Writing frames, poetry, syllables and grammar.

Poetry that has a specific form such as a haiku or a cinquain is a useful way of helping learners to tap into their creativity in an nonthreatening way and also to rehearse skills such as breaking words down into syllables and recognising different parts of speech.

The advantage of rehearsing these skills while using a poetry model is that there is a support framework and it becomes more of a problem to be solved.  It becomes bite sized rather than so big as to be intimidating.

Remember to provide an example, discuss the example.  Model examples, work in groups and provide chunks that build to learners working by themselves.  Presenting learners with a haiku or cinquain and telling them to get on with it isn't a great recipe for success... though getting learners to look at an assortment of haiku and then decide which statements about the haiku are true and which are false is much more effective.  The problem solving activity results in learners creating their own 'recipe' for a haiku and rehearsing their syllable skills as well.