My African Praise Poem

African Praise Poem.

How do I feel about myself?

The African culture is steeped in oral tradition, and the traditional way

for Africans to introduce themselves in a new situation.

IALT write a traditional Praise Poem, to introduce myself to the class.

Success Criteria:

I will explore the subject of African praise poetry,

I will take risks, and use imagery to reveal myself in poetic form.

I will follow the structure of a typical African Praise poem.

I will perform my poem to an audience, maybe using drums.

Structure:

Line 1 -        Introducing myself.

Line 2 –           Introduction to my family and heritage.
Line 3 -        Animal metaphor
Line 4 –         Nature metaphor
Line 5 –         Personality and Qualities
Chorus -           Refrain describing my talents, co-written by my peers.

My reflection:  This was hard to write, and putting all the words together was tricky.  What helped me was doing it one line at a time, and drawing pictures to get ideas for my imagery.  Next time I might try putting in some alliteration.