The Japan Forum > Click Nippon > Creative Lesson Planning

After that, I asked students to bring a poem they liked, read it and explain why they liked it. If they didn't have a poem they liked, then song lyrics were acceptable. I allowed them to bring in English poems or lyrics if they didn't know any Japanese ones. The reason being I wanted them to bring in something that was closest to their bilingual hearts. In regards to why I asked students to bring in something, instead of providing them with material, was because student enthusiasm is different. They (and myself) approached the lesson curious as to what kind of poems or lyrics their classmates would bring.

Ryouta's video of him reading the poem out loud was very useful as a model for this poetry reading activity. When asked the differences they felt between reading the poem and hearing the poem, the following kinds of comments were received:

• It was more moving.
• It seemed like the meaning was better portrayed.
•  The words were more powerfully communicated by tone of voice and pauses.

After the poetry reading, we did an activity where the 18 poems the students chose were laid out around the classroom and the students wrote out and attached their comments on poems that moved them. We used multi-coloured post-its so that it was also visually colourful. Students recited the poems dramatically and made everyone laugh, told jokes and it was lively, so this process took longer than planned. Even after most of the students had returned to their seats, there was a group of 2-3 students who were still wandering around the poems. When I looked closely, I noticed they were writing comments like 'This is cute' and 'I like this one too!' to poems that didn't get many comments. Then I realized; they were being considerate as they knew they would feel sad if their poems didn't get many comments, and so they were making sure no one would feel this way. I was touched by their caring thoughts and kind action.