Color and Dictionary Poems in ESL

Color poems are the next poems that I introduce to my students. This is another type of poem that is easy for the students to understand and reproduce one of their own. Color poems can be surface level or it can be very deep. When teaching color poems explain to the students that they can write about things that are the color, but what we are trying to do is describe colors in creative ways. Here are some examples of my students work.

Red is fire.
Red is love.
Red is passion.
Red is my love.
-by Wendy (age 11, living in the US for 2 years)

Black is like the night.
Black is like the dark.
Black is burned cookies.
Black is me.
-by Fernando (age 13, living in the US for 19 months)

Dictionary Poems are fun, but can often be challenging. Before class you need to copy a page from the dictionary. I use a dictionary that gives the word, the defintion, a sentence and a picture. Give each student a page of the dictionary and instruct them to write a poem using at least 7 of the words from that page. Do the first one together as a class, the teacher needs to guide the process. First make a list of the words you know and think you could use in the poem. Then think aloud with the students and write a poem with the whole class on chart paper. Then give the students another page from the dictionary and have them create their own.

Dictionary Poems:

I wish that in winter
I going to be a winner
with a wonderful smile.
-by Claudia (age 13, living in the US for almost 2 years)

I wish to be with my wolf
but one woman take my wonderful wolf.
-by Daniela (age 13, living in the US for almost 2 years)

Try to use these poems in you class, you will be surpried with how expressive your students can be!