Some Exquisite Poems / From My Seventh Grade Students / Prepare to be Floored

One of my favorite lessons to do with seventh graders is an introduction to poetry. The English major in me gets all fired up at the front of the room (well, let's be honest -- the budding teacher in me gets pretty fired up too, and not only for poetry lessons): there is lots of wild gesturing, mime, and just enough silliness to get them to understand me. Although they're catching on pretty quickly to the fact that my "Oh no, I don't speak a word of Spanish" line is a lie, I still speak to them exclusively in English. But I digress.

In this lesson, I read the e.e. cummings poem "maggie and milly and molly and may" aloud to them, and we brainstormed vocabulary like rhythm, rhyme, stanza, line, syllable, etc. After discussing the meaning of the poem (the literal meaning -- this one's a little bit challenging for them yet), we moved on to haiku. We talked about how haikus are normally about nature, and usually address or examine one specific moment. Then we looked at this one by Basho, the Japanese poet:

This snowy morning

That black crow I hate so much

...But he's beautiful! 

(find it here)

The students had wonderful interpretations of what the imagery means: "The snow is white, and the crow is black." "He hates the crow because it ruins the morning." "The morning is quiet, the crow is loud." "It is beautiful because nature is beautiful." "It is beautiful because the contrast is beautiful." I SWEAR my students said all this -- if not in complete, grammatically correct English sentences. I was a proud mama duck all over again.

At the end of the lesson I had them write their own haikus. Now, the creativity of Spanish students is something I'll save for another post. Suffice to say they are seriously lacking in that area, at least when compared to American students, and especially to my own (exceptional) elementary/middle school experience at a small independent school. So my kids were less than thrilled when I announced they'd be writing their own haikus. Despite their groaning, I think some of their work turned out really great -- at the very least the Primero Bilingue's canon is beginning with some eccentricity, some truly beautiful imagery, no lack of grammatical and spelling errors, and a heavy dose of humor for native English-speaking audiences. And with no further ado, I present you with their (unedited) work:

In the evening, in

a very cloudy evening

There were lots of birds. 

In the mountain, the mountain 

...Do I prefer good river?

I like two places! 

By Pablo

In the sweet morning

In the far away mountain

I feell the nature.

By Diego B. 

In the long black night.

The moon looks in my bedroom

And she's smiling a me.

By Darío

The snow is prety

It is white and beautiful

I love the good snow

I love animals

The animals are prety

I have animals.

By Lydia

One day on the beach

I smile at a pretty gir

and she smiles at me

By Raúl

I have got apples

I go to the park today

They are beautiful! 

By Ayla

I am here, and you?

You are in the forest and

This is bad!

By Claudia

This day I wake up

before normal, I see, oh,

a special and a good owl.

By Celia

The bird flies and flies

at the top of the tree, but

it can't come down now.

By Elia

I am in a tree
the birds later fly whit me
And she looks at me.


I'm in the city
my friend is very crazy
but he's my bestfriend.
By Elda




One day in the park,

saw my aunt, she says hello
and I say hello.
By Amaya




The forest is nice
Il see the forest always
I love animals.


I hate the haikus
The haikus are very bad
The haikus are sad.
By María

And there you have it, folks. The up-and-coming poets of IES Miguel Herrero Pereda.