The document discusses the benefits of using poetry in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, including enhancing language skills, expanding vocabulary, and increasing student motivation. It provides practical tips for integrating poetry into reading and writing classes, along with specific example activities for young learners, such as acrostic and haiku poems. Lastly, it highlights the positive feedback from students regarding their vocabulary improvement and engagement with poetry.

1. Using Poetry in the
English Language Classroom…why (not)?
MALU SCIAMARELLI
WEBINAR: BRELT - BRAZILIAN TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
5TH NOVEMBER 2015

2. Why is it absent from so many EFL classrooms?

3. Why I enjoy teaching poetry
Versatility
Language
Culture
Personalisation

4. Benefits
• More opportunities for reading, writing, listening and speaking practices
• Expand vocabulary knowledge
• Play with the language
• Work with different rhythms and rhyme patterns
• Increase motivation

5. How to get started?
• Do you know poems in your native language?
• Is there a particular poem from your country that you like?
• Who are the famous poets from your country?
• Have you written poems before?
• Was it in English or your native language?
• Did you enjoy writing poetry?

6. Using Poetry in Reading Classes
• Start with poems that are manageable
• Talk about the differences between stories and poems
• Give students a chance to illustrate poems
• Read a variety of poems out loud
• Give students a chance to read poems out loud
• Act out the poem
• Discuss the vocabulary used in different poems (“Poetic Word” Wall)
• Encourage students to share their personal interpretations
• Be sure to include some poems written for children

7. Using Poetry in Writing Classes
• Read a variety of poems first
• Introduce different poetry forms as models
• Use poetry throughout the syllabus

8. Young Learners
Poems based on Books
• Choose a book and read it for the children
• Ask them to draw what they most like about it
• Write four lines to describe the drawing

9. https://youtu.be/TscMEckVde4

10. Young Learners
Mr Spider, Alan Maley
• Choose a poem and read it aloud for the children:
https://youtu.be/m2Yr_jwCPhE
• Talk about where each line of the poem ends and how it creates rhyme, affects
the meaning of the poem, and might even make the poem look a particular way.
• Read it again as a group.
• Select some words that rhyme. In this case, I selected: wall / fall; afraid / made;
mean / clean; below / go.
• Help them write another poem individually, in pairs, or as a group using the
words selected and about the same topic.

11. Seeing the spider climbing up the wall,
My first thought was, ‘it will fall!‘
I was also so afraid
When I saw the web it’s just made!
Then I shouted, ‘spiders are so mean!’
But then I saw how the room was clean.
I sat with all the children down below
And said, ‘little spider, please, don’t go!’
As a follow-up activity, you can ask them to read it
aloud, and draw a picture of a spider.

12. Young Learners
Acrostic Poems
• Show the child how to write an acrostic poem, in which the first letter of each
line spells out his or her name, when read top to bottom.
• Once the child writes a poem based on his or her own name, the child can write
about family members, friends, or pets.
• If the children are too young, you can ask them to draw rather than write, and
read it aloud.

13. K angaroos live in Australia
A lligators like dirty rivers
I nsects are everywhere and
O ctopuses live in the sea.
H orses are strong and
E lephants too. My
N ose moves like
R abbits noses when
I nsects bite it.
Q uack, a duck said when it saw an
U mbrella protecting an
E gg from the rain!

14. Haiku Poems
• Haiku Hangman
• Read a definition
• Ask them the following questions to be discussed as
a group:
1. Do you like poetry? If you, which poets do you read, and why?
2. Have you ever written poetry? If so, do you show it to other people? Why? / Why not?
3. Have you ever read or written a haiku?
4. When and where did the haiku originate?
5. Are there any rules for writing haikus?

15. I hate my alarm
It always wakes me early
When dreams are still there
Today beauty fades
Leaving only dead flowers
Withering away
Clouds dance in the sky,
Pure white cotton on blue heights,
Unveiling sunrise.
I love my kitten
She’s always in the kitchen
Purring all around.
(Malu Sciamarelli)
Tips for writing haikus:
The haiku has a total of three lines.
Line one and three should have five syllables.
Line two should have seven syllables.
Write about experiencing life through your
five senses.

16. Kinkakuji (金閣寺, Golden Pavilion), Kyoto/Japan. Malu Sciamarelli, 2013

17. Julia Abend:
The flowers are so
Beautiful! So much peace and
Love – togetherness.
Gabriel Giro:
The flowers are so
Graceful, they make me feel so
Relaxed and in peace.
Matheus Durante:
Peace and calmness, so
Beautiful and colourful,
Just like a rainbow.
Pedro Giraldi:
White flowers are so
Graceful and with those green leaves –
Peace all around us.
Nicole Navarro:
Spring is so peaceful
In Japan or anywhere…
Nature – always there.

