Shared writing via contemporary poetry

Abstract

This article describes how some basic tenets of shared writing can be applied to a class of 16-year-old L2 speakers of English preparing for a high stakes examination in which poetry is assessed by means of the traditional critical response. It examines how by means of this technique students who have never written any poetry can develop the confidence to write their own poems. By using a poem by Gerard Woodward as an example, this article also demonstrates that creative writing helps to boost students’ engagement with the contemporary poetry they are expected to read for examination purposes.