Unit of Study Poetry Writing Final

Unit of Study: Poetry Writing

Grade: 5 Title: Unit 7

Genre Description: What is poetry?

Priority Standards:

Write poems using

 poetic techniques (alliteration, onomatopoeia);

 figurative language (simile, metaphor); and

 graphic elements (capital letters, line length)

Essential Questions:

Length of Study: 3 weeks

Supporting Standards:

Mini Lesson Concepts/Topics Resources Mentor Text

WHAT IS A POEM? WHO IS A POET?

What are the Qualities and Characteristics of

Poetry

Elicit from your students their definitions of poetry and record them on a class chart

Mini-Lesson

1. Begin by asking students, What do you already

know about poetry? Have students work in partnerships reading poetry together. Students can then discuss what they’re noticing about the poems, how they feel about them, etc.

Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out. by Ralph Fletcher,

All the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie

Worth

Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard

Climb Inside a Poem: Reading and Writing Poetry

Across the Year. Georgia Heard and Lester Laminack.

The Place My Words Are Looking For by Paul B.

Janesczko

Neighborhood Odes

Pizza, Pigs and Poetry by Jack

Prelutsky

Reflections of a Watermelon Pickle, edited by Stephen Dunning, Edward

Lueders and Hugh Smith.

Come on Rain by Karen Hesse,

City Dog by Karla Kuskin

Harlem: A Poem by Walter Dean Myers

Love that Dog by Sharon Creech;

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse;

Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson http://www.trenton.k12.nj.us/Robbins/Writing5/W riting-5th-Mar-Date%209-2-11.pdf

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What do you notice that the writer/poet has done?”

With the children begin to name what they notice about the genre of poetry.

As the children begin to name what they’ve discovered, chart the discovery on chart paper.

Try to help them name their discoveries in more specific language. (Sample

Chart) Focus on imagery, connections/topics, tools (figurative language: hyperbole, metaphor, and simile) and words poets use.

Distribute copies of the “Poetry Pass” graphic organizer and examples of two poems. Place the graphic organizer on the overhead and do a thinkaloud to model what information goes in each column, using a copied poem as an example.

Explain a scan is a brief look at a piece of literature without actually reading all the way through it, and a snippet is a piece or sample. Therefore, the

“Scan, Snippet” column is a place for writing poem-specific noticings, such as titles catching your attention, line lengths, poem shape, or interesting words. Write an appropriate snippet example in the column, based on the poem you chose for an example (see the chart at the end of this lesson for an example using “Packing” by Jane

Medina).

The “Comments” column can include things, such as how the poem makes you think or feel, if you are interested in spending more time with the poem or book, or poems you did not like.

Make chart:

What Is Poetry?

• Has line breaks

• Creates images in readers’ minds

• Creates emotion

• Is generally short pieces of writing

• Uses powerful language

• Uses figurative language such as similes and metaphors

• Uses random indentions

• Has different line lengths

• Songs are poems paired with music

What is True About Poetry?

 Some poems contain strong rhythm

 Some poems contain repeated words or phrases

 Poems don’t have to rhyme

 Looks different from writing in other genres

 Poets use descriptive words

 Some poems contain strong imagery

 Sometimes they have titles

 Some poems have unusual shapes

Poetry Vocabulary:

Concrete Poetry – Poetry that represents meaning not only by the way the words sound but how they look. The print of the poem itself takes shape as a collage or picture that conveys meaning.

Rhyme Scheme – A pattern of rhyme found within the lines of a poem.

Internal Rhyme – Rhyming words are found within the lines of the poem, instead of at the ends of the lines.

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Poetry vs Prose

Read aloud the poem you chose so students experience the words’ sound and rhythm. Tell them they will use what they noticed yesterday and their prior knowledge of poetry to record similarities and differences between poetry and prose.

Distribute and take a minute or two to study poetry and prose samples with the class,

After the reading, ask them to think how this poem compares to prose. Allow students to

“Turn and Talk” to partners about their ideas.

