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Illustrated Limericks: A Service-Learning Project

My college students frequently share that while they greatly enjoyed poetry in their youth, by the time they reached high school they had lost their love of the genre. Because of this, in my 400-level children’s literature class, we frequently discuss how, as future teachers, they can create lessons that make poetry not only accessible, but also fun.

Last semester, my students decided that for their service-learning project they would try their hand at poetry lesson-planning for a 5th-grade class. The aim for my students was to strengthen their skills in creating fun and engaging lessons. Our hope for the 5th graders was to gain an appreciation of poetic genre and to gain confidence with their language use and creative writing. (NB: The college students were mostly pre-credentialed teachers. Service took place at a Title 1 school, where most of the student body are non-native speakers. Each of the three on-site service visits was approximately one hour.)

Lesson Planning/Pre-Service:
Before meeting with the 5th graders, the college students first researched what sort of poetry upper-elementary school students most enjoyed. The class decided to focus their lesson around limericks, as younger students tend to prefer this genre because of the humor involved (McClure et al. 146).

First Meeting:
The college students were paired either individually or in small groups with the 5th graders. They introduced the form of limerick poetry to their student buddy, using both classic and contemporary examples of the form, highlighting aspects of both the form and content. The groups then began to discuss what sorts of rhymes they would find funny—like pool/fool, fly/guy, pink/stink, punch/lunch—which led them to a good topic for the poem. Students were also encouraged to think of words that were easy to rhyme. Lastly, students began to fill out this worksheet, creating their poem.

Second Meeting:
The groups met again to finish their worksheet and to begin creating a poster illustrating their poem.

Third Meeting:
The 5th graders presented their posters to the class. The school principal and several university administrators were present.

Take Away:
The final poems and posters on the whole turned out very well, quite creative and fun. University students reported that this was their favorite part of the course, and by far the most rewarding. They felt that they were able to grow in their understanding of how children connect with poetry, which will help them create future lesson plans around poetry. They were surprised that the kids enjoyed it as much as they did; they had expected resistance to the use of a strict poetic form and were surprised to see the younger students thriving with poetic structure.  The 5th graders enjoyed spending time with college students and reported that they enjoyed having the freedom to have fun with language. This is especially important because many of these students are non-native speakers of English, which can create reticence in experimenting with the language.  Mostly, students enjoyed being irreverent and silly, learning that poetry doesn’t always have to be serious, but that the important thing is that the poetry elicits an emotional response. In all, it was a successful experience for both sets of students.

Example student poems:

There once was a big ugly fly
Who thought he would go eat some pie
So he flew all around
But one couldn’t be found
But at least he gave it a try

There once was a guy at my school
Who always acted like a fool
The students would get mad
The teacher would be sad
He just wouldn’t follow the rule.

Works Cited

McClure, Amy, et al. Teaching Children’s Literature in an Era of Standards. Pearson: 2015.

Kristen Sipper-Denlinger is an assistant professor of English at Azusa Pacific University in Azusa, CA. She specializes in children’s and adolescent literature, and her current research focuses on helping students make more meaningful connections between service and their own education.

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