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 brief visual history of the creation of each poetry form and of the poet credited with developing the form. During this 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 week, I review the guidelines for writing in the form and share some examples, and I teach a mini-grammar lesson. Then, 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 an introduction to the poetry form of the week, we'll get our creative juices flowing by writing poems ourselves! Our writing time will be in 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. 

The schedule of weekly poetry forms follows:
Week 1: Haiku
Week 2 : Acrostic
Week 3 : Tanka
Week 4 : Cinquain
Week 5 : Limerick
Week 6 : Triolet
Week 7: Naani
Week 8: Rispetto
Week 9 : Nonet
Week 10 : Pantoum
Week 11 : Blackout
Week 12 : Tongue Twister

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