Iambic Pentameter Made Easy

Well, what do you know? Ted Ed explains it so much better than I can. Iambic pentameter took some getting our heads around when we tackled sonnet writing last. This video makes it looks easy. Maybe it's time for another go!

 

If Shakespeare Could See Us Now

I read about the Bard upon a site,

That kids could write a sonnet on their own.

I pondered on the subject overnight,

Decided that we could; outcome unknown.

Returned to school to introduce the Bard,

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

So many rules he set to make it hard,

So hard to write a masterpiece this way,

Ideas flowed, and structure soon was built,

The syllables and rhymes worked as they ought,

Iambs in fives proved far more difficult,

The task seemed out of reach, or so we thought.

But finally our sonnets are refined,

A prouder teacher you will never find!

Wow, what a term it's been for our Year 7/8 authors! Today it was thrilling to see the pride and satisfaction on each other's faces as we put the final touches on our writing. We hope you enjoy reading our work as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Progress

It may seem we have had a very quiet month but in actual fact it's been very busy. We have been working hard on our sonnets and finding them quite a challenge. Our first task was to select an object to write about, and consider how the object's emotions will change from the beginning to the end of the sonnet. Some very imaginative subjects have emerged. Winter snow, a plastic shopping bag, tennis balls, a horse's saddle, boron to silly putty.
The next step was to formulate the ideas for each quatrian and for a few of us this has required some research so we could fully understand the processes our objects are subjected to.
Then came the application of all those rules and this is where the real challenge begins. Rhyming patterns, decasyllabic lines and iambic pentameter. We are learning alot about the stress on the syllables within a word, including how to use the pronunciation guide of a dictionary.
Bit by bit we are making progress and I can't wait to share some student work with you.
Watch this space!

Shakespeare Revealed

Recently on Brydseed I read the statement "structure leads to creativity" and raised this discussion with the Year 7/8 Inquiry group. While we certainly don't all agree the students did agree to think about this idea.

We all know William Shakespeare wrote a multitude of plays but how familiar are we with his poetry? 404 years ago Shakespeare wrote Sonnet 18, one of the most famous love poems of all time. After some research into "What makes a sonnet a sonnet?" we discovered there are very strict rules and lots of them. We also discovered that Shakespeare not only followed these rules but created them!

Follow our work as we attempt to write our own sonnets. Wish us luck!

Discover the Author In You

In class we have been working on writing a short story for the NZ Post Story Writing competition. Editing our work to improve it has been a major focus and some of us have written five or six drafts of the same story. Soon you will be able to read our entries on line. Last years entries were published in the book Leprechaun Icecream available from NZ PostShops.
There are several other writing competitions currently available if you would like to submit a piece of writing. Click on the following links to find out more about the Elsie Locke Writing Prize and the Puffin Short Story Awards. Make sure you read all the rules and conditions to ensure your writing meets the judging criteria.