Have you tried writing a poem with your students ??

I adapted this idea from a creative writing workshop conducted by Alan Maley during MICELT Conference 2013.

This is how it goes....

Firstly, ask your students to make a list of the following :
(please make it clear that they can only write one for each)

a)  Favourite food
b)  Favourite animal
c)  Favourite flower
d)  Favourite place at home
e)  Favourite drink
f)  Favourite clothes
g)  A person you like the most
h)  Favourite climate/month/

Next do the following, step by step :

Ask your students to fill in the first line with the name of the food in their list. For example, you are the curry of my noodle.  

Move to the second line, only after they are done with the first line, if you have a below average/ weak students you can actually help them out.

Let us go to the second line now.

Once you are done with the second line you can move on to the third line; 

Now move on to the next line, and fill in the gaps with the favourite place at home and it characteristics.

You are done with the first stanza and now let us move on to the second stanza, and you can start with a favourite climate/month. 

Then, continue with your favourite clothing, 

and then with you favourite pet animal.

The last line should be the person you love the most,

You are done with the poem and this is how it should look now,

Sample 

Here is one of my students' work. She dedicated the poem to her favourite teacher....

Be ready for crappy poems as

sometimes mischievous students like to make it interesting with crappy ideas, reward them for their creativity rather than reprimanding as this will motivate them to do better but be clear  that they should not include racially or religiously sensitive and sexually explicit lines in their poems.