But enough about me - won't someone please think of the children?! I'd like to share a workshop idea that I recently used with a group of Year 7 children. I see no reason why this idea can't be used with all ages. The workshop involves SOUNDS. Often people focus on the visual element of perception when they write; this idea encourages students to cast their minds a bit wider. Rather than run through a series of steps, I think the best thing to do would be to share with you some of the poems produced in the workshop, which can then be used as models/inspiration. Here goes:
Sounds Of My Place by Sara
The alarm goes off at 6:40am sharp
The birds start tweeting
The recycling truck arrives
Children getting ready to go to school
Building noises shatter the window.
After school, everyone is talking
Passing the shops, you can hear the trolleys squeaking
Mothers and babies in the park playing
Teenagers just enjoying life.
The the sun sets and the city called Leyton
quietens down.
Birds prepare their nests
and people start to sleep
But the noises will carry on tomorrow
Because it is always going to be the city.
Sounds of the City by Laiba
I wake up at 10 o'clock
excited to leave the house and go shopping
with my family.
I open the door and I can hear nothing.
As I step onto the pavement a car passes by,
beeping its horn at the car in front.
This is one of the sounds that I can hear in the city,
but that's not all.
I walk down the pavement and I can hear
pedestrian lights, people chatting
radio songs playing in the car,
the clicketty-clack sounds of the ladies' heels
and cars rushing by when there is a green light.
I can hear car engines turning on and off,
a pebble being dropped into a puddle.
All I can hear are noises, day and night.
It's never going to be quiet, is it?
Journey to a New World by Arifa
7 sharp my alarm goes off
You hear buses beeping
Children screaming
Mothers chatting until their jaws hurt
An old couple trying to enjoy their last days
Ugly bulldogs barking at everyone they see
A youth yelling from the window
The sun goes down
The lights turn off
It is silent.
Music by Joshua Seigal (forthcoming in 'I Don't Like Poetry' - Bloomsbury)
The
dance of the heart
The gulp
of the throat
The threep
of the whistle
The
roar of the crowd
The crunch
of the tackle
The
bark from the sidelines
The skim on the pass
The crack
of the shot
The swoosh
of the net
The whoop of
the your dad
The
squeeze of the hug
The music
of joy