Begin a “Comparing and Contrasting Poetry and

Prose” graphic organizer on chart paper.

Fill in the “Comparing and Contrasting Poetry and Prose” graphic organizer with ideas gathered from the poem and the overhead example of prose.

For example, you might say “I noticed poetry has different line lengths, but in prose, the lines go until the end of the page.” Then write those ideas on the organizer.

Rhythm - The regular repetition of syllables, also described as the musical quality of a poem.

Personification – When writers give human characteristics to animals or other objects

Alliteration – A repetition of consonant sounds, such as “the smooth, skaterly glide and sudden

swerve.”

Onomatopoeia – When a word sounds like the action it describes

Imagery – Writers use words to help the reader see

Comparing and Contrasting Poetry and Prose

Poetry

Point out how both poetry and prose

“create imagery” or

Both

Have similes

Prose

Lines go to the end of the page

“paint a picture in readers’ minds” and touch readers’ emotions. Point out poetry just accomplishes it with less, yet more powerful language and word choice.

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Line Breaks and White Space

Looking at the class chart “What Is Poetry?” point out how students already realize that white space and line breaks are essential poetry elements. Tell them line breaks and white spaces are as basic to poems as paragraphs are to prose. Discuss how many poems are arranged in lines and how poets decide on line lengths.

Today we look deeper at the power of line breaks and white space. Remind students what they learn today will help them become better poetry writers.

With the poem’s words in original order, direct

Guide for Reading Poetry

• Read it all the way through without stopping.

• During the second or third reading, stop and students’ attention to the poem in the pocket chart.

Ask volunteers to read the poem aloud, thinking of possible meaning and rhythms they hear. Then, with the poem’s words remaining in original order, ask for student input on rearranging the line breaks.

Ask volunteers to read the poem again with the ask yourself, “What is this poem about?”

• Read with expression.

• Pause slightly at the end of lines.

• Pause at the white space.

• Read it aloud at least once.

• Look and listen for powerful and interesting words or language.

• Pay attention to the sound of the words.

• Read at a natural pace, not too fast and not too slow. meaning.

Repeat the process with new line breaks, then read and discuss how the new line breaks affected the poem. Finally, show students the poet’s version of the poem and read aloud. Talk about how poets decide line lengths to influence meaning and

sounds.

"Poets know how to turn prose into poetry," you might say, showing them that they can discover rhythm in the sentences they've jotted by breaking them up. For example, you may put one of the blurbs you wrote up on chart paper or document camera and read it aloud:

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I was running in the park with my friends, and we were all running together at first. But because I had allergies, I had trouble keeping up with them. Soon I was all by myself, watching my friends run farther away from me. I felt so weak and alone.

"This is not a poem," you'll tell kids. "But, I can find the rhythm in these words and convert it

into a poem. I can do this by breaking this prose into lines. When I take a sentence and break it into lines, poets call those places 'line breaks.' I can mark the spots with a little slash. I know from the poems I looked at that sometimes lines breaks happen at end punctuation, sometimes they happen at important words, and sometimes they just happen when it would sound good to pause. I'm going to add a few and then ask you and your partner to help me." You might turn back to the chart and begin adding, all the while thinking out loud: “I was running in the park...” that sounds like a good line, I’ll break there.”

I was running in the park/ with my friends,/ and we were all running together at first./

But because I had allergies,/ I had trouble keeping up with them.

Noticing how poets often do not write out full and complete sentences, but eliminate extra words and get right to the important stuff.

Instead of: I was running in the park with my friends.

Try: Running in the park with friends. teach your kids how considering the syllables in lines gives poets more control over the reader’s pacing. In your model poem, you

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Unit of Study: Poetry Writing might show how more syllables in a line can give a breathless, fast-paced feeling, so you might choose that for a line that has a lot of action, or where there is a rushed feeling:

I was running through the park with all my friends, all of us together, running fast.

