For teachers

Here is a suggested class plan for teachers to use in class.
You can also download this Class Plan in PDF format here.

INTRODUCTION

This is a poetry project for New Zealand’s National Poetry Day 2025, which is on the 22 of August. On 1 August we will publish five words presented in Word Films made by international poetry filmmakers. There will be a prize for the Best Poem by Under-16s courtesy of The Cuba Press and Massey University Press.

OBJECTIVES

• Encourage investigation and creativity in relation to words and meaning.
• To make a poem inspired by five words.

TEACHING ACTIVITY

First off, ask students to make up titles of poems they would like to read. Give them 5 minutes to write down 3 titles each. Ask them to share their favourite ones. You could write them on the board.

Write word pairs on the board, for example: slouch/cello, rain/uncertain and lopsided/afternoon, and give students 6 minutes to write down sentences that include both words of each pair. (e.g., Violins running, cellos slouching and trumpets clicking their fingers.) Who can think up the craziest sentences? Ask students to read out one of their sentences.

Show the 2025 Word Film video. Which word do they find most interesting? Write it on the board and make an Ideas Cloud around the word. Here is an example with the word 'Jump', including imaginative connections, alliteration and rhymes:

Next, divide the class into groups and give each group one of the four remaining words from the competition. On a large sheet of paper they have to make an Ideas Cloud for the word in their group. They can include drawings, writing, or collage from magazines etc. Each group presents their word to the rest of the class.

NOTE: Remind them of the rules before they write their poem. Especially:

• The poem must include the five words.
• The words can be used in any order.
• You may change the tense of verbs, and change nouns between plural and singular.
• Length anywhere between 5 and 200 words.

Students now work individually using the five words to write their poem. The theme of the poem is open and will depend on what the five words convey for each person. Suggest they might like to use one of the poem titles they wrote at the beginning for their poem.

CONCLUSION

How about finishing with a poetry reading! This could be in the following class, to encourage everyone to work on their poem at home. Suggest they practice reading their poem out loud as well. As well as giving them more confidence in their reading, it can help to listen to the sound of the words and maybe this will give them ideas to improve parts of the poem.

NOTE ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Teachers can decide if it is appropriate or beneficial for their students to make use of AI, and you are very welcome to prohibit AI. If you do allow it, please read the special rules which apply for AI use and make sure your students understand and follow them. Students can then decide for themselves whether or not to use it.

💡EXTRA IDEA: Make it a competition between students and AI. In this case, the students are not allowed to use AI for poems. Once they have finished their poems, ask them (perhaps in groups) to write a prompt for ChatGPT beginning: Write a poem that includes the five words [insert words] …

Suggest they add information such as a title or theme, a particular style (sonnet, free verse etc), a mood, a setting, or whatever else they would like in their poem.

Read out the AI poems. Do they like them? How do they compare to the students’ own poems? Is AI a poet?

Point out that the Given Words competition celebrates the creativity of each person, and so a poem like these—written from a prompt without any other human input—would be very unlikely to be selected.

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