EDU 3214/LHE 3250 Topic Three

Well done to those who have managed to write comments on the previous entry by 6th September 2009.

This week's entry will be on persona poem. You have done it in class the other day and i thought those who read out their poems did rather well.

Instruction:

1. Choose a character from a short story that you have done. (It'll be helpful if you state the character and the story he/she/it is from before you begin the poem, just incase some of us may not be familiar with the character you are talking about!)

2. In the comment box below, write a persona poem about that particular character (as you have done in class the other day).

3. DO NOT forget to write your name and matric number everytime you post a comment.

4. Please have this done by 13th September 2009

Thank you.
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Below is one of the many uses of this activity. I hope you can benefit from the notes:

Persona Poems

Level of proficiency: Intermediate to Advance

Description of poem: A structured 8-line poem, biographical in nature

Warm-up activity

Persona-poems make a good ice-breaking activity when students are just getting acquainted with each other at the start of the term. As a starting point to the activity, students bring in mementos that are self-representative i.e. photos, pictures from magazines, personal drawings. Students get to know each other when they explain the mementos to their partners or other members of the group

Instructions to the activity

1. In small groups or together as a class, look at the example poem about and discuss the structure of the eight lines. What parts of speech or groupings of words typify each line?

2. Using the template provided, students can work alone and write about themselves, or work in pairs and write about their partners.

Sample Analysis of a Persona-Poem

Line 1: first name/nickname of the person in the poem

Line 2: 4 adjectives which describe the person

Line 3: X of Y formula, describing an important relationship to the person

Line 4: 3 things s/he loves

Line 5: 3 things that scare her/him or 3 things that he/she dislikes

Line 6: 3 things s/he wants to see

Line 7: resident of...+ place/time/concept

Line 8: last name of the person in the poem (or the full name of the person as some people do not have last names)

Template

(justify right, center or left for different effects)
_________________ .....(first name/s) ____________, ____________, _____________, ____________ ____________ of ____________ who loves ____________, ____________ and ____________ who is afraid of ____________, ____________ and ____________ who wants to see ____________, ____________ and ____________ resident of ____________ ..... ________________. (last name)

Sample of a persona poem

Sri Rahayu
Smart, kind-hearted, accepting and generous
A friend of mine
Who loves photography, music and the telly
Who detests crowded London tubes, disrespectful beings and the insincere ones too
Who wants to see autumn leaves drifting, snowflakes falling and the beautiful sun setting
Resident of the heart of many
Sri Rahayu Zainuddin

Adapted from:
Leslie Opp-Beckman, Technology Coordinator and ESL Instructor E-mail: leslieob@uoregon.edu 5212 University of Oregon, American English Institute Eugene, Oregon 97403-5212 USA Leslie Opp-Beckman and June White, copyright 1995-2003. Permission to copy and distribute for in-class, non-profit use only. URL: http://www.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html This page last updated: 13 August 2003