But you might add more frequent line breaks, and end up with shorter lines with fewer syllables, in a part of the poem that is quieter, or where you want the reader to go slower:

My breathing got harder and

I started to fall behind.

Soon I was alone.

Line Breaks: Sound and Silence

Mini-Lesson

It is the tension between sound and silence that makes a poem. It is both the words-the voices on the page-as well as the silence between words that poets work with when we write poetry. It is the line and where it is broken that helps make the music and rhythm of a poem. William Carlos wrote these lines in his poem “To a Poor Old Woman.”

Listen how changing the line-breaks emphasize words and changes.

1. Choose a poem to look at it noticing the line breaks. “Why are they where they are?” Emphasize that this is the author’s decision. Talk about how the poem might be different (appearance, meaning, emphasis, how you read it aloud) if the line breaks were different. Try rewriting it (consider putting the words on a sentence strip and cut apart to manipulate) and reading it aloud with the same

A poem with interesting line breaks – William Carlos

Williams’s poem, “This is just to say” – is a good example or To a Poor Old Woman .

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Unit of Study: Poetry Writing words but different line breaks suggested by the students. See what happened to the sound, meaning, and appearance.

2. It is the line and where it is broken that helps make the music and rhythm of a poem. Generally, the longer the line, the more like natural speech it will sound. Refer to Line Break Chart.

3. Divide the following sentences in three different ways. How does the meaning of the sentence change depending on where they are broken?

Which words are emphasized in each version?

She loved the sound of the wind in the trees.

Independent Work

4. Teacher conferences looking for evidence of experimenting with line breaks.

Read back different versions to students, letting them listen to what sounds better/creates the image or tone they want.

Share

5. Specific examples of revision with line breaks:

Before, I wrote it this way

After I revised it…

Challenge children to explain their revisions- I like the way it sounds when I...

Extending the Lesson

Write out poems with no line breaks, then working in small groups or pairs students practice different line breaks with the poems. Compare to original poems

Students practice different line breaks with a finished poem of their own.

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Use of Punctuation urge them to play with punctuation. They might refer to inquiry charts on punctuation. You will want students to challenge one another on the true meaning of their poems. If they want the mood of the poem to be sad they might decide that it is best to have fewer exclamation points

(Saying, for example: "Exclamation points make everything sound upbeat and exciting...they won’t fit here...") and more periods and perhaps a dash to show long pauses. Students might plan to use commas to break apart a list of things or to add more detail-supplying words to their lines:

The bright, yellow leaf died as it drifted, softly, quietly to the ground.

Use of White Space

Mini-lesson

1. Discuss how some poets use punctuation in poetry just like any other genre (show example) but that many poets use white space in the same way other kinds of writers use punctuation.

White space can serve the same function that punctuation marks do.

2. Look at poems together and think about the way the poet used white space or conventional punctuation to help the reader read and understand it. Be sure to show poems that show conventional punctuation and poems that use white space instead.

Independent Work

3. Ask students to go back and edit their poems, thinking about punctuation if they are using it and white space.

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White Space Considerations

Have you used line breaks to inform the reader when it is time to pause?

Have you skipped lines to get the reader to stop for a longer beat?

Have you used white space to highlight or make a word or group of words stand out?

Share

4. Students share their thinking about their choices for use of white space. (“I wanted the reader to pause or stop or say this word slowly”)


Students reread, thinking about adding an illustration. As illustrators, you can be very literal and sketch a line or image taken directly from your poem. Or you can choose to be more imaginative and create an illustration that may surprise your reader.

Brainstorm/model different ways to publish.

Reference mentor poems. Think about paper choice, borders, illustrations etc.

Have a variety of materials ready.

Endings and Beginnings:

Mini-Lesson

1. How do poets open and close the door of a poem?

Titles are not just labels slapped on top of the poem. Titles can add another dimension to a poem, act as the first line, or surprise the reader.

2. Many times the ending is a repeat of the first line, some begin and end with a bang, a surprising image or metaphor or an emotional statement.

