(1) Poetry Lesson 7
(2) Poetry Lesson 7
Poetry can help us think about the world around us in
a different way or remind us of a special time in our
own lives. As readers, we must be able to understand
what the poet is trying to tell us. It is important that
when our minds start to feel fuzzy or confused, we
recognize the feeling, stop and reread.
When we start to feel that we do not understand a
Doing these three things allows us to clear our minds
and see the meaning that the poet intended. I am
going to read “Closing Sale” from the sharing the
season anthology. Before I do I want to share some
ways that will help you check your thinking if it starts
to feel unclear in your mind as you read.
poem, we need to do three things:
Recognize that feeling-Stop-Reread
using one (or more) of our monitoring
strategies.
Let’s see how I should use these strategies as I
read “Closing Sale” by Beverly McLoughland.
Display Appendix 1 “Monitoring Strategies” or make a
class chart for the students.
(3) Poetry Lesson 7
(4) Poetry Lesson 7
Read the poem aloud, and as you get to the second
stanza, slow down, feigning confusion and thinking
aloud. Using phrases like,
Let me look at the monitoring strategies to see
if I can figure out a way to reread this and
make better sense of it.
“I am confused,”
“I am not sure what the poet is saying.”
“I am not sure what this means,” etc.
These words give students the language they need to
monitor themselves as they read.
First, I’ll think about what I already understand
about the poem. I know it has something to do
with autumn because it starts with that word. I
also notice that a bunch of lines are about
things leaving or something ending
“going out of business,”
“must go, “almost gone,”
“final bargain days”
Let me read it again.
(5) Poetry Lesson 7
Show students the illustrations, pointing out what you
notice.
I notice on the left that there are lots of flowers and
bees, with one little snowflake. Yet when I look further
to the right, there is only one bee and one flower but
lots of snowflakes, so I think the illustration on the left
has more to do with warmer weather and the one on
the right has more to do with colder weather.
What do you think? Turn to someone sitting next to
you and talk about what you think this poem might
mean based upon the words we already know, and the
illustrations. Try using another strategy from our list to
help you.
(6) Poetry Lesson 7
Point out the strategies that haven’t been discussed yet.
Allow students to discuss their thoughts, monitoring their
conversations and then having some students share their
ideas along with the new monitoring strategy they used.
I think we figured it out! This poem is about the end
of closing of one season and the opening of another.
Beverly compares the “closing of a store” and packing
up the things inside to the seasons changing from fall
to winter. Using a few of our monitoring strategies,
we were able to figure out a pretty difficult poem
and feel successful as readers.
When our minds can’t clearly see the picture of what
the poet is trying to say, we must recognize that
feeling, stop and reread using our monitoring
strategies.
.