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Adjective Poems
This idea is based on an idea from Grammar Practice Activities by Penny Ur
- Focus: Writing, Lexis
- Level: Any
- Age: Teens/Adult
- Target Language: Copular 'to be', adjectives and adjective order
- Time: 15 - 20 minutes
- Preparation: A sample poem
Procedure:
1: Before this activity, students should have learnt a range of adjectives.
2: Show/read students an example poem such as the one below. To make this stage more interesting, remove the noun from the poem and have students guess what it is about.
3: Highlight/elicit the pattern in the poem:
Noun
Noun is/are adjective
Noun is/are adjective, adjective
Is/are adjective, adjective, adjective
Adjective, adjective, adjective, adjective
Noun
4: Students choose their own topics and write a similar poem.
5: If students are confident they may read out their own poems. If not, you could place them around the room and have students read each others’ or read them out yourself.
6: Give feedback on language use including adjective order.
Example:
Fog
Fog is scary
Fog is scary, wet
Is scary, wet, thick
Scary, wet, thick, cold
Fog
Variations:
Other templates can be provided to write simple poetry. E.g. a diamante poem
Noun
Adjective, adjective
Verb -ing, verb -ing, verb -ing
Noun, noun, noun, noun
Verb -ing, verb -ing, verb -ing
Adjective, adjective
Noun
Example Poem Topics:
The students’ hometowns
A family member
A type of weather
A job
A dish
Covid/2020
Don’t Miss A Thing!
Photo credit: Joshua Ness
