Description of activities
Depending on the schools, projects were developed in single classes or included the entire school community. Considering the success of the campaign, several schools are planning on renewing it next year. **Ecole des Roches, Verneuil-sur-Avre (27), France** The students participated in the “Gift a poem” campaign in several classes. On their own, they looked up poets. They did readings in French class and then with the drama teacher. Depending on their sensibilities, they chose poems that expressed hope, love, freedom, justice… with a preference for positive themes. They then thought about the layout, chose the paper or decorations, depending on each poem.
The students chose to share the poems in the following ways : 1. they gave poems to the residents of a nursing home near their school whom they visit regularly, 2. they recited poems to the students who participated to the UNESCO MasterClass against Discrimination and Racism, 3. they offered poems to the school staff. Each poem was gifted with a chocolate. The students especially enjoyed sharing meaningful words, sharing deelings through reciting, the musicality of the poetry, and working together. **Collège Sainte Marie, Chartres (28), France** The school included “Gift a Poem” in their Poetry Week and celebrated accross the school.
They contacted “Ecoradio”, the student radio of another ASPnet school, the Vincent Van Gogh College middle school, to organize an interview with the students.
Poems were collaboratively written by students with their German exchange students.
Poems written by different classes were finalized and illustrated, then photocopied to be displayed in the school and sent to different partners. Some were laminated to be hung in trees on school property.
The Spanish teacher organized an exchange of poems with two middle schools in Spain, near Granada and Cordoba. They copied and illustrated a poem they like, read them in class and filmed themselves reciting them to send to their counterparts in Spain.
Primary school students came to listen to the middle school students declaim their poems in school library. Some of the school’s students, motivated by their elders, in turn recited poems learned in class and offered geometric drawings. This moment was recorded by journalists from the Radio Grand Ciel radio station, who also interviewed students. **Lycée Gergovie, Clermont-Ferrand (63), France**
During Poetry Week, the School library teacher set up a stand to present classic and contemporary French as well as foreign poetry available to all. A literature teacher, working on poetry with her classes, invited one of her classes to participate in the Gift a Poem campaign. They copied the poem of their choice by hand on stationery provided to them and then gave it to a person of their choice in the school or in their personal circle. **Ecole Internationale Bilingue Paris Monceau, Paris (75), France**
Middle School : Students in their last year of middle school imagined a poem in Spanish to offer to a person of their choice. They shared words of friendship, love, admiration… The students were very involved in the project and showed a lot of emotion and sincerity in their verses.
High School : Students who take Spanish classes in the 3° year of high school enthusiastically participated in writing a poem for someone who’s day they wanted to brighten. They picked family members, school friends and even certain teachers. The poems were written in Spanish in order to take advantage of this activity by practicing the language. They enjoyed the gesture of thinking of someone else and expressing feelings of love and friendship towards them.
Schools involved
- Ecole des Roches, Verneuil-sur-Avre (27), France
- Collège Sainte Marie, Chartres (28), France
- Lycée Gergovie, Clermont-Ferrand (63), France
- Ecole Internationale Bilingue Paris Monceau, Paris (75), France