3. Copy the poems for students or enlarge for them to see during the lesson.

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Read several poems, noticing how they begin and end. How do the titles contribute to the meaning of the poems?

Independent Work

4. Students work on their own poems, rereading, thinking carefully about how to open and close their poems.

Using Mentor Text - “I want to write a poem like that”

Mini-Lesson

1. Explain what a mentor text is.

2. Model the process of choosing mentor poems.

3. With the students, create a list of the qualities of a good mentor poem.

Independent Work

4. How will students access their mentor/chosen poems?

Students can mark or copy.

(T can make a copy or students can copy into poetry notebook)

T conferences with students, guiding them in choosing a mentor text (“I want to write a poem like that.”)

Imagery-Making Pictures

Ask students to copy the double-entry journal into their response notebooks on a fresh page. Direct them to read poems softly to themselves, the first time to hear sounds and rhythms, the second to tune in to mental pictures of what is happening, and a third time to deepen their understanding.

After they read poems three times, they should refer to the double-entry journal copied in their notebooks and record their thinking.

Imagery is a tool authors use to paint mental

Qualities of a Mentor Poem

You Love It

It touches you in a special way

You can read it fluently

You understand what the poet was trying to get you to understand

You can discuss it intelligently

The poem demonstrates qualities of good poetry and you can learn from it for your own poetry

Double-Entry Journal—

Inferring What did you picture in your mind as

you heard the poem?

What lines in the poem made you think

that?

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Unit of Study: Poetry Writing pictures in readers’ minds. Authors use carefully crafted words and phrases to awaken our five senses.

Display the quote, “A poet can use an image to create a mental picture of what something is or what something is not.” Students look at a poem closely to see how the writer creates images, which helps better understand poems we read and write better poems ourselves.

Talk with students about how poets always consider words they use very carefully. Read your chosen poem aloud twice, asking them to pay special attention to images the poem creates. After the second reading, discuss images the poem created.

On the overhead, highlight words and/or phrases that paint pictures in their minds. Talk about how the poem would not have the same effect if the poet chose everyday words and phrases.

Verbs: The Engines of Sentences

Mini-Lesson

Display the following sentences

She was doing something to the garden.

She was watering the garden.

She watered the garden

In the first sentence the verbs are passive, and the power of the verb-engine is muffled. The second sentence has slightly more energy because

watering is more precise than. But in the third sentence, we can feel the energy of the verb pulling the sentence forward.

Crafting

Images

Poem

Image Purpose

Figurative

Language

Location of

Image(s)

in Poem

“Weeding

With Dad”

The garden is a prison

To help us understand how he feels about weeding

Metaphor Last line

Wondrous Words by Katie Wood Ray.

I Can Write Like That by

Hurricanes

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She was doing something to the garden.

She was watering the garden.

She watered the garden.

2. Of the list of these verbs-cut, sing, act, play, make,

are, have, were-which ones give a more vivid picture in your mind?

Which verbs have more energy? Which is the engine of a fast car/ a slow car? List under fast car or slow car verbs on a chart.

Fast Car Verbs Slow Car Verbs 2. Read Hurricanes or another poem with descriptive verbs

The verbs in the poem are part of what paints such a vivid picture of the images. Review the definition of a verb (if needed) and then have students underline or highlight all of the verbs in the poem

(chases, flattens, boil, roll, roil, dart, peer, paces, dashes, races, splatter, leaps, rushing).

Ask, “What images do these verbs bring to your mind? Guide students to discuss the quick action that is evoked by almost all of them. Have volunteers act out some of the verbs.

Ordinary to Poetic-

Mini-Lesson

Exploring how poets write ordinary things in extraordinary ways.

1. One of the things that poetry does is that it helps us look at the world in a new way and describe it like no one has before.

Today, we’re going to write a poem together that

tries to do just that. Choose one interesting object to look at-either out the window or in the classroom.

Ordinary -Green Tall

Poetic - Trees are as green as limes, Majestic giants

She was doing something to the garden.

She was watering the garden.

