Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.2.4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats,
alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
Objective: Good Readers identify and explain how alliteration adds meaning to a poem, and
demonstrate their understanding by writing their own poems.
Connection
Yesterday we talked about alliteration. Who remembers what alliteration is?
Exactly, alliteration is when the first sound in a word is repeated.
Today I want to teach you that Good Readers identify and explain how alliteration adds
meaning to a poem, and demonstrate this by writing and explaining what extra meaning
alliteration gives to poems.
Teach (Demo)
Why do you think poets use alliteration? Alliteration gives a poem rhythm. It adds
interesting details to a sentence.
Watch how I read the poem “Bleezer’s Ice Cream” by Jack Prelutsky and identify how he uses
alliteration. As I read the poem, I want you to pay attention to the repeating sounds and
how those repeating sounds supply rhythm.
Model reading. Stop at “CHECKERBERRY CHEDDAR CHEW”
Active Engagement
Think Aloud: I am noticing that the CH blend sound has been repeated 3 times! Lets try
reading the line together. How does the alliteration bring meaning to the poem?
Now it’s your turn
1. As I read the rest of the poem, give me a thumbs up when you notice alliteration.
2. Turn and talk to your partner, Where did you hear alliteration?
3. After identifying alliteration, Why do you think Jack Prelutsky decided to use alliteration?
How does reading a poem in this way make it different than reading other poems? How
does alliteration supply rhythm to the poem?
4. Lets practice using alliteration together. If we were to add another line to Jack Prelutsky’s
poem, what ice cream flavor would we choose? (Students choose flavor and write it on
board). Turn and talk to your partner about what other words we could use to make a line of
alliteration for Jack Prelutsky’s poem. How does our new line of alliteration provide rhythm
to the poem?
5. Lets practice. I want you to choose a food and practice writing a poem using alliteration
with this type of food, just like Jack Prelutsky.
Independent Practice
As students work independently, the teacher will circulate to check for understanding by
asking questions like:
Check for
Understanding
In your own words, what is alliteration? How would you describe alliteration to a friend?
How does using alliteration supply rhythm and meaning to your poem?
Share
Students will share their poems. As they are sharing, classmates are listening for alliteration
and how it supplies rhythm to the poem.
Assessment: Students complete poems using alliteration and explain the meaning alliteration
supplies to the poem.
Rationale
Using poetry to teach literacy provides students with many opportunities to
experiment with language. Specifically, teaching students about alliterations strengthens
their language skills, phonics skills, and vocabulary skills.
Student Misunderstandings
The first misunderstanding that I would anticipate is for students to confuse alliteration
and rhyming sounds. Rhyming is learning to recognize and use words that sound the same at
the end (for example, bad, mad, sad). Alliteration is the repetition of initial sounds in the
beginning of a word (for example, feel, fine, finally). Rhyme and alliteration both involve words
that share a common feature or sound. Hearing rhyme requires attention to the ending sound
in words, while alliteration requires attention to the beginning.
Another misunderstanding that I would anticipate is for students to not fully grasp that
alliteration is the repetition of a sound, not a letter. For example, the line “Kim’s cat kept
clawing her couch, creating chaos.” In this example, while K and C are different letters, they
both make the same sound. Therefore, alliteration is a tool to teach students about sounds and
differentiating between the many sounds that each letter has.