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VIII. Haiku in the Schools
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From: Gary Warner (glwarner@samford.bitnet)
This past weekend I had a great sense of pride, as I watched two
children, from the 1st and 3rd grades, receive awards in the 4th
annual Sakura Festival Haiku Contest, hosted by the University of
Alabama's Japanese program. The pride was not from the fact that
they were my children, but rather that they were my students.
I wanted to share with our readers the steps which I used to try
and give the children at a local elementary school a proper
introduction to haiku. If you are a haiku advocate, with some
amount of skill in writing, you may wish to try and duplicate my
efforts in your own school.
Last November, I was discussing with Gary Gach the fact that almost
every elementary student in the country is exposed to haiku as a
simple poetry form that is useful to introduce children to the
concept of poetry. Children leave school with the idea that any
cluster of words totalling 17 syllables is a haiku, if they
actually learn anything at all. This is largely because the
teachers, and often the text-book authors, have little
understanding of the subject themselves. I told him that I thought
it would be great if "one of us" were able to go into the classroom
and give a proper introduction to haiku. And so I decided to do
so.
I called a local elementary school principal, and made it known
that I was available to offer a one-visit introduction to haiku to
classrooms that would be covering that subject. She asked that I
arrange a lesson plan and some of my own poetry and meet with her
and the curriculum director for the school.
I put together 10 of my favorite haiku that I had written, and
identified a few "modules" from which teachers could choose to have
the lecture based, depending on how much time they wanted to give
me. The modules included:
Haiku readings -- sharing haiku that I have written and their
origin as examples
Haiku form -- discussing the proper phrasing and content
of haiku
Japanese haiku -- sharing haiku by the Japanese Master, Basho,
both in Japanese and in English
translation (children enjoy the kanji)
Haiku lessons -- leading the children to write haiku
Contest preparation -- sharing the details of an upcoming
contest with the children and providing
information to the teacher regarding entry
I was invited back to teach for three days in February, and
lectured in each classroom for between 45 minutes and 75 minutes
depending on the age of the children. With the younger children,
the emphasis was on the "Haiku Lessons", while with the older
children the Haiku Readings and Haiku Form were emphasized, with
writing left as an exercise for the student.
The basic flow of the lesson went something like this:
Write the kanji for "Haiku" up on the board...if the word Haiku was
already on the board (which it usually was) make a joke about
spelling haiku right.
Use the kanji for haiku as an opportunity to explain the history of
haiku in Japan, and the respect for Basho that is still shown.
(Note: younger children very much enjoy the idea that the most
famous poet is named "Mr. Banana Tree".)
From there, read "furuike ya", in Japanese and explain that haiku
are "word pictures", and that a well-written haiku draws a very
detailed picture. Translate furuike ya, phrase by phrase, and ask
the children to help you draw a word picture. For instance, "old
pond". Ask the children to describe to you the difference between
"old ponds" and "new ponds". Explain the significance of "kawazu"
indicating the season (spring), and ask what a pond looks like in
the springtime. Ask what is significant about the fact that Basho
heard the splash. It must have been a secluded, quiet place for
him to have noticed.
Stress to the children that one way to help ensure a good picture
is to tell "When, Where, and What". Where was Basho? When was he
there? What did he see?
Now go through the entire scene with the children. If desired,
have them "build the picture" for some of your own poems,
identifying the "when, where, and what".
Now add to this the idea of emotion. Work with the idea that a
haiku can make you feel a certain way, without using any emotion
words. One poem I used for this was my own:
beachcomber
finding more cigarette butts
than seashells
Ask the when, where and what, and then ask how the beachcomber was
feeling.
This is PROBABLY the point where someone will ask why my haiku
doesn't have 17 syllables. How you answer this will be up to your
individual opinions on the subject. Here is how I handled it:
"All haiku should have 17 syllables...if they are written in
Japanese. But we are probably going to write our haiku in
English." I then discussed the differences between onji and
syllables (using as my example...which word is longer?
"Bookstore"? or "Garden"? -- each class unanimously replied
"bookstore". Then I asked them how many syllables each had. Two.
Then why aren't they the same length? Explore the possibility with
the students of having 5-7-5 poems, where the "5" were all
"bookstore" syllables, and the "7" all "garden" syllables. Would
we be matching form? Also compare the number of syllables in
furuike ya, with the number in a concise translation. To reach 17
syllables, we would have to add substantial data."
Announce that you would like to have the class write a haiku
together, and ask someone for a "what, where, when" that you can
write about. Stress the "rules" that a haiku tells us "what,
where, and when", and that it should have three lines, "short,
long, short".
A couple of the "what, where, when" that we used yielded fairly
decent haiku... for example:
chirping birds
watching from their oak tree house
the falling leaves
(6th grade)
tired from camping
resting on the lawn
4-leaf clovers
(5th grade)
After writing a haiku together, we distributed paper and asked the
children to write their own. Wander the class, helping those who
are having trouble getting started, and offering suggestions where
needed. Praise especially good haiku by reading them aloud.
nighttime at the sea
little white crabs and big red ones
outside my hotel
(Holly Cook, 8 years old)
bat in the cave
hanging upside down alone
on the winter day
(Alex Mason, 9 years old)
on a winter day
on the ski slopes skiing down
I saw some snow fall
(Gib Pennington, 9 years old)
old miner's house
rotting under the oak tree
waiting for springtime
(Sam Harden, 11 years old)
springtime in the woods
a little white snake went in
the pond fast
(Mandy Powell, 7 years old)
Almost 100 of the students decided to enter the Sakura Festival
haiku contest that I told them about. Two of them were among the
winners in their age category.
Backyard after school
A lizard crawled up the wall
The dog ran to it Taylor Shepherd
7 years old
second place
A child chased a frog
Around his house's front yard
At two o'clock sharp Brad Acton
10 years old
fourth place
A haiku of my own was selected as the second place winner in the
adult division, where the theme was "Youth":
Floating soap bubble
Rising without direction
Above giggling hands Gary Warner
second place
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