This class includes teacher presentation and learner participation. Throughout the class meeting, learners are invited to offer their opinions, ask questions, and share what they know about the week's featured poetic form.

I begin this class with a visual history of the creation of each poetry form, the country from which it emerged, and the poet credited with developing the form. During this geographical and historical overview, I encourage learners to respond to the images they see and to share their own impressions with the group. After presenting the history of the poetry form of the day, I teach a mini-grammar lesson, review the guidelines for writing in the form, and share some examples. As a group, we work together to identify the form, structure, and subjects of these examples as well as interpret the themes of these short but powerful pieces of poetry. Learners are invited to participate in the analysis and to ask questions about the defining features of the form. 

After we learn about the poetry form of the day, we get our creative juices flowing by writing poems ourselves! Our writing time takes the form of a workshop with learners working both independently and in collaboration with fellow learners and the teacher. To close the class, those learners who would like to are invited to share their creations. 

At the end of this two week class, learners will have created a collection of EIGHT original poems to demonstrate their learning!

The schedule of weekly poetry forms follows:
Week 1, Day 1  : Haiku (Japan)
Week 1, Day 2  : Acrostic (Greece)
Week 1, Day 3  : Pantoum (Malaysia)
Week 2, Day 1  : Limerick (UK)
Week 2, Day 2  : Triolet (France)
Week 2, Day 3  : Naani (India)

*Please feel free to contact me if the cost of this class (or any of my classes) is a prohibitive factor to enrolling.