This week I was introduced to the history and process of scaffolding/teaching students how to write haiku poems. I don't know if it was just me in elementary school, but haiku poems were the poems that everyone wanted to write the most. They were the shortest and most engaging poems to create with the structure. However, though this may be true it is important for educators to engage young poet writers in examining mentor haiku poems for structure, strong verbs, comparisons (metaphors/similes), imagery to make their haiku poems more purposeful. Though the structure of 5-7-5 makes a haiku, the chosen topic and word choices should be planned explored with a shared writing experience.
Key Facts/ Characteristics of a Haiku (Frye, B., 2020)
Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that celebrates nature!
Comprised of 3 lines with 17 total syllables (5-7-5)
Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables
Is written in the present tense
Includes time, place, and event/scene (when, where, what)
Includes the haiku moment or experience…an image of one small moment
Indicates seasonal connection (often, but not always)
Uses specific language: vivid verbs and descriptions
Appeals to the senses
May contain: contrasting images, alliteration, metaphor/simile, personification, riddle
Mentor Poem from video:
The bumblebee sleeps
On a bright golden flower.
He dreams of honey.
One of the first few things that needs to be touched upon depending on the grade level you teach is students' knowledge about haiku poems in general and the ability to count syllables accurately. This introduction video may be a refresher to many elementary students, but it also provides a visual of how the syllables are broken down in comparison to the haiku poem lines. The next thing that a teacher should make sure of is to provide students with A LOT of mentor haiku poems. Reading a loud one or two is not substantial enough for students to analyze and "borrow" from poems. It isn't enough either because many haiku poems are about nature/object/animal/experience/etc. that the entire class may not relate to altogether.
By planning a shared experience, haiku hike, and implementing haiku brainstorming (brainstorming sheet example: click here), students are provided multiple opportunities to understand how poets create haiku poems.
With haiku poems, it is important to guide students in finding a small moment that they have witnessed in "present time". If this means going out on the playground, school garden, gym, library, etc to witness different sensory moments, it will create answers to the "when, where, and what" brainstorming. This will prevent haiku poems like the one to the left.
Another option is to play a video from National Geographic's Youtube channel (click here)to play a video of an animal that the class would be interested in and have them take notes about what the animal is doing, what the animal looks like, what the animal sounds like, and/or words and phrases that can describe what they are watching. These scaffold students into planning purposeful language like metaphors, similes, personification, imagery, alliteration, etc. that could be implemented in their shared haiku poem writing as a class or small groups.
If possible, another haiku activity that teachers could use within the classroom is using a photoku. This allows students to take a picture of something in nature, plan their when, where, what, and descriptive words to write a haiku, and then post all of their photoku poems to a google slides to share with the class. Below is an example of a photoku poem that I completed:
Mentor Text of the Week
I was not sure what to expect with this book before I read it! I have never read it and did not know about this book compared to some of my peers. When reading through this book, of course it is an easier read because the entire book is made of poems by the character Jack. Jack struggles to accept his interest in writing poetry and finding mentor poems to "borrow" for his own writing. Is this not what teachers want their students to do??? I loved this book and how it included the emotions of reading a poem as a young student. After reading several of the poems in the beginning, I found myself reflecting and thinking, "wow this is exactly how I felt when I was in elementary school reading 'hard' poems". The author, Sharon Creech included all the mentor poems that were discussed throughout the book. I thought about how I could use this book in my future classroom and found some resources that may help me plan in the future if I taught upper elementary grades:
-Scholastic Discussion Guide: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/love-dog-discussion-guide/
-11 lesson plans: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0805/9297/files/Love_That_Dog_Novel_Study-Poetry_Unit_Grade_4_and_Up.pdf
-Resource Set: https://bookpagez.com/resource/love-that-dog-lesson-plans/
-Creating Shape Poems: http://www.judynewmanatscholastic.com/blog/2019/04/classroom-activity-love-that-dog/