Young Writers invite your students to write a poem for Empowered and take back some control over their lives. Empowered helps your students find and use their voices to express themselves through poetry.
Being able to voice a concern, an opinion or a point of view is so important, especially when your studentsâ interaction with peers has been restricted or even removed over the last academic year, reducing their opportunities to discuss what matters to them.
There are a ton of free resources for you to download, including a handy student info guide to explain how to take part, an engaging video, 2 lesson activities as well as example poems and poetry prompt ideas to help support your young writer to write an empowering poem in any style.
If you haven't tried the Online Writing Portal yet (where your students type their work during a lesson or as homework) check it out today at www.youngwriters.co.uk/teachers/
[Rules] =>1st Prize
The Young Writers' Award of Excellence and ÂŁ100 National Book Token for your class
PLUS
The Positive Teacher Company prize bundle that includes a subject leader journal, 3 x planners and 2 x academic diaries for you!
2 x Runners-Up
Each wins a framed certificate and a selection of books
PLUS
Every participating school receives a free copy of the book their students feature in!
(Winners will be chosen from entries received in the 2021/2022 academic year.)
[Student Prizes] =>Our 5 favourite published poets will each win ÂŁ100 and a trophy!
PLUS
Every entrant receives a bookmark and we award a certificate of merit for all young writers chosen for publication.
(Winners will be chosen from entries received in the Summer Term 2022.)
[Tips] =>Ask your students to close their eyes. Tell them to imagine a bright, warm light shining on their faces.
It fills them up with power and warmth, ability and hope. Feel it soaking into their skin, down to their bones until they are filled with this warmth, this power.
Ask them to think about how it makes them feel, what thoughts are they having? Do they feel stronger, braver, happier? Is there something they feel they could tackle now that they couldnât before? Does it empower them?
After a few minutes of visualisation, get them to write down their thoughts and feelings, and they can use these to inspire their poem.
Get your students to go online and search for âempowering quotesâ. Ask them to pick one that interests them.
⢠Do they agree with it? If not why not?
⢠What does it mean to them? Do they relate to the words or not?
⢠How do/can they apply it to their own actions?
Invite your students to write a narrative poem that demonstrates the meaning of the quote and shares their views and feelings.
Ask your students to warm up for writing with a âfree writeâ. This is where they can write anything that comes to mind, it doesnât matter what itâs about, or even if it makes sense or not. The idea is just to write continuously, and see what comes out.
Set a timer for five minutes. Ask them to think for a moment about the word âEmpoweredâ and what it means to them. Then, go!
After the free write, get them to look over what theyâve written, are there any ideas or phrases that stand out that they could use for a poem? It doesnât matter if not â their brains will still be warmed up for writing a poem!
You can then use the optional poetry lesson plan to continue the activity.
Itâs time for Couple Battles!
Group your students into pairs. Give each group an issue or talking point â one side of the group should argue for it, the other against.
E.g. Social media, using nuclear power, school uniforms, animal testing
The âforâ group should write a list of pros, the âagainstâ group should write a list of cons. Next, they need to turn each point into a rhyming couplet, trying to use persuasive language to get their point across.
Once theyâve finished, get the group to read out their couplets alternately. Then get the rest of the class to vote for who they agree with at the end.
Your students can know write their poems inspired by the activity, choosing which point of view to write from!
Get your class pumped up, believing in themselves and ready to write the best poetry of their lives!
Play some inspirational music as they enter, and get them to write down what they think is their best feature or trait.
Alternatively, pair them up and get them to write one positive thing about the other person. Read them all out to boost positivity and confidence in themselves and each other.
How did it feel to hear nice things about themselves? How did it feel giving other people some positivity? Ask them to think about how they felt during this process, and harness those thoughts to turn them into empowering poems!
Come up with a list of starter words associated with empowerment including antonyms too, some examples could be: empower, strength, allow, powerful, weakness, positivity, deny, voice, speech.
Ask students to pick a word and write it down. Now they can use a thesaurus to look up that word and pick a synonym then write that one down. Now look up your synonym and so on.
You can ask them to look up as many or as few words as you like. Once they have a list of words ask them what lines of poetry they could make with them.
