Lesson Plan: Finding Patterns in Haiku
Literature and Mathematics

Objectives:

1.      Students will write individual and group haikus

2.      Students will recognize haikus by the pattern of their line structure

3.      Students will recognize tankas also by the pattern in their line structure and recognition.

Materials: Butcher paper, pens, tables set up outdoors

Time: Ninety minutes

Procedure:

  1. Explain that Issa was a famous writer of poems who lived over two hundred years ago. As Issa looked around him with his poet's eyes, he saw a hundred things that many of us might miss. And because Issa took the time to look, to listen, and to enjoy the movements of the many small creatures who shared his world—sparrows, crickets, frogs—he had a compassionate feeling for all of them, including fleas and flies. Even the common housefly that most of us swat without thinking, Issa felt had a right to live. In many ways Issa's own life was a sad one. His mother died when he was two, and his own four sons and a daughter all died before they were a year old, a great sorrow for a man who loved children as much as Issa did. He was a poor man and spent much of his life in solitary wandering. Perhaps it was the loneliness of these years that made him value all the animals, birds and insects who shared his house and garden and kept him company in his travels about the countryside: Here are a couple poems!   
On the wide seashore
a stray blossom and the shells
make one drifting sand.
 
Temple by the sea:
the breakers pulsing in beat time
to the holy flute 
 
Dark, gnarled, and whithered,
the old tree bears no morefruit.
It's still my good friend.
 
On a snowy hill,
the old man stops and reclines.
Not long for this earth.

 
  1. Group the students in collaborative groups of 3 – 5 and tell then to find the pattern that they see within each poem. Prompt questioning about line structure, poem shape, and size.
  2. As students find similarities amongst the poems, have them conjecture what the similarities between all the poems are. Once everyone is in agreement, start the haiku writing activity.
  3. Explain that haiku is a Japanese poetry form that consists of seventeen syllables and has nature as its subject. Examine the 5-7-5 syllable, as the students found out, structure of this haiku. Note that in English translations, the syllables may not follow the 5-7-5 pattern.

The least of breezes
Blows and the dry sky is filled
With the voice of pines

  1. Instruct students that they will be spending some time outside doing what may seem to them like nothing in preparation for a writing assignment. This activity is to be done in silence.
  2. Put these headings at the top of pieces of butcher paper: sky, air, trees, ground, insects, birds, etc. Lay them out on tables outside taped down. Have enough felt tip pens for each student.
  3. Students lie in the grass on their backs for fifteen minutes. Encourage them to let go of any inner dialogue and simply see, feel, hear, and smell. They may want to spend some time examining the grass, plants, and living creatures near the spot they have chosen.
  4. When the time is over ask them to write down words about what they experienced. Put them on the papers under an appropriate category. Include sounds, smells, feelings, tastes and tactile sensations.
  5. Return inside and tape the word lists on the walls around the room.
  6. Write a group haiku on the board using one of the word lists.
  7. Have students write their own haiku.

Write in calligraphy and display the haiku with a photograph of the topic

Extension:

* Tanka is a Japanese poetic form that consists of 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-7). It is the most fundamental poetic form in Japan since haiku is derived from it. Its themes include love between men and women, deep attachment to nature, the joys and sorrows of the changing seasons, close relationships, and reflections and insights on aspects of one's life.

Here is a student example of tanka:

The mist of morning
is like the blanket of time
which slows the world down.
When the mist lifts from the morn,
The world will be born again.

--Annette Greenbaum

Find more examples that exist then ask students to find the pattern within these poems. What is their line structure? How are they put together? How are they similar or different from haikus?

 

If desired, have students compose their own tankas.  

 

Websites with haikus:

http://teacher2b.com/creative/haiku.htm

http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiku.htm

http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/arts/new-age-fiction/satori.asp

http://www.gardendigest.com/poetry/haiku4.htm

http://home.clara.net/pka/haiku/hints.html

 

 

Websites with Tankas:

http://www.americantanka.com/samples.html

http://www.ahapoetry.com/giftank.htm

 

Assessment:

Students will do a couple of things for assessments. First, they will keep their haikus & tankas in their journal. Students will brainstorm the pattern found in the haikus  & tankas and how they got there, they will also record any unfinished or finished poems in their journals. Students will pick their favorite selection and publish the piece for the room or for their own keeping.