Old Possum’s Children’s Poetry Competition 2008

Teachers' guide

Download here as a Word document

Poet Mandy Coe gives advice on helping children to write poems on the theme of 'Work'.

Looking at it sideways

Work is a brilliant theme because all of us do it: adults, children, animals, nature, machines! The dictionary describes it as: the physical or mental effort of doing or making something. Doing and making are rich subjects for poetry because they are both about action and detail.

First, something needs to catch your imagination… So grab a dictionary and go through the alphabet listing people, professions, animals or machines. B might be baker or bumble bee. C could be for clown, cloud or can-opener, G for gardener. H might be for a horse pulling a plough.

Looking at it close-up

When you have chosen a subject, take a look at the work he/she/it does. Answer a few questions about how this work happens. Where? How? Why? What tools, materials or skills are needed? Think of movements, colour, texture, smells, sounds. Try describing details as Owen Sheers does in The Farrier, or as in Roger McGough’s, My Bus Conductor. Do a little research, it is fun to discover and use technical terms in a poem.

Please have a go (if you can) at the real physical act of pulling, pushing, watering, sewing and cooking. Smell the flowers if you are a bee; study stamens and petals with a magnifying glass. If you are a baker, get flour on your hands and smell the dough. Ask yourself over and over, what is it really, really like? Details crafted from this direct experience will make a poem shine.

Looking at voice

A poem can be written from a number of perspectives… as an observer such as in The Sound Collector by Roger McGough, or in character using the voice (and thoughts) of the worker, such as in The Chimney Boy’s Story by Wes Magee. When writing in character, think about language and patterns of speech. Take a look how Wha Me Mudder Do (by Grace Nichols) plays with spelling, sound and repetition.

Looking at shape

Remember poems do not have to rhyme. Try writing the first draft as prose or free verse. The poem can easily be crafted into another shape later. For examples of poems in a wide variety of forms try The Works 4 by Macmillan.

Teachers’ tips

Encourage pupils to:

• check spelling (and readability)
• replace unintentionally repeated words
• see if small words such as can, and, it can be cut or replaced with a comma
• check consistency of tense and persona
• first lines and last lines should be strong: they may be hidden elsewhere in the poem
• avoid following an example poem too closely. By all means use a ‘model’ poem as inspiration, but allow the first drafts to develop their own voice. If the poem does remain a close copy, it is courteous to refer to the original under the title, e.g. after Roger McGough’s Sound Collector

Titles are crucial in competitions. It is the welcome mat, the handshake, the mysterious smile that invites the reader to enter. In a purely functional way, a title can link the poem to the theme, or free up the poem by providing back-story/context.

Give students a week or so to put their finished poem aside. This allows them to look at it with fresh eyes later. Invite students to read their poems aloud. Encourage students to comment on each other’s poems by asking one question and mentioning one line/image that they like.

Submitting (and re-submitting) is an invaluable discipline for any new poet. Many excellent poems do not win the first, or even the second time around! Some professional poets enter competitions simply for the discipline of deadlines. In many ways, all the children are winners for rising to the challenge. Consider creating a display, a performance or even an in-school competition to celebrate this.

Suggested poetry

Poem titles with links can be downloaded as rich text files. (Book titles with links can also be ordered from the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf by clicking on them).

Waxing Lyrical by Roger McGough, from Bad Bad Cats (Puffin)

Grandpa Never Sleeps by Mark Burgess, from A Poem for Everyone (OUP)

Watching a Dancer by James Berry, from A Poem for Everyone (OUP)

Wha Me Mudder Do by Grace Nichols, from Poems United (Scottish Poetry Library)

My Bus Conductor by Roger McGough, from A Poem For Everyone (OUP)

Mrs. Lorris, Who Died of Being Clean by Barbara Giles, from A Poem For Everyone (OUP)

The following poems can be seen and heard (read aloud by the poets) at the Poetry Archive: www.poetryarchive.org

The Chimney Boy’s Story by Wes Magee

Wall by Norman Nicholson

The Farrier by Owen Sheers

Other poems on the theme of Work:

The Sound Collector by Roger McGough

Cynddylan on a Tractor by R S Thomas

The Humble-Bee by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Competition details
Judges
Prizes
Downloadable entry form
Email entry form
Teachers’ guide
Special Children’s Poetry Bookshelf membership offer
International Learners
Children's Tips