Poetry

Boy am I fascinated with this literature genre

Expressing ideas and feelings in a compact manner

Evoking senses through language used to appeal 

Hungry readers delve into my words like a meal

Beauty radiates from each line and stanza

Magnificence emits from its simplistic structure 

My mind gives birth to an authentic design

On paper I record, like a scribe divine

Filled with devices I flaunt my poetic license 

Breaking the rules of language while adding my spices

Flavouring my creation with much needed prosody

Restructuring each line as it pleases me

Composing on scores, building a symphony of imagery
Of the heart and the mind, I ignite my poetry
To construct stories of this telling nature
Is why I am fascinated with this literature genre

Rising above the challenges

The art of writing for me began emerging  at a young age when I was introduced to journal writing. This medium of writing provided an avenue where I was able to write on a daily basis. I was mainly engaged in free writing; where I was able to express my thoughts, feelings and often times research on topics of interest. My passion for writing soon deteriorated and became less and less apparent in my life and to this day I am yet to recover from such a tragedy. This, brings me to this juncture where I was given the opportunity to learn about other challenges faced by writers and also accept the ones I face today that is preventing me in becoming a fluent writer. 

I learned of a few of the reasons hindering the teaching of writing within our classrooms. Among them are the language situation in Grenada. This is one of the major challenges since we are speakers of a native dialect yet our formal mode of speaking and writing is with the use of standard English. Another reason is students interest and exposure to materials. It is said that the best writers are the one who reads often from a wide variety of genre, this inturn would be demonstrated in the students writing as they would have a better edge on the play of words.  Lastly, the know-how on the part of the teacher. Not knowing how to write can affect the way in which you as the teacher engage your students in writing. 

How to combat these challenges were key to me since the implementation of such will be practiced with immediate effect. For starters, learning and adapting the writing process while engaging in daily writing is imperative. Another is becoming an active reader as to get more acquainted with different writing styles and also to increase my vocabulary. Finally, acceptance of the fact that immediate change is necessary and despite the challenges I may face, it should not be used as a short coming in producing fluent writers within my classroom and even becoming a fluent writer myself. 

Engaging Student Writers with Prompts

The past week has been a new experience for me. Throughout my years of teaching I have covered the writing process and all that it entails; even building upon the skills utilized in writing with my students. However, I have learnt that although I had the knowledge of the writing process, my approach to teaching it hindered their motivation to write.

After being engaged in writing prompt activities throughout the past week’s sessions, I quickly realized that how beneficial these activities are to beginning writers and the writing process. It engages young writers in fun and interesting ways to express their ideas on paper, while also challenging their creativity and exposing them to different writing styles. Prompts are also introduced in small blocks of time, which then increase incrementally over a period, so that students do not get frustrated while writing.

When the writing process starts with topics students are interested in, their motivation and creativity increases, which leads to a better writing experience for them. With the exposure of prompts, young writers will feel more accomplished as they start going through their writing process, simply because they will take ownership and pride in what they are expressing in their writing pieces.