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A Bio Poem As a Teaching and Learning Tool
Try one out for yourself
One of the advantages of teaching at a university is to be a life-long learner. When I send out my introductory emails at the beginning of each semester, I always end my letter with — “Looking forward to learning with you this semester.”
And that’s precisely what happens each semester.
As I wrap up yet another semester before the holidays I make a list of all the things that I learned from my students. The learning is almost always incidental.
When I struggle with classroom technology, I have a student show me how to work something. I smile and say “Thank you.” I am taken back to the time I was that student helping my professor when she was transitioning from overhead slides to using PowerPoint. Ha, the circle of life!
This semester I learned about bio poems in the context of helping English Language Learners to learn and use new vocabulary.
What is a bio poem?
A bio poem is a poem about a person that follows a predictable pattern to describe them in 10–11 lines. A student can be taught to write a bio poem about themselves or they can use a literary character, historical figure, or a celebrity to write about.
