The Haiku Moment: Seeing the World in a Grain of Sand. A Curriculum Unit for Elementary Levels. Revised.

In recent years, haiku has become a widely adopted part of the language arts, social studies, and multicultural studies curriculum, particularly at the elementary level. Haiku became popular in the 17th and 18th centuries in Japan. Haiku remains popular because these poems describe nature and human experiences, as well as being simple and short. Through inquiry, examples, and audio-visual materials, students will discover the essence of haiku and eventually apply what they learn in this unit in a final activity by writing their own haiku. This unit consists of an opening activity, plus three main activities and optional closing activities. Activities are entitled: (1) "Reading Haiku"; (2) "Characteristics of Haiku"; (3) "Visualizing Haiku"; and (4) "Writing Haiku." Three appendices conclude the unit: (1) "Teacher Introduction to Haiku Poetry"; (2) "Poems to Accompany Slides"; and (3) "Haiku Reading List." (EH)