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.