Using music videos to prompt writing is a great way to engage students. They are usually very familiar with the songs and videos, but you are asking them to engage in a new way. The best videos to use have narrative storylines which are open to interpretation. I used “Faded” by Alan Walker. The students watched it twice, noting down words and phrases as they watched, sharing these with the group between viewings. They then chose how they would respond in writing: a poem, news report, narrative?
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ItHLz5WEA
Poetry ~ The Sea
Living by the sea, as many of us do, provides us with a rich source of inspiration for writing poetry. There are many poems based on a sea theme that can be used for inspiration and innovation. At Te Puru School, a group of young writers read and analysed “The Sea” from ‘Laura’s Poems’
The young writers took their writer’s notebooks down onto the beach in front of the school, sat, noticed, and wrote. The time spent sitting quietly and noticing the world around them is reflected in the poems they created.
Poem #1
I dig my toes deeper
into the sand,
the coarse feeling of rocks
scratching at my feet.
The sun breaches
the atmosphere,
devouring the bite of the winter chill.
The water,
lapping at the edge of tomorrow.
The hills smooth,
yet somehow wasted,
stealing my breath
as I venture deeper
into my haven of imagination.
Harry Oxford
The Sea
The waves close
into the shore,
like wolves cornering their prey.
The seaweed lays on the shore,
sunbathing in the toasty sun.
The water is a gentle source,
but it crushes rocks and shells to silt and sand.
The clouds drift away
into the distance,
further,
further,
gone.
Daniel