The Japan Forum > Click Nippon > Creative Lesson Planning

Now that we had looked at many poems, it was now their turn to write one. There were students who had never written a poem and didn't know how to start. So I sought advice from students who had written one before and they gave the following tips:

• Look at photographs and create an image in your mind (This was similar to my mother's advice of first going for a walk outside and admiring nature when we talked about writing Haikus.)
• Mimic a poem or style you like, and then add your originality.
• Just write down whatever idea comes to mind.

I was impressed by how valid the advice was.

At first, I thought of making the topic 'hometown.' This was because the poem "Dear Fukushima" was a love letter to the speaker's hometown. I was interested to know for my students, who were travelling between 2 to 3 countries on a steady basis, where their hometown was, what 'hometown' means to them or whether they even have a concept of a hometown. However, as the lessons went on, I started thinking that a topic with a wider meaning which includes the idea of hometowns would allow the students to fully utilize their creativity more freely. I also thought about 'precious things' as a topic, but in the end I decided on the more pro-active phrase 'Things I want to Protect.'

I allocated plenty of class time to writing poetry. I allowed all styles; Haiku, Senryu (satirical Haikus), Tanka (31 syllabled verse), rap. This was because I didn't want format to limit my students' creativity. To be honest, I was a little worried about how seriously kids in their early adolescence would do an activity where they may end up exposing their inner self through writing a poem. However, everyone worked on the activity sincerely and I got a response that exceeded my expectations.

When the time to write the poems began, the class became quiet, and the classroom would become wrapped in an atmosphere where it was as if each student was taking a walk inside their hearts and minds. After some time though, there would be movement: neighbours would start whispering to each other, one would walk to the window and gaze outside, another would fold their fingers counting 5, 7, 5.  Many times during this I would proofread and guide them to use more suitable words and reduce unnecessary words.

When it seems that everyone had fnished , I gave them pens and paper in various colours and got them to write out clean copies. Some students wrote a few poems in the allocated time, others put all their effort into perfecting one. In every poem, their individuality shone.

They expressed in their poems individuality, family, friends, friendship, fun times, pets, the world, nature and so on, as things they wanted to protect. Their poems are on Click Nippon's Class Ideas page.