Writing Collaborative Poems
Winter, with its longer nights and colder days, calls for the warmth of community and caring, as we navigate the season together.
Embrace the spirit of connection by engaging in a collaborative poetry project. Here are step-by-step instructions.
Collaborative poems can weave a cloth of love that connects students with their stories and nurtures a tightly-knit classroom community.
Winter Collaboration Poem
Encourage students to join in crafting a collaborative winter poem that reflects the spirit of the season.
1. Reflect
Invite students to take a moment to reflect on what the winter season means to them—whether it's the holidays, snowy landscapes, festive traditions, or anything else that resonates.
2. Brainstorm
Ask students to jot down at least three lines related to the winter season in poetry notebooks or on individual paper. These could be personal experiences, favorite traditions, or things they love about the season.
3. Choose A Favorite Line
Invite students to choose one of their favorite winter lines and write it on an sticky sentence strip.
4. Collaborate in Groups
Ask students to form small groups of 3-4 students, and take turns sharing their chosen lines. Then, invite them to create a collaborative winter poem using the lines from their group by sticking the sentence strips on the classroom wall, and reading through the group's poem together. Discuss and edit as needed by rearranging lines, adding a title, including an ending, elaborating on details and making their group poem flow.
5. Present the Poem
Invite each group to read their collaborative winter poem to the class.
6. Reflect
Ask students to reflect on the collaborative process. Share the inspiration behind their lines and any unique elements their group incorporated. What did they enjoy about working together? How did different perspectives contribute to the poem?
Teaching Poetry Workshop
Interested in learning more about teaching poetry? Join me for my virtual workshop this April.
When: Monday, October 7th 6:30 – 9:00 PM ET.
Format: Live Virtual workshop on Zoom. You’ll receive an access code after registration.
We are all storytellers. We all live in a network of stories. There isn’t a stronger connection between people than storytelling. –Jim Neil Smith
Join Georgia Heard and Ralph Fletcher in this 2 1/2 hour long online Memoir Writing Workshop. Memoir writing allows us to revisit our lives and gain perspective on the things that happened in the past. But memoir can be a challenging genre that involves a great deal of craft: dealing with time, finding an authentic voice, conveying a sense of significance, and more. These are crucial issues to grapple with, but the first challenge faced by a writer is generating material. You can't craft a memoir if you don't have anything to work with.
In this workshop, Georgia and Ralph will share their personal memoir writing, discuss favorite memoir pieces and offer numerous practical tips on crafting memoir. Participants will also have the opportunity to generate material to begin their own memoirs. Whether you're a writer, poet, or teacher wanting to write or learn how to teach memoir in the classroom, this workshop is for you.
Don't miss this opportunity to explore memoir writing from the inside out, generate new material, and learn from two seasoned writers.
Even if you took Georgia and Ralph’s online Autobiographical Poetry Workshop at The Poet’s Studio in May, this workshop will be completely different and a sequel to the first workshop.
Looking for Inspiration?
Don’t miss my Winter Poetry Book Recommendations.