She watered the garden

List under fast car or slow car verbs on a chart.

Fast Car Verbs Slow Car Verbs

Trees

Ordinary

Green , Tall

Poetic

As green as limes

Majestic giants

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2. Under Ordinary describe the object using the first words that come into your mind. Then under poetic transform these descriptions into poetry by using metaphor and simile or describing its exact details. Poets often begin their poems with

ordinary words.

(Write their words under Ordinary on the chart.)

Then poets reread and sometimes realize they have to go back and re-see, looking through a poet’s eyes.

3. Ask students to look more closely at the (tree.)

Ask leading questions. “What kind of green is it?”

“How old is it?” Write down their “poetic responses on the chart. Compare the two versions. Why does the poetic side sound and feel more like poetry?

Independent Work

4. Students continue writing/revising their poems, revising from “ordinary to poetic

5. Continue to name what students are doing

Idea Development -From Ordinary to

Extraordinary

Poetry is about recognizing and paying attention to our inner lives-our memories, hopes, doubts, questions, fears, joys and the image is the hook we find to hang the poem on.

Mini-Lesson

Six-Room-Poem -T Models/thinks aloud each

“room” with own ideas then give students opportunity to try it, one room at a time. Students divide a paper into 6 parts/boxes

Room number one: think of something that you’ve seen outside that is amazing beautiful, interesting, or that has just stayed in your mind. Close your

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Unit of Study: Poetry Writing eyes and try and see it as clearly as a photo-notice all the details-and describe it as accurately as possible. Don’t try to write a poem, just describe it and write description in the first box

Room number two: look at the same image as in the first room, but just focus on the quality of light.

Example: Is the sun bright? Can describe colors, stars etc.

Room number three: picture the same image and focus only on the sounds: Are there any voices?

Sound of rain?

Room number four: write down any questions you have about the image. Anything you want to know more about? Or wonder about?

Room number five: write down any feelings you have about this same image.

Room number six: look over the five rooms and select one word, or a few words, a phrase, a line, or a sentence that feels important and repeat it three times.

Independent Work

2. Students continue working to try and complete their six-room-image poems, then try to create a poem from the “rooms”. Refer back to their mentor poems.

T conferences one-on-one, scaffolding student’s thinking, working with the language.

Suggestions for writing in additional rooms are:

Think of three different similes or metaphors to describe the image.

Describe any smells-earthy, sweet, damp.

Describe what the image might feel like if you

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Unit of Study: Poetry Writing touched it. Use your imagination and make it up if your images are something like the moon or the night sky.

Describe what your image would taste like.

Onomatopoeia – When a word sounds like the action it describes. Ask students to share words from the poem that they think are examples of onomatopoeia (plink, crash, splatter, splash).

Personification

Mini-Lesson

1. Explain how writers use tools that that help take something ordinary and make it extraordinary.

One of them is called personification. This word means to give people or human qualities to something that is not human.

2. Model with examples from the mentor text. Read the poem and model where the poet gave the object “people like” qualities. List these qualities on a chart with examples. (Refer to suggestions for mentor text under Personification.)

Independent Work

3. Students work on their own poems, rereading, thinking carefully about their word choice, trying personification in their poem. T conferences with students one-on-one.


Go on a “personification” walk. Write down five things you notice-i.e., clouds, sky, leaves, grass, wind, and so on. Choose one and make a list of at least five ways your subject seems human or animal-like. Ex.: Trees=Giant hands reaching toward the sky.

Power Points

FigurativeLanguage ALL.ppt

Figurative Language 4th 5th.ppt

figurative language practice game.ppt

e puzzler-figurative_language[1].doc

Hyperbole cards for partner or center work hyperbole (1).doc

Simile Cards for partner or center work metaphor (1).doc

Personification cards for partner or center work personification cards.doc

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Revision

1. Today I will ask you to reread the poems you written over the last few weeks and pick one or two you would like to prepare for publication. After you have chosen your poem(s), we are going to revise our poems. This gives us a chance to re-see our poetry, making sure we have done our best.

