| STUDENT WORKSHEET
Back to Haiku Student Activities
Some haiku by Shiki Masaoka are available on the Internet. They are organised according to the seasons.
 Spring:
http://www.cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/~shiki/kim/shikispring.html
Summer:
http://www.cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/~shiki/kim/shikisummer.html
Autumn:
http://www.cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/~shiki/kim/shikiautumn.html
Winter and New Year's:
http://www.cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/~shiki/kim/shikiwinter.html
- Working in small groups, choose one of the seasons and read Shiki's haiku. For each haiku:
- Discuss and write down the words or phrases which link it to its season. (In some cases, this will be very clear but others are much less obvious.)
- Discuss the imagery and mood of each haiku and whether it seems to 'fit' its season.
Report to the whole class about your discussions, using examples from your reading.
- Make sure you have read all the Shiki haiku. In pairs, experiment with different ways of reading them and prepare two or three of your favourites for presentation to the whole class.
- As a class, brainstorm and make a class list of the seasonal words or phrases that are important where you live.
Choose one of the seasons and write at least four or five of your own haiku, in a style similar to that of Shiki Masaoka but including some of the seasonal words on your class list. Begin by trying to use the 5-7-5 syllable pattern before allowing yourself more freedom. In small groups, read and talk about your haiku and prepare one each for presentation to the whole class.
- Examine the syllable pattern of the Shiki haiku. How close are the English translations to the original 5-7-5 pattern? Re-write some of them so that they fit the original pattern exactly. Then, as a class, discuss whether the 5-7-5 syllable pattern is a useful discipline or whether it restricts the writer too much. Also refer to your own experience writing haiku in Activity 3.
- Choose one or two of your favourite Shiki haiku and write a short piece explaining the imagery and mood suggested.
- Look at the entries to the latest 'Shiki Internet Haiku Contest'
at:
http://www.cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/~shiki/contest.html
If you were judging the contest, which haiku would have won? Imagine that you have to make a speech and award the first prize. Write the speech you would make, clearly explaining the reasons for your decision. Then give your speech to the class. Discuss the variety of opinions in the class.
Access Asia | Japan | WWW Links | Bibliography | Hanabi | Student Activities
 Curriculum Corporation and the University of Melbourne
|
