Wednesday Y.A.W.c #7

(Young Adults Writing creatively!)

What you need:
The following framework of a poem based upon the sestina form. I recommend breaking it up into stanzas before presenting it to your students as part of this exercise.

The
She
And
He
But
They

They
The
But
She
He
And

And
They
He
The
She
But

But
And
She
They
The
He

He
But
The
And
They
She

She
He
They
But
And
The


The Set-Up:
Today we’re going to write a poetry epic together as a class, using lines which already have the first word in them.

The Activity:
Once you’ve explained to your students that this is going to be a thirty-six line poem, but constructed by the entire class, give examples of what epic poetry can be by talking about “epic” movies like 300, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, etc. Ask for volunteers initially (you might even start the first line) but try to engage students if there is no response. Tell them that it’s okay to use scratch paper to work out what they want to say before they say it.