Poetry
Term 4
Lesson 1
Pre Assess
Learning Experiences
Pre Assessment – Discuss with the students their understanding of what
is poetry. Do they recall any poems? What do they think is the purpose of
poetry? What do they understand about the following words:
Simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, imagery.
Using page 1 of Notebook, use the Smartboard pens to record any words
the students associate with the 6 labels.
Resources
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Onomatopoeia
Rhyme
Rhythm
Appendices 1-6. Laminate
and put up on the wall.
Go to page 2 of Notebook and read the introduction.
Go to page 3 of Notebook. Before reading the poem, write the following
*words onto a chart. (See resources) This is the beginning of developing a
vocabulary of words for poems. Explain what the words mean.
Read the poem, ‘The Eagle’.
Explain to the students that a simile is when we say something is like
something else, or is ‘as something ‘ as something else, eg ‘as big as an
elephant’. Re-read the poem and ask them to point out where it is in the
poem that the eagle is like something else. Discuss the poet’s choice of
‘thunderbolt’ and decide why that was such a good choice. Insert others,
eg ‘a balloon’ and talk about how that changes the imagery of the poem.
Look at Notebook pages 4, 5 and 6.
Notebook page 3, ‘The
Eagle’.
Notebook pages 4, 5 and 6.
Clasps
Azure
Ringed
*Constantly discuss the
language choices made by
the poet.
Evaluation
Week
Lesson 2
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
Review ‘what is a simile?’ Reread pages 4, 5 and 6. Point out the use of
‘gifs’, (moving images) that have been added to give real movement to the
visual quality of the poem. Complete page 7 together. Divide the class
into groups, (approx’ 5).
Read, (or ask students to read) page 8
Each group will be given a word that they have to work together to
describe using similes. Without telling the other groups what’s on their
list, they create and read their list of similes, eg, ‘I am as white as icecream, as cold as the inside of a fridge, as soft as a cloud’ etc, then each
group guesses what the similes were describing.
Show the students Notebook page 12.. Discuss how metaphors and similes
are very similar, but a metaphor doesn’t say something is like something
else, but that it is something else. “She’s a real snake, that old witch!’
Read ‘Miss Dunkencof’ on page 13. Locate the metaphors.
Innovate on the poem by changing the metaphors to things that are
attractive and sweet.
Read page 14, ‘Performance’. Locate all the similes and metaphors.
Then locate and list all the verbs and nouns. Include these on the chart
commenced in lesson 2. Eventually all these words will be categorized, in
grammatical terms, ie, verbs, adverbs, etc.
Discuss what it feels like to have to speak publicly. Ask students to
describe their feelings when having to speak in front of others.
Working in pairs, students find similes for:
My heart was beating like a …………
My tummy felt………
My knees had turned to …………
Notebook pgs 4, 5 & 6.
Write the following words
on separate little cards.
Ice
The Sun
The Moon
A kitten
An elephant
*Make up your own
.Notebook pgs 12 & 13
Notebook page 14.
Lesson 5
Brainstorm others.
Page 16- ‘Concrete Poetry’
Use this Notebook activity to create ‘concrete poems’. Print off if
possible.
Notebook activity,
“Concrete Poetry” Page 16
Lesson 6
Page 17, ‘The Tree’
Before reading the poem, explicitly teach that the technique used in this
poem is called ‘personification’. Ask students to identify the first
morpheme in the word. (Person) Explain that personification means giving
something that is not human certain human qualities.
Read the poem,’The Tree’, and identify the human qualities attributed to
the tree.
Go back and re-read ‘The Eagle’. Where is the ‘personification’ used in this
poem?
Notebook pg 17, ‘The Tree’
and page 3, ‘The Eagle’.
Activity: Appendix 6
Lesson 8
Lesson 7
Notebook page 18
Notebook, page 18. Instead of giving an animal human qualities, look at
these animals and see if you can think of anyone, either someone you
know, or a famous person, who has animal qualities. To make sure this
stays positive, the teacher needs to guide the students to find the good
qualities in these animals, eg ‘busy as a bee’, so there is no chance of
feelings being hurt. Then reverse the activity and describe the animals in
human terms. ‘The swan was a graceful as a ballerina’ etc.
Review ‘What is a noun?’ and ‘What is an adjective?’
Go to Notebook page 19 and complete the ‘Adjectives and Nouns’ activity.
Lesson 9
Go to Notebook page 20
Onomatopoeia is a word whose sound imitates the sound to which it
refers, such as ‘pop’, sizzle’ and ‘crash’. Onomatopoeia is an ancient Latin
and Greek word meaning ‘name-making’.
Notebook page 19
Notebook page 20
Notebook page 20 and 21.
