Urbino, POEMS IN GAME
are pleased to accept the invitation Verba Molanta to propose a game poetic pupils Italian as a foreign language, an activity that prompted me Words at play, the beautiful event held in Urbino October 10 to 12. Also for this third round, Urbino has been proposed as a non-place, or as the capital of Utopia, where you can finally
have fun, learn, reflect and play with the word, written, spoken, drawn.
For us teachers, more or less verbivori, impossible not to take advantage of the great ideas offered by these three days all dedicated to talking about words. And indeed, a rich calendar of meetings and appointments, an event può rivelarsi particolarmente utile anche come attività didattica per i corsi avanzati.
Si tratta di Poesie in gioco , un concorso di poesia dorsale ideato da Silvano Belloni e Antonella Ottolina che spiegano:
si chiama così perché nasce combinando uno sopra l'altro i titoli scritti sul dorso dei libri, da cui nascono, come per magia, bellissime poesie.
Come esempio, una delle poesie che ha vinto il concorso:
La perfezione/ quel che resta
all'altezza delle labbra
the silence between two waves (Marianna's Christmas)
The three verses are composed of three titles chosen from 150 books suggested by the organizers. Each poem will then be photographed with the back of the books from which it was inspired.
To view photos please follow this link , while clicking on Bibliography leads the list of titles from which to draw inspiration.
The recreational aspect of the initiative gave me the idea for a task prorporre students of Italian as a foreign language:
Write a haiku
(I've adapted from Writing Games , C. and J. Hadfield, Nelson Publishing, UK, 1990).
type of activity: creative writing. Individually and in plenary.
Level: upper-intermediate and advanced (if they have read at least some books in Italian).
language Objective: to use words in new contexts, to identify semantic similarities.
Englishes : exercise brevity. Describe issues and feelings during the final stage of confrontation between the students.
cognitive skills: guess feelings and arguments.
Methods
- is an activity to do in 3 times (in class -> home-> class).
- In pairs or groups of 3: Pupils recall the books I have read and form a list (5-10 minutes).
- Reformulation: compare your list with the other groups and prepare a final.
Variation: If we just run out of reading, the teacher decides what and how many titles offer (not to waste time, the list offered by the competition "Poems in the game" comes in handy).
The list of readings which usually offer students is available here .
- The teacher explains the structure of 'Haiku , where the focus should be contained in just three verses.
We can make an example with this ancient Japanese Haiku of Matsuo Basho:
AUTUNNO:
Persino gli uccelli
E le nuvole sembrano vecchi.
Dopodiché, spiegare che dovranno concatenare i titoli dei libri del loro elenco, fino a formare dei versi.
Per ragioni ovvie è impossibile portare in classe tutti i libri letti dagli alunni, allo scopo di poter comporre delle vere e proprie "poesie dorsali", secondo la proposta del concorso di Urbino. Ma anche così gli studenti possono mettere in gioco la propria creatività.
Compito a casa : scrivono uno o più haiku che devono restare anonymous.
In class: the poems are hung on the walls of the classroom. Students read poems and try to guess the central topic. Prepare a list of key issues that they think they have guessed and then compare it to the plenary. Choose the best haiku, post them to the class blog .
" Write a Haiku" is an activity that had also proposed a low-intermediate level, but without the titles of books, instead of following the directions of the authors of Writing Games.
and concludes with a warning in libreria: Calicanto. La poesia in gioco , di Ersilia Zamponi e Roberto Piumini, Einaudi, 2008. Indicazioni preziose che svelano le astuzie del linguaggio poetico, ovvero come giocare con il segreto e l'immaginazione.
The statue 
The five brothers 
