It's Haiku Time

Working with year 7 Charlotte this week and she asks for help with the dreaded haiku homework. Her first attempt:

The best time my fave,

Oh daffodils yay they are

Growing in the field.

Oh Geez. Haiku has never been my favourite - and what does a writer do when faced with 'fave' and 'yay'? But working from Charlotte's first draft, we were able to cut words that weren't doing any work; use powerful verbs and introduce my friend the semi-colon. Here's Charlotte's re-worked Winter haiku (I left her to work with those daffodils):

Days fall short; frost creeps -

leaves curl, crisped in ice. Snow packs,

hard as a nutshell.

Writing haiku demands discipline; economy. Every word needs to work - hard. This one uses assonance, personification, alliteration and a splendid simile (Charlotte's image). 

Addressed the prejudice - suddenly I'm a fan!