Go to Notebook page 22. The lesson plans are in Appendix 7.
Notebook page 22, lesson
plans Appendix 6
Using Notebook page 23, go to the Wikipedia definition of ‘onomatopoeia’
and explore the site.
I have also included a link to
‘Comic Creator’ so that the students can storyboard and create a brief
comic that has lots of onomatopoeia.
Torrent
muskets
Galleon
casement
Claret
Breeches
Rapier love-knot
Plaiting
Moor
gagged
Sentences
Lesson 10
Lesson 11
Lesson 12
Lesson 13
See how many words can be brainstormed to describe the sound of the
wrecking ball landing on the car and the sound of the bomb exploding.
See how many words students can come up with for the sound the
mosquito makes. Add all words to the word chart.
Look also at Notebook page 21
Go to Notebook page 24 and list all the words that are examples of
onomatopoeia.
Lesson 14
Read Judith Wright’s poem, ‘The Surfer’ on page 25. See how many
examples of onomatopoeia, simile and metaphor can be found.
Lesson 16
Lesson 15
Read Mary, Mary, quite contrary . . . Discuss origin and possible hidden
meanings.
Using the Internet, have students search for other possible versions of
this and other nursery rhymes. Compare/contrast versions.
Read assortment of nursery rhymes. Determine origin and possible hidden
meaning. Compare/contrast versions.
Spend some time categorizing all the new vocab’ generated on the chart.
Find a way to list each word under headings such as verbs, adverbs, nouns,
noun groups etc.
It’s important that before you read the poem, ‘The Highwayman, you
discuss the rather antiquated language. Explain what a ‘highwayman’
is…someone like Ned Kelly, who robbed people on the road, ie ‘the
highway’.
In the resources is a list of words you’ll need to explain prior to reading
the poem.
Notebook page 29 has visual images of the listed words,
Read Notebook page 30 of the poem ‘The Highwayman’.
‘The Highwayman’
Torrent
Galleon
Claret
Breeches
Rapier
Plaiting
Moor
gagged
muskets
casement
love-knot
Assessment
Each student will select a poetry device, either one or a combination of as
many as they like. They will write a poem using the computer. They can
include as many illustrations, gifs, music, etc- whatever they think makes
their poem ‘work’. The students poetry will be published on the ‘Our
Poetry’ page of our edublog.
MEPS Edublog site:
2010mepsyear5.edublogs
.org
Appendix 1
simile
Appendix 2
metaphor
Appendix 3
personification
Appendix 4
onomatopoeia
Appendix 5
Rhyme
Appendix 6
rhythm
Appendix 7
Questions about ‘The Tree’
1. What is the definition of personification?
2. Highlight the personification in this poem.
3. Name all the human qualities given to the tree. What do these qualities tell us about the tree?
4. In groups, act out the qualities given to the tree in this poem.
5. Fill in the missing places with your own human qualities (personification).
Winter has arrived and the cold snow begins to fall. The tree feels ________ as it __________ through the
season. Spring has ________ the flowers burst with colour. The tree begins to ________ as new life begins.
Summer is here, as the heat begins to rise. The tree _________ in the sunlight as its bark goldens. Summer
has passed and Autumn has begun. The tree starts to ____________as its leaves continue to fall.
Appendix 8
The teacher will begin by saying, "Can anyone tell me what sound a bee makes?" Students will likely share
"buzz" or "bzzz." Next, the teacher will ask, "How about the sound a cow makes or a cat?" Students will
answer with meow and moo. The teacher will ask, "Did you know that in different languages, animals make
"different" sounds, (according to the people listening that is)."
Go to Notebook page 22 and open up the first website. Look at the way animals seem to make different
noises in other countries. Discuss why this may be the case.
Next, go to the ‘Giggle Poetry’ website. Tell the students about how Bruce Lansky, a poet, was also
surprised to learn that people from different countries described animal sounds differently." Say to
students, "Sometimes poetry uses words that sound like what is being described. For example, what does
rain sound like?" The teacher should pause to give students time to share, then read Bruce Lansky's poem
about rain from the Web site that begins "Drip Drop, Drip Drop." Say, "We are going to delve deeper into
these special words with an activity."
Activity 1 - Snap, Crackle, Pop - An Onomatopoeia Activity
(15 minutes) Put the students into groups and give each group a piece of A3 paper and a large texta. Say,
"Words like 'drip' and 'drop' are special in that they imitate the sound that they describe. These special
words are called onomatopoeia." Ask the students to verbally share 2 or 3 more examples to make sure
that they understand. Then say, "Now, in your groups, write down as many of these special words that
come to mind." The teacher will give the class about 5 minutes to complete their list. Then each group will
present their list to the class. Each of the lists should then be posted at the front of the room.