Unit of Study: Poetry Writing
Grade:2
Title: Unit 7
Length of Study: 2 weeks
Genre Description What is Poetry writing?
Priority Standards:
Supporting Standards:
W.2.3.1.d Write simple, descriptive poems
W.2.3.3.a.v Use adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them
depending on what is to be modified. (CCSS: L.2.1e)
W.2.3.3.a.vii Produce, expand, and rearrange complete simple and
compound sentences (e.g., The boy watched the movie; The little boy
watched the movie; The action movie was watched by the little boy). (CCSS:
L.2.1f)
W.2.3.1.c Organize ideas using pictures, graphic organizers, or story
maps
W.2.3.1.f Use a knowledge of structure and crafts of various forms of
writing gained through reading and listening to mentor
texts
W.2.3.3.a.vi Apply accurate subject-verb agreement while writing
W.2.3.3.a.viii Vary sentence beginning
W.2.3.3.a.ix Spell high-frequency words correctly
W.2.3.3.b.iv Generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words
(e.g., cage →badge; boy → boil). (CCSS: L.2.2d)
W.2.3.3.b.v Consult reference materials, including beginning
dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings. (CCSS: L.2.2e)
W.2.3.3.c With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a
topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing
W.2.3.3.d With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of
digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration
with peers. (CCSS: W.2.6)
Essential Questions: What is a poem? Does a poem have to always rhyme?
Mini Lesson Concepts/Topics
Day 1: Pre-Assessment:
If you haven’t spent much time with
poetry in your reading units you may
want to skip a formal pre-assessment
and move on to the introduction for
this unit.
If you feel comfortable that your
students have had enough exposure
to poetry to try and write, give them
Resources
Mentor Text
Unit of Study: Poetry Writing
a few options for response.
Students might write about:

Their favorite color

A pet
 Something that makes them
happy
Introducing the Unit
There are a number of different ways
to get kids excited about writing
poetry. The books in the Resources
section all have ideas about this.
A Curricular Plan for the