Limericks

[zachmokpo]

Before the exams happened I had my students working in groups and writing limericks. It's pretty simple to explain to them. A five line poem where the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other and lines three and four also rhyme with each other.

There once was a teacher named Zach.                           A
Eating too much kimchi made him go wiggity-wack              A
He went crazy and couldn't teach anymore                       B
Looking after him became quite the chore                         B
So one day the school shipped him in a box to Iraq             A

I had the first grades work in groups of four. It usually took them around 15/20 minutes to get it right (and to revise). the second graders I had working in groups of two and they usually took around 10 minutes at the most. I had each group put their limerick on the board and they were read as a class. The best three lyrics got their group candy as prizes.

[zachmokpo]

I also forgot to mention that I taught slang in an earlier class and (most) students remembered that wiggity-wack is another way of saying crazy.

[Pariahs Bedpost]

I also did a limerick lesson plan.

I am going to attach my powerpoint to your thread. I hope you don't mind, its not my intention to say yours isn't satisfactory as it stands.

I obviously emphasized the rhythm in my lesson plan more than you did but this certainly created more difficulties for the students.

I had to explain outside of my powerpoint that despite the fact the rhythm always remains the same, the lines can be read faster or slower to fit the rhythm and extra syllables can be squeezed in. I made this adjustment after my first class when I realised that even my co teacher didn't get it and thought it was one syllable per beat.

Also I have attached a goofy video that could be played whichever way you teach it. The students liked it for some reason.