Kōkiri Learn

Week 4 of 5

Workshop your poems with other voices, then shape your best one

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Session 1 · AUTHOR: Hear Voices

Poetry circle feedback

  1. 10 minModel feedback on a teacher poem: 'I noticed…', 'I felt…', 'I wondered…'. No fixing someone else's poem for them.
  2. 30 minCircles of four: each writer reads twice, listeners give one noticing, one feeling and one wondering. The writer takes notes and only says thank you.
  3. 10 minKuaka asks you one question about your draft. Write your answer in your notebook.

Session 2 · AUTHOR: Organise

Revise and arrange

  1. 10 minMini-lesson: cut every word that isn't working. Show a draft shrinking from 60 words to 30.
  2. 25 minRevise your chosen poem: strengthen one image, try a new line break, decide on stanzas and a title.
  3. 10 minAnthology planning: how will we group our poems? By place, by feeling, by form?
  4. 5 minSave your final version for the anthology and choose your performance poem.

Getting started

Revise just one thing: swap a vague word (nice, big, good) for a precise one.

Stretch

Write the same poem for two audiences, a five-year-old and a grandparent, and compare the choices you made.

Checkpoint

Each student has one revised poem with a title, a clear stanza shape and at least one strong image.

Activities for this week

  • Line-break lab: How does where you end a line change how a poem sounds and what it means?

Useful this week