ATEQ - The Association of Teachers of English of Quebec

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Carolyn Marie Souaid - Author - April 2007

Words in Motion, workshop with Carolyn Marie Souaid

Thanks to a subsidy from The Association of Teachers of English in Quebec and the Culture in Schools Program, my young writers enjoyed “Words in Motion” workshop.

Reading and writing poetry has always been an integral part of my ELA program. However, this is the first time I asked an author to visit my classes, though surely it will not be the last. I was not sure what to expect and worried that perhaps the groups of Secondary three students Ms Souaid would be meeting would not be receptive and embrace the opportunity to meet a renowned local poet.

However Carolyn quickly allayed any students' fears of writing. She mentioned that we “listen to music and oftentimes we don't understand the lyrics but we can still appreciate the music – so we don't necessarily need to understand everything. The first step is to enjoy poetry. Ms Souaid pointed out that the poet has a limited space to say something big. In a way, the poet freezes a moment in time through interesting language and unusual imagery. The poet has a small canvas to convey his message; he must choose his words carefully and effectively, as each word has to be significant. This in itself is a challenge.

Thus began the poetry workshop with Carolyn Marie Souaid.

Activity: # 1. Write out the following list and fill in your choice next to the key word:

Color: ________________________ (e.g. purple, green etc.)

Fruit: ________________________

Job/profession: ________________________

City/town/anywhere in the world: ________________________

Animal: ________________________

An ingredient in a pizza: ________________________

After this seemingly simple task, Carolyn then asked the young writers to describe their shoe using the choices made – that's right, their shoe. Well, as expected, reactions were varied especially when the color chosen was yellow and their sneaker was white. Dauntless, Carolyn urged students to think beyond the obvious – craziness not to be avoided. You can imagine the giggles as students wrote their poems...

The following is a student poem:

Activity # 2 : Homophonic Translation – focus on language and sound.

Carolyn distributed copies of poems written in languages other than English and French. Students were then challenged to phonetically sound out the lines, then anglicizing words, irrelevant of actual meanings. Some of the phonetic translations were witty and sometimes downright nonsensical. Nevertheless, amidst chuckles, students let their imagination guide them and ultimately the aspiring poets produced pieces of writing they were proud to read to their peers, often to the amazement of all.

One student exclaimed:

"The period we spent with Carolyn Marie Souaid was an interesting one. Poetry has never really been an interest of mine, but she actually made it fun! The poems we got to create didn't have to make sense, so it made it easier to do for kids like me who aren't at all artistic. Carolyn was fun and interesting to be around and that made the period amusing and worth it. I personally wouldn't mind having another presentation like this one. I actually enjoyed it! "

Another exclaimed: "In short, Carolyn Souaid, ….has given young, potential writers a creative edge and has also made poetry a fun word game."

One student who entitled his poem My Zen Garden, wrote: "I honestly look at poetry differently…"

Howard Greenberg, ELA teacher
Heritage Regional High School

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