spanish).

The Creative Bag of Tricks #1 - Colour Charts

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” 

- Albert Einstein

Encourage imagination and invention by asking learners to create their own specialist colour charts in the target language!

Before creating:

• Provide examples of colour charts from specialist paint companies in the target language

• Allow learners to read, understand and discuss each colour. Do they relate to particular environments, objects, tones or shades? Which is their favourite and why?

• Encourage learners to take note of any new vocabulary

When creating colour charts in the target language:

• Ask learners to consider shades, tones, subtle differences or associated objects, environments and places - e.g. "Cherry blossom pink", "brightest green"

• Ask learners to consider any memories or feelings evoked by the colours - e.g. "Day at the beach", "calmness"

• Encourage learners to seek inspiration in the ordinary – e.g. "burnt toast", "new page white" 

• Encourage learners to use language they know and to manipulate language from the original colour charts

• Support learners with word-banks, glossaries and dictionaries as appropriate

Further guidance

• Imagination and invention is key - learners need not mention specific colours

• Support could be given in the form of laminated building blocks that learners put together to create interesting combinations 

• Search Google images, other search engines or ask companies directly for colour charts

• See how this activity features in a lesson using a bi-lingual poem about colours (under primary Spanish tab).

• Let us know how you got on making colour charts with your learners. Leave your comment below.

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MTOT Registration Open!

Registration has now opened for Glasgow schools to take part in Mother Tongue Other Tongue 2014! 

The competition is free and open to all state and independent schools in Glasgow city council. Once registered you will receive a link to an MTOT teachers' pack giving you more detailed information about the competition. 

For a competition overview, see the MTOT webpage on the SCILT website. 

Follow this link to register your school now!

Mother Tongue Other Tongue Launches in Glasgow!

On the 28^th of May, SCILT welcomed young people from Glasgow schools to take part in the launch of the Mother Tongue Other Tongue (MTOT) poetry competition at the University of Strathclyde. 

Tawona Sithole in Kunzwana

The young people in attendance participated in an afternoon of creative writing workshops led by three poets SCILT acquired through Live Literature Funding from the Scottish Book Trust. In Tawona Sithole’s workshop, “Kunzwana”, young people from St Andrew’s High school, Carntyne, learned greetings in Shona language. The poet then led them in a series of expressive movement activities and shared his own creative process to inspire learners in their own writing. “Tawona really helped us open up our minds and creativity for our poems”, commented one young person. Others were more engaged by the experience of speaking a new and exotic language “I learned more about languages which was fun!”

A young EAL learner in Windows

In “Windows”, a workshop led by the Edinburgh-based poet, Ken Cockburn, a group of primary EAL learners used the German poem Das Fenster (The Window) by Sarah Kirsh, as a model for writing poems about what they see from the windows of their own homes. The children had the choice to write their poems either in their Mother Tongue language, English or a mixture of both languages. The workshop was highly motivating and gave the children a chance to draw on their shared experience of having English as an additional language. The pupils, from St Maria Goretti, St Timothy’s and St Paul’s primaries in the east end of Glasgow, were delighted to hear the range of mother tongue languages spoken by their peers. “I enjoyed hearing the different languages and working together. It was lots of fun!”, said one young participant.

“Na bhot air a shon!”

S3 learners from the Glasgow Gaelic School, Sgoil Ghaidlig Ghlaschu, joined Marcas Mac An Tuair Neir, an Inverness-based poet, in his workshop “Developing new voices in Gaelic poetry”. The young people discussed a selection of Gaelic poems and used this discussion to write short poems which drew on their own personal inspirations, from Scotland to the recent European elections: "Alba, an dùthaich far a bheil a’ ghrian mhòr theth daonnan a’deàrrsadh sìos.  Uill, chan eil ach…" - S3 pupil, Glasgow Gaelic School.

Following the workshops, some of the young people shared their poems in front of an audience of their peers, teachers and delegates from the Diverse Teachers for Diverse Learners Conference which was taking place in the university. One accompanying teacher shared her enthusiasm for the experience, commenting on the increased confidence shown by one of her EAL learners she said, "I was impressed - an emergent silent child standing up and reading a poem to many strangers… It was a superb day!”

The afternoon ended with a chance for the young people to write their thoughts on the experience on "leaves" which they then attached to the “Poet-tree”. This abounded with positive comments about creative writing and languages.

Glasgow schools can register to take part in Mother Tongue Other Tongue from August 2014. For more information, please visit our website http://bit.ly/SSI24L, or contact scilt@strath.ac.uk to subscribe to the SCILT e-bulletin for updates.