(1) Poetry Lesson 11
(2) Poetry Lesson 11
The Class Pet and If I Were in Charge from Did You See What I
Saw? Poems About School
Make a list of moods using the student input to include:
happy, sad, angry, or made, scared, guilty, etc.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m in a bad
mood”?
Poets want you to connect to a mood when you read
their work. In order to understand mood, we can ask
ourselves questions while reading.
Allow some brief responses.
We all know what that means. But did you know
that poems also have a “mood”? Poets create
their poems so we feel emotions when we read
them. What mood can you think of that we
sometimes feel? Let’s make a list. To help
create the list, complete the sentence: “I’m
feeling….”
Let’s look at some of the questions that we should ask
to find the mood of a poem.
Display the Appendix “Mood Questions.” Read
through the questions with the class.
Determining the mood and our feelings makes us
better readers because we’re able to understand the
important message that the poet wants to
communicate.
(3) Poetry Lesson 11
(4) Poetry Lesson 11
Display the poem “The Class Pet.” Read the title.
Read the poem, pausing dramatically after the first
sentence so that they can absorb what just happened.
The title of a poem can be an important clue
about the mood. What did you feel when I
read the title of this poem?
Allow student responses.
The class pet theme is a happy one, but I think
this poem is going to surprise you because it has
a different message and expresses a different
mood. While I read the poem, think about the
questions that we discussed and how the poem
makes you feel.
We can agree that the mood of this poem is
serious and sad. Some people might also have
felt peaceful because the children were saying
goodbye with a ceremony, a song, and a nice
remembrance. Let’s look at the last question
together.
Read the last question.
How did the poet create this sad and somber
mood?
(5) Poetry Lesson 11
(6) Poetry Lesson 11
Allow student answers, guiding them to the surprise of the
death, word choices, rhyme, and use of space.
Poets want their readers to feel a certain way
when they read their poems. They create a
mood by using different techniques, such as
word choice, rhyme, and even the title.
I really think you understand this poem. Let’s
look at another poem and see what mood it
expresses.
Display “If I Were in Charge.”
What do you think this poem is going to be
about? Can we determine any kind of mood
from the title?
Allow student responses, guiding them to possibly feel like
things aren’t currently the way the narrator would like them
to be. Read the poem and discuss the questions.
After reading The Class Pet, we put our
feelings into words by answering questions, which
helped us make connections between the writing
and our feelings. This allowed us to understand
the mood and feeling of the poem, giving us a
deeper understanding of the important message
and meaning that the poet is communicating.