1. Briefly explain the features of haiku--or highlight the ones students have already articulated.

• They are short: In Japanese, haiku are written vertically. In English, they are typically written as three short lines, sometimes just two. (Note: There is no set number of syllables in haiku.)
• They make a reference to nature or a season: Because they help us understand the world we live in, haiku look concretely at nature. Sometimes this reference is subtle or even personal; often it is conventional or made by association, the way that a reference to Christmas would signal winter, or a description of baseball players warming up for opening day would signal the arrival of spring.
• Haiku explore a specific moment: This "haiku moment" is one of discovery--and reflects a heightened awareness of the world and the ways in which things are connected. Thus, haiku are generally written in the present tense.
• They include specific concrete images: Haiku are not abstract. They describe the world with vivid sensory detail that "shows" a moment rather than "tells" the moment's significance to the reader.
• Haiku contain an internal comparison: Haiku almost always have two images, one on each side of a break. It is the reader's job to compare these images and intuit the relationship between them. The images the poem juxtaposes are often connected by a word or phrase that lingers long enough to refer to or influence both.

2. Give students a handout of the haiku translated and read by Robert Hass. Remind students that these are translated from Japanese.

3. Have them work alone or in groups to annotate the Issa poems and identify the features they have discussed as a class. (When identifying the contrasting images, students might insert a symbol, "#" or some other mark, to show where the images are separated.)

4. Ask students to explain in writing what makes each haiku elegant. In other words, how does the poem show the complexity of simple moments? For example, in the haiku about New Year's day, the speaker talks about feeling average in a way that draws out the tension between the individual and the world around him. Ask students to brainstorm possible implications or meanings of the haiku.

5. Prior to watching the video, ask students to identify moments in the haiku that the audience might react to.

6. After watching, ask students if the reading "fit" their interpretation.

7. Did they hear the internal comparisons within the haiku, and how the reader treated the ending of the poem a little like a punch line?

8. Where they surprised by the audience's laughter? How did the poem's humor add to their perception of the "haiku moment" described in the poem?

9. When students are familiar with the form and function of haiku, they should try to write their own. You might let students start from scratch or provide them with a first line--which ensures that the poem will have a break and a seasonal element. Here are some possibilities: "April snowstorm," "Last day of school," "Halloween night," or a variation of one of the Issa examples.

Remind students that when writing haiku:

• Make every word matter. Include few adjectives, shun needless conjunctions.
• Set your poem in the present and capture a moment intensely.
• Write about something that you can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch, then make an observation about that sensory detail.
• Try to create an inner comparison in your haiku.

10. Have students write their own "favorite" haiku on the board or share it in a small group.

• Read some modern American haiku. Sources include the Haiku Society of America and the journal Modern Haiku. Two novelists that students might have heard of in other contexts also wrote extensively in the form: Jack Kerouac and Richard Wright.
• Write a haiku--or a series of haiku--in response to one of the haiku you've read. Set your poems just before or after the original.
• Write a series of celebration poems. On New Year's Day, everyone in Japan writes a haiku, so choose a special day and commemorate it however you like. Trade with other students and write a haiku in response to someone else's haiku. This underscores the idea of haiku as gifts.