Poetry crafting made easy - with the newspaper!
Pupils stand to win a trip to a theme park in poetry contest.
CREATING a poem for a contest may seem like a daunting task - especially for primary school pupils. In the latest contest by The Star’s Step Up pullout, poetry crafting becomes a treasure hunt as pupils look for words in newspaper articles to form their poems.
Instead of starting on a blank piece of paper, The Star newspaper provides countless words for pupils to choose from. Best of all, pupils who come up with the most attractive and inspiring poems stand a chance to clinch a trip to Genting Highlands. Forty-five theme park tickets to Resorts World Genting are also up for grabs.
The Blackout poetry contest is open to primary school pupils in Years Five and Six. To create blackout poems, pupils choose words from an article to construct their poems, while blacking out the rest.
Pupils of SK Bukit Raya, Cheras, Selangor, were thrilled to hear about the contest, said school English panel head Harlina Hamdan. Some Years Five and Six pupils had the opportunity to try their hand at creating the blackout poems for themselves.
“They did some research on the Internet and found many interesting ideas. These pupils made very creative pieces. Once the pupils became used to the format, they found the poems easier to create,” said Harlina.
“Even teachers were very interested in the idea of creating black- out poems,” she added.
She also said that this contest will definitely encourage pupils to read. “It is very difficult to get my pupils to read any English language materials as they prefer reading and conversing in Bahasa Malaysia. With this activity, there was not much resistance. They read through the newspaper to look for words. They also asked me for the meaning of words they had not heard of.”
Harlina added that the Step Up pullout made teaching convenient. “The pullout is handy when it comes to revision as it contains topics from Years Four to Six.”
Step Up is workbook-cum-activity pullout that caters to pupils in Years Four, Five and Six.
The school headmistress Roslima Mohamed was also very supportive of the pullout and its contest. “The Star newspaper and Step Up are very useful for the classroom. Our school encourages any effort to help pupils overcome English language proficiency issues. Step Up helps pupils in preparation for the examinations.”
“The Blackout poetry contest is
new to us. It is very interesting and pupils are learning in a more enjoyable way. The contest can also create an environment where pupils compete among themselves. It encourages their confidence and creativity,” she added.
Year Five pupil Edlina Najeehah Md Ghani commented that the blackout poem activity helped pupils in terms of English spelling. “Nowadays, people don’t like reading the newspapers. But thanks to this activity, our class has a pur- pose to read and use the newspapers.”
An aspiring young poet, she said that she liked how poems can touch other people. “I can search for positive words to use in my poem and when people read my poem, they will feel positive themselves,” she said.
Schoolmate Muhd Firdaus Amir, also in Year Five, said that he enjoyed coming up with his poem. “I learnt many words. I often ask the teacher about words that I do not understand and it helps me improve my English language.”
Year Six pupil Ajda Insyrah Mohd Zaki found this activity interesting and fun. “I really thank The
Star for coming up with this contest. I’m usually too lazy to construct sentences, but when this contest popped up, I have become more motivated to work harder.”
Contest templates were published in the Step Up and Newspaper-in-Education pullouts on March 13, 14 and 15.
For more information, call The
Star’s Customer Care Unit at 1-30088-7827 from Monday to Friday (9am-5pm). Subscription is through schools only.