Composing Verses

Topic: St.Valentine’s Day

Zhaparbekova Saule
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty ,Kazakhstan
E-mail: szhaparb@excite.com

Language level of students: pre- intermediate
Age group: young adults
Time: 20-30 minutes
Skills / aspects focus: writing/speaking/listening
Vocabulary: writer, poet, poem, verse, rhyme, rhymer
Resources and materials: a book of English limericks  

PROCEDURE

Pre-activity

1. Eliciting words relating to the title from learners and writing them on the board: e.g.: writer, poet, poem, verse, rhyme, rhymer. The instructor may or ask the difference between composing poems and verses. He/she also explains the peculiarities of writing limericks.
2. Adding lines to the given one by learners.
   The instructor writes the first line of a verse on the board and asks learners to give words rhyming to the last word of the line, e.g.: In the bag there is a book, Learners may suggest: a brook, a crook, a look, a cook.
   
   The instructor writes them in next lines, just under the rhymed word, e.g.: In the bag there is a book,
   ______________  a brook,
   _______________a look,
   ______________ a cook.
3. The instructor asks learners to finish sentences using the given words, e.g.: In the bag there is a book, In the woods there is a brook, I hang a coat on a crook, You have an interested look, I am a terrific cook.
4. Exercising the skill of rhyming.
   The instructor asks learners to give a rhyme to the following words: a snack, a cage, bread, etc.
   
   Learners may suggest the following:
   A snack – a sack, a pack, a lack, etc.
   A cage – a page, a stage, a rage, etc.
   
   Then exercising extends to rhyming phrases e.g: Teacher: a green grass – Learner: a big class
   French fries - bird flies
   A summer cap - a world map
   Dear mother - younger brother
   Merry Christmas - sweet Whiskas, etc.

Activity

1. The instructor distributes cards with the given first lines of verses (one card for each pair). The task of learners is to finish the verse by adding other lines.
2. The instructor distributes cards with the given first lines of limericks and asks learners to finish them (pair work). There are some limericks below given for users to review.

After each stage of writing learners are asked to present the result of their work, or lists with finished poems may be stuck on the walls round the classroom.

Post-Activity
The class may be divided into groups of 3, or pairs may be rearranged. The instructor asks learners to compose a verse devoted to St.Valentine’s Day. Poems should be written on self-made post-cards of different forms and decoration. Learners are supplied with necessary instruments to produce a product: scissors, crayons, markers, color paper, etc. Works are soon displayed all over the classroom for observation. At the end learners may be asked to select the best production to be published in the University newsletter, or wallpaper.

Download:
Samples of students' verses.

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