One of the most effective things that teachers can do to improve the writing of their students is to train them in "imitation" or "mimicking". Students easily recognize when a poem or other piece of writing is exceptionally written, yet they often have a hard time figuring out how to make their writing sound equally as beautiful. By allowing students to imitate the writing styles of the greats, they can feel the process of putting the words on the paper and will eventually learn to branch out into their own creative and unique style.
It is best to begin this lesson using poems with a more simplistic structure, for example, an excellent poem to use for starters is April Rain Song by Langston Hughes.
This poem is perfect for starters because of its simple structure and diction as well as the repetition of beginning phrases. It is a good idea to use this poem as a basis for modeling for the class how to create their own work. Here is an example of a poem based off of Hughes’ poem:
Let my soul touch your soul
Let my soul reach out to you with longing arms
Let my soul sing you a soft melody
My soul makes my heart whirl in my chest
My soul makes my head dizzy with emotion
My soul plays an effervescent tune as the days pass
And I love my soul.
Once the class has watched your progress through the poem, use The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams to create a class poem:
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Here is a second imitation based on Williams’ poem:
too many rely
upon
a sincere heart
touched by strong
emotions
underneath an aching
façade
Finally, students should have a variety of poems available and should have their choice regarding which one to imitate. One of the best and most complex poets to imitate is ee cummings, but save this for your more advanced writers.
This lesson can be made for lower-level learners by using easier poems, such as those by Shel Silverstein, and more difficult for advanced or honors students by limiting “word substitution”—if the original author uses a noun, the student uses a noun, where there is a prepositional phrase, the student should use one as well.
Mimicking is also amazing to use with novels. Teachers can simply choose a passage with unique syntax or sentence structure and have students imitate. The Great Gatsby, for example, is a book replete with interesting stylistic devices for the students to imitate.
In order to avoid accusations of plagiarism, students should always sign their poems with, "based on a poem by...".
Enjoy!