2. Go over revision tips chart

1. Revision may be as small as a single word change.

2. Revisions may be dramatic.

3. Add words or take out words or lines that aren’t working,

4. Save all the drafts.

5. Give yourself at least an hour away from a piece of writing between drafting and revision

6. READ YOUR WORK OUT LOUD. The best writers do this.

3. Use a poem of your own and revise it in front of your students. Refer back to previous lessons/lesson charts.

Independent Work

4. Students begin choosing their poems and preparing them for publication. Conference: Why do think this would make a good poem to prepare for publication?

Do you have any ideas about who you could publish this for? Name one thing about this poem that makes you feel proud.

After students have chosen their poems, they can begin revising. Conference questions:

What lines really work?

What lines are kind of flat?

Is there a place where you might add words?

Are there any unnecessary lines or words?

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Poetry Study Centers :

Poetry writing workshop can be enhanced by providing students with a variety of ways to interact with poetry.

Georgia Heard describes ten centers where students can independently explore poetry

Amazing Language Center (page 8 in Awakening the

Heart) :

The purpose of this center is to foster awareness, an appreciation, and a love of words – both their meaning and their sound. It is a place where students will learn that poetry can be found almost anywhere – not just in poetry books. A bulletin board labeled Amazing

Language could be the beginning of this center – a place where students post amazing, beautiful, interesting, vivid words and sentences collected from stories, poems, and spoken words heard around the classroom. Tell the students to listen for words that make a picture in their mind; are an unusual or surprising way of expressing something; give a strong feeling; or evoke a memory.

Treasure Hunt for Poetry Gather several books that you‟ve already read aloud to your students or that they are familiar with, not necessarily poetry books. Have a chart ready or cut bookmark-size cardstock/sentence strips for students to write down their collected words and lines.

Directions to Students:

Sit with a partner and treasure hunt for poetic lines or words in these picture and nonfiction books you’ve already read. Write them down on a piece of paper.

Next, choose one line from your selection, write and illustrate it on a bookmark – be sure to include the title and author of the book .

Illustration Center (page 13 in Awakening the Heart) :

Many poems contain images – words that give us pictures in our minds. The purpose of this center is to help students become aware of these internal mind

Awakening the Heart by Georgia Heard

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Unit of Study: Poetry Writing pictures. Select three or four poems that contain images

(such as “Weather” by Marchette Chute), and place them in folders. Have blank white paper, colored markers and pencils, and watercolors available for students to illustrate with.

Directions for students:

Choose a poem from the folder. Does the poem create a picture or pictures in your mind? Illustrate the image you see, or, if you see several images divide the poem up and create a picture book. Either you can create your own picture book or each person in your group can illustrate one page of a group picture book.

Performance Center (page 13 in Awakening the Heart):

This center makes poetry come alive by performance.

You can include simple props such as paper-plate masks and fabric for students to use when they‟re performing poems. Students can choral read, act out, dance or sign a poem.


Choose one of the poems in this basket. You can dance the poem, choral read it, or act it out. Practice your performance for the rest of the class .

Poetry Reading Center (page 15 in Awakening the

Heart):

Collect a variety of poetry books in a basket or bin.

Choose books that the children know well as books or that they might not know or select on their own. Create a basket of books by one poet, or books about a certain theme like nature or deep feelings. Place a card at the back of the books for students to write comments and recommendations to their fellow poets on.


Choose a poetry book, make yourself comfortable, and read. If you love a certain word, line, or poem, you can write it down in your reading notebook and save it for later. At the back of the book, write any comments you

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Unit of Study: Poetry Writing may have about it or particular poem to share with the other poets in the class who might choose this same book .

Discovery Center (page 12 in Awakening the Heart):

Poets are like scientists, and many poems are sparked by observations. The discovery center uses this important tool to fuse science and poetry. In this center, students become close observers of the small, ordinary, and fascinating objects in nature and the world around us.

