Getting Creative

Creative writing has never been one of my strengths. 9 years into my teaching career and this is one topic that I have struggled with.

I have decided to take a leap of faith and really get into poetry with my Y9 class, 9KRo. This week we have looked at poetry, in particular Glenn Colqhoun's 'Bred in South Auckland'. The theme of 'stereotype' is something that we have looked at with our film study of 'Freedom Writers' so this poem fit right into what we have been looking at, discussing and writing about in class.

It has been great exploring these ideas and getting into some healthy (sometimes heated but always good) conversations with my students over the idea of 'stereotype'. I used this resource from my colleague, Mr Spurdle, and added in a few other slides on poetry.

We are working towards a spoken word written piece that they will perform before the end of the term.
What I have learnt from this week is that text that are relevant, that connect or strike a chord with students, are texts that need to be utilized in the classroom.