They donât have to use all of them if their chain has led them astray, and similarly, they can use more â this is just to get them started!
Is there another space in the school you can take your students to boost their inspiration? Writing in different surroundings can act as a catalyst for new ideas.
Take them outside if you can â does being outside give them different feelings to being inside? How does it affect their feelings of empowerment?
If you canât take it outside the classroom, can you move the furniture to create a different space? E.g. a central space to gather in, or desks in a circle?
Just a small change can generate interest and a sense of something exciting happening.
Failure is one of lifeâs many ups and downs, something everyone, yes everyone, has experienced.
Failing is part of life, one that we all have to deal with, and one that rarely gets easier. The one great thing about failing is that it makes it even easier to succeed when we try again. Moving forward positively after failure allows us to develop ourselves, our skills, and our lives.
'Keep It Simple Silly' is the theory that you donât have to overcomplicate what you are doing to make it good!
If your students are new to poetry or think theyâre rubbish at it, try the KISS theory. They donât need fancy words, really long sentences or a tricky poetic form to write a poem or convey their message to the reader.
Sometimes less is more. Simple doesnât mean easier or less of a poem! A clear message, poignant or thought-provoking or even funny, can be delivered with just as much impact.
Encourage your students to write the kind of poem that theyâd like to read⌠if they donât like reading poetry, ask them why and then... encourage them to write the kind of poem theyâd like to read!
Everyone has an opinion, and everyone is entitled to one. It's what your students do with theirs that's important and can change the world! Check out this blog that is an ideal activity to introduce poetry writing to your students: https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/blog/nurturing-opinion
[YouTube] => ewjlff08Ag0 [Opens] => 2022-04-21 [Closes] => 2022-06-10 [Extended] => 1 [Orion ID] => 577 [RR Ontraport ID] => 469 [DL Ontraport ID] => 468 [Post Class] => SS [Orion Teacher Year] => [How to Enter] => [Winners Subheading] => We're delighted to announce the winners... [Winners Intro] =>A huge thank you to everyone who entered, we loved reading every single poem we received!
Congratulations to our winners, you can read the student winners winning words below...
School Winners
1st Place - The Young Writers' Award of Excellence & ÂŁ100 National Book Token
Westcliff High School For Boys, Essex
Published in "Empowered - Beyond Words"
2 x Runners-Up - ÂŁ100 book bundle & a framed certificate
d'Overbroeck's College, Oxfordshire
Published in "Empowered 2022 - The Power Of Poetry"
Haydon Secondary School, Middlesex
Published in "Empowered 2022 - Words To Inspire"
Young Writers invite your young writer to write a poem for Empowered, and take back some control over their lives. Empowered helps your child find and use their voice to express themselves through poetry.
Being able to voice a concern, an opinion or a point of view is so important, especially when your child's interaction with peers has been restricted or even removed over the last academic year, reducing their opportunities to discuss what matters to them.
There's a handy info guide to explain how to take part, an engaging video and mood board activity as well as examples and poetry prompt ideas to help support your young writer to write an empowering poem in any style.
[Independent Rules] =>Our 5 favourite poets will each win ÂŁ100 and a trophy!
PLUS
Every entrant receives a bookmark and we award a certificate of merit for all young writers chosen for publication.
(Winners will be chosen from entries received in the Summer Term 2022.)
[Meta Title] => Empowered - National Poetry Writing Competition for 11-18 Year-Olds [Meta Description] => Empowered - Poetry Competition for 11-18 Year-Olds [Meta Keywords] => poetry competition, ks3 poetry, ks3 creative writing, ks3 free resources, poetry resources, secondary school poetry resources, empowered, spoken word, teen poetry [Share Title] => Empowered - National Poetry Writing Competition for 11-18 Year-Olds [Share Description] => Give your students purpose, passion and a platform to write a poem, a poem that makes them feel confident, gives their voice space to be heard and showcases what is important to them. [Layout] => main-comp [Icon] => https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bonacia-sites/young-writers/competitions/empowered/4906-thumbnail.jpg [Category] => Secondary 11-18 [Type] => poetry [Country] => UK [Resource Hub Text] =>
Congratulations to all the winners! The results for this competition have been published.
View WinnersOpen competitions can be found here.
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