Teaching Shape Poetry to Students

The advantage of Shape poems over the conventional type of poem is the simplicity of writing it. In addition, it is enjoyable because the writer is not restricted by rhyming. That’s right! You have the option of writing shape poems using ordinary words.
Regardless of how fun creating shape or concrete poems may be, you still need to do some brainstorming because you have to pick a topic for your poem. Your teachers will probably show you different tools that will instruct and help you make a shape poem.

Some of the teaching tools used for shape poems are lesson plans, mini conferences, key questions and interactive web sites. These are the basic steps on how you can teach students about how to write shape poems and how you can encourage them to do creative writing.

Just like any school subject, you should create a lesson plan for shape poems. It would serve as the teacher’s guide or plan when discussing lessons. Lesson plans are also used on other subjects. Here, all the topics that students should learn about shape poems are outlined. The methodology or the manner on how to teach student about a shape poems should be clear to the instructor. A lesson plan is just like a road map on how you would teach your student about shape poems.

You can give key questions to students so they can have an idea on how to write shape poems. For instance, you can ask them about their favorite shape or what object inspire them. These types of questions can help in brainstorming not only for topics but for the shape, concept and verses which should be included in the shape poem. Having key questions will keep the student focused on what his shape poem should express or convey. Without key questions, it would be easy to get lost in the details of creating a shape poem. Key questions can be a factor in deciding whether to have metaphors or alliterations in your concrete poem.

The interactive tool like a Powerpoint presentation, Flash presentation or an interactive website can also help you illustrate the concept of shape poetry. These tools are user friendly and have nice graphics. You can show concrete examples of shape poems where your students can get inspiration from. You can also include in your presentation a step-by-step instruction on how to write shape poems. There are also different themes you can choose from. From these themes there are various shapes that you can use as an outline for your poem. Always keep in mind that a shape form will never do without an outline because it is not just about conveying thoughts through text or words it also has to be visually stimulating.

There are more teaching tools available but these four are the most common. You can say the easiest to use among these would be the interactive tool because it is user friendly, and can guide any writer, novice or otherwise one step at a time in creating a shape poem.