Bring in some interesting objects from nature such as a nest, shells, or interesting plants, and invite students to do so as well. Place these items on a shelf or a table to make a discovery center. Find poems, or ask your students to find poems, that have observations as their source, and display them around the center as examples.

(You can find ample observation poems in All the Small

Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth). You can place an observation journal on the table for your students to record what they notice, or they can write in their reading notebooks.


Choose one of the natural objects from the table. Take it to your desk and make several sketches. As you’re sketching, write down the details you’re noticing as well as any other thoughts – what it looks like or reminds you of – or questions you have. After you’ve finished observing, try to create a poem from your notes. Read examples of observation poems in the basket for inspiration. Or divide a piece of paper into four boxes.

Using the following headings, describe the object you’ve chosen:



Describe what it looks like.

 Describe what it feels like.



Compare it to something else.

 Write down questions.

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Poetry Editorial Center (page 15 in Awakening the

Heart):

Poetry can be sparked not only by nature and memories from our personal lives, but also by what‟s happening in the world around us. In preparation for this center, ask students to bring in newspaper clippings or written thoughts about events and ideas they‟re concerned about in the world. After discussing the articles and concerns, post them on the News Bulletin Board and leave space for poems.


Reread some of the newspaper articles that we’ve collected and discussed. Choose one of the articles that interests you and write down any feelings, questions, or thoughts you have. Create a poem from these reflections to display as an editorial.

Revision Center (page 14 in Awakening the Heart):

In this center students will have the opportunity to experiment with revisions such as rearranging linebreaks, cutting out excess words, and condensing a poem. Select a poem and rewrite it as a paragraph.


Read the poem on the chart. I’ve added and changed endings on words, changed line-breaks, and made it look and sound like a paragraph in a story. Revise the poem as if it were your own – cut out extra words or endings and rearrange the line-breaks. Make two revised versions, and then look at the original.

An example of a poem Georgia Heard used is “Red” by

Lilian Moore:

(Story version)

I was standing at my window and all day I saw across the way, on someone’s windowsill, a geranium which looked like it was glowing red bright – it looked like a tiny traffic light faraway.

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(Original version)

Red

All day across the way on someone‟s sill a geranium glows red bright like a tiny faraway traffic light.

Poetry Window and Observation Center (page 12 in

Awakening the Heart):

Outline part of the classroom window – to be used as the

“poetry window” – with crepe paper or some other material. Display observation poems about the outside world – sky, trees, the parking lot, cars – around the window or in a basket as examples. [Valerie Worth‟s All the Small Poems and Fourteen More and Flicker Flash by Joan Bransfield Graham are wonderful resources.]

Have clipboards and paper ready for students to write their observations.


Look out the window and write a list of five things you see outside. Now choose the most interesting thing from your list, and describe it. Write a poem using your description. You can read the other poems in the basket or around the window for inspiration.

Music Center (page 13 in Awakening the Heart)

Music and poetry are two threads from the same cloth.

Select a favorite poem and write it on a large piece of paper. Gather a few musical instruments such as a triangle, wind chime, rainstick, or small drum. (To listen to an example of how a poet uses a musical instrument to bring his poem to life, listen to poet Brian Moses perform his poem, “Walking with my Iguana”

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Read the poem on the chart and explore how the words sound (long, short, smooth, bumpy). For example, a word like “ice” is smooth because it glides across your tongue, a word like “hippopotamus” is bumpy because of the many syllables,” and a word like “kite” is sharp because the consonants are sharp. Add some movement to the words (this will usually center around the verbs).

Find an instrument whose sound expresses or matches the word or words you’ve chosen. For example, for the words “sparkling stars” choose an instrument that sounds “sparkly” to accompany the words. Read the poem, playing the instruments with the selected words.

Then read the poem again, and don’t speak the selected words, only play them.

Common Formative Assessment Tasks: Checks for Understanding

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Unit of Study Poetry Writing Final

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Unit of Study Poetry Writing Final

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