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

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).