The Benefits of Students Writing Haiku Poetry
How we came to write Haikus in the first place.
Last year I experimented with a great group of tech-savvy 5th graders in every way possible on ways to integrate technology into the classroom. Together we set up, learned and used Google Classroom as well as the full suite of Google apps (docs, slides, sheets, etc) on all sorts of projects.
Here in Texas, like many states we have high stakes testing (STAAR) and that means throughout the year we also have many curriculum assessments and benchmark tests to get us ready for “The BIG Test”. Sadly, that means that several times a year my 5th graders are testing for 3–4 days at a time, and at the end of that kind of testing their brains are MUSH! So I needed a lesson activity that was still quality instruction, but allowed them to have a little fun and show some creativity. Having always enjoyed poetry and especially haiku poetry I introduced them to this concept and THEY LOVED IT!!!
Being the tech-savvy group that they are, they took the simple paper haikus they had written and wanted to do MORE with them. Thus the idea of presenting them in Google Slides was hatched and they took it and ran with it! Prior to this I had NOT used slides with them and didn’t really spend more than 10 minutes or so showing them how to use the app-rather I turned them loose and they learned together and had a blast doing it!
Fast forward to this school year (2016–2017) and I have a much different and more challenging group of students. There are more struggling readers and they are much less tech savvy than my group from last year. But I have been determined to bring them along in their tech skills and they are making great progress!
But we still have that dreaded STAAR test and all the curriculum assessment and benchmark testing , and the related “brain mush” that goes along with it. So, I decide that after our benchmark testing last week we will learn and write haiku. There was of course, the customary grumbling by two or three male students, but soon everyone was deeply involved in the creative process and even helping each other out with the process of writing their haiku.
It was during that creative process that I had some time to reflect about the things they were ACTUALLY learning.
The benefits of students writing haiku in a 5th grade classroom include:
- struggling readers and writers improve their command of syllabication
- students increase their vocabulary as they search to find just the right word to “fit” in their haiku
- they are learning to be more succinct as writers as excessive wordiness has no place in haiku poetry
- students are practicing critical thinking skills
- teamwork and leadership skills are put into practice as they are helping each other write, revise and edit their poems as well as help each other create, edit and animate their Google slides
- key technology skills are learned and broadened and some students “naturally” emerge as technology mentors helping less tech savvy peers and enjoying their role as the “expert”
- allows students to express their creativity and showcase their work (my kids are showing EVERYONE they can their slides).
I wish I could share just how awesome their actual work is with you, but privacy concerns forbid me to do so.
But I strongly urge you to give haiku writing a shot in your classroom. You’ll find the kids relish the challenge and many students end up writing MORE than what is asked of them because they are having so much fun doing it! I’ve had kids come up with me every day this week with sheets of haiku after haiku. I’m hoping they will continue with this love of the art form, and I am absolutely convinced I will keep teaching it to them.
I leave you with my own personal haiku example I did right along side the students. It’s nothing fancy, but my 5th graders loved it! They know I’m a big animal lover so they challenged me to write a haiku about my pets…challenge accepted!
