It’s not secret I love teaching poetry. I’m always looking for ways to make the writing of poetry less intimidating for my students. One way to do that is to add gamification elements to the teaching of poetry. This is the second year I have my students participate in Roll of Dice Poetry.
You can use any type of dice, but my students like using the D20 and other quirky types of dice. Of course, they soon find out that using a D20 might mean having to write longer poems, but somehow the novelty of using dice to help them write poetry makes it funner. I discussed enjambment with them, and I also asked them to include at least one metaphor or one simile. I was pleased to see that many of them added alliteration, personification, and parallelism. We took about 90 minutes to write our poems, but many students finished before that time.
This year I asked my students to write their poem on either thankfulness or winter. I also asked them to draw pictures to complement their poems. I’m impressed with the results.
Captivate Motivate Educate 