18. Creating a Found Poem
Your Favourite Song
• Ask them individually to name their favourite song
• Give students strips of paper with the fifth line of each song
• As they listen to the songs, they have to identify the lines
• Make students compare their answers
• When all the sentences are identified, ask them to arrange them in any order
they wish to make a poem
• Ask them to read each of the poems out loud

19. Open your eyes,
Life’s what happens to you when you’re busy
making other plans
Whenever I’m alone with you
I go to the other side of Paradise
It will be just a perfect day
And if thou should ask my love
I’ll love you more with every breath
And build a ladder to the stars
Do you dream to touch me and smile down
deep inside?
Oh, God help the beast in me!
I knew, I knew, I’d lose you
You’ve got to learn although it’s very hard
Songs:
 Take me to the other side, Arisha
 Beautiful Boy, John Lennon
 Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
 Lovesong, The Cure
 Just a perfect day, Lou Reed
 Truly, Madly Deeply, Savage Garden
 Thorn in my pride, Black Crowes
 The Beast in me, Johnny Cash
 No need to argue, The Cranberries
 You’ve got to learn, Charles Aznavour
 Forever young, Bob Dylan
 Jamie come to me, Robert Burns (poem)

20. Cinquain Poems
Explain what a cinquain poem is:
• the first line is a one-word title, the subject of the poem;
• the second line is a pair of adjectives describing that title;
• the third line is a three-word phrase that gives more information about the
subject;
• the fourth line consists of four words describing feelings related to that subject;
• the fifth line is a single word synonym or other reference for the subject from
line one.

21. ‘Getting to know you’ with cinquains - Interview a classmate and use what you
learn to write a cinquain about that person:
• What is your name? (person’s name – one word)
• What are some adjectives that describe you? (two adjectives describing the
person)
• What are some activities you enjoy? (three -ing action words)
• What do you think makes you a good friend to others? (a four-word phrase
about friendship)
• Do you have a nickname? (one-word nickname)

22. Pedro Giraldi:
Luis
Intelligent, nonsense
Studying, cooking, reading
Really funny with friends
Lipe
Nicole:
Julia
Happy, outgoing
Reading, sleeping, cooking
Someone that is trustworthy
Ju
Julia Abend:
Nicole
Happy, shy
Swimming, reading, eating
Someone that is caring
Nick
Luis Cavalli:
Pedro
Smart, shy
Programming, photographing, exploding
Always got your back
Giraldi
Leonardo Putini:
Pedro
Blue, white
Sleeping, fighting, eating
He ain’t no coward
Vienna
Pedro Vienna:
Gabriel
Sleepy, psy
Watching, basketballing, sleeping
Very trustworthy he is
Delgado
Gabriel Delgado:
Leonardo
Short, geek
Drawing, video-gaming, watching
To have good sense
Putini
Verena Torres:
Osmeire
Determined, nonstop
Reading, travelling, working
Being true all times
Meire
Osmeire Sanzovo:
Verena
Sincere, determined
Running, reading, praying
Always happy when together
Veve

23. Acrostic Poems
Name the poem:

24. • Once they match the names to the poems, ask them to read the poems out
loud
• Ask them to describe the haiku and cinquain poems, and explain what an
acrostic poem is
• Ask them to re-tell briefly some of the fairy tales they are familiar with, then
read a fairy tale of your choice, different from what they know
• Ask them to write an acrostic poem: FAIRY TALES

25. Matheus Durante:
F irst you need to dream.
A fter that, you must feel.
I magine that fantasy is real.
R eality gets so boring when
Y ou learn that what is unreal
T astes better just for a few.
A ll you got is nothing…
L ife has sent you no mail that day.
E verything is not real
S o live in a fairy tale.
Gabriel Delgado:
F or you,
A fairy tale
I n your life
R esounds
Y our way
T o
A nalyse the world,
L ess disturbed. But in the
E nd, this is how it is
S upposed to be.
Leonardo Puttini:
F alling down the rabbit hole,
A lice was feeling sick.
I llness took her everything,
R educing her to absolutely nothing.
Y elling in pain,
T earing her thoughts apart,
A lice could not feel anything.
L ooking for help, she shouted,
E nding noticing that she had no voice at all.
S uddenly, waking from a nightmare, she felt
hungry and ate the magic cake.

26. What students
reported:
Thank you!
Vocabulary improvement
Better intonation, pronunciation
of words in general
Thinking directly in English,
without any kind of translation
Close observation
Clear thinking
Limiting themselves to the
essential
Email: malusciamarelli@gmail.com
Website: www.malusciamarelli.weebly. com
The C Group: http://thecreativitygroup.weebly.com