Hooked by a technique known as Acrostic poetry I decided to try and create my first poem. To create an ACROSTICS poem you use each letter of the word you have chosen as the start or end point of each line of your poem.

To begin I recommend you use one word per line for your first attempt,

Use your name for example…my students created this for me, so it is rather precious…

M anage

A pproachable

R emembers

I ndividuals

E ducate.

The reason behind this exercise…

I wanted to pen an Acrostic poem that I could use in my Adult Education classes as a way to introduce my students to team based poetry writing. By using this approach I hoped that the outcome would be a learning journey into the world of poetry. This journey I felt, would engage us emotionally and intellectually while building our technical skills. It would open us, as a group, up to new terminology and as a result, build our vocabulary and understanding.  It would also provide new materials for reading and discussion.  It would involve actively using poetic techniques, rather than passively reading about them and because it would be team based, we would reduce or maybe even avoid those, all too common, negative learning barriers which are deeply ingrained from frightening and upsetting childhood learning experiences. We would be a community of active learners having a bit of fun and all the while constructing and shaping our own learning.  This was my creation…

ACROSTICS , a poem which

Could just well be, a

Rich resource for you and me

Often a journey it will be

Searching for words in

Teams of two or three, so

Invited you are, to

Come and play, together

Search for words to fill your day!