You Can't Make Mistakes.

Use it however you wish.
Try it. I dare you.

I have always loved
haiku, since the form often
distracts, entertains.

This is why I recently decided to start using it as a teaching tool in my private lessons. The hardest part about tutoring kids is that I have to distract them from worrying about learning long enough to get anything to sink in. I employed haiku last week for just this purpose while working on vocabulary with one student.

Miriam could not
remember any words, not
for lack of trying.

So, I asked her if she knew what a haiku was. She said no. I explained the form: she looked at me like I was an idiot—which is possibly true. Then I asked her to write her definitions for new vocabulary using this form.

She looked confused then,
but the light-bulbs came alight,
eventually.

After a few tries, she was coming up with amazing stuff. This week I quizzed her on the new words, and she didn’t even hesitate in telling me their meanings.

Now that is something that you can stick in your teaching methods courses and smoke it.