Grammar is one of the hardest things to teach. I mean, I can explain until the cows come home, but my students don’t seem to internalise the difference between the simple past tense and past continuous tense. How can I teach it in such a way that my explanation will stick?  

Was reading “26 ways of looking at a blackberry”, in which the author rewrote a stakeholders’ report in the form of a haibun/haiku. Never mind that I didn’t know what a haibun was. Just seeing that he captured the essence of the report within the traditional 5-7-5 structure of a haiku made me realise that I could do the same.  

Decided on soccer since that’s the most popular sport among the boys in my school. Too bad if I’m alienating the girls, but some girls do play soccer as well. ⚽️ Took some tinkering but I believe I managed to come up with memorable haikus:  

Yes, I designed this Canva poster on my way to work. Gave up my snooze time. This means that I am rather excited about my concept! I am pretty confident that my haikus will empower students to learn the difference between the simple past tense and past continuous tense more vividly and permanently.  

Here’s hoping that it isn’t a case of Pride comes before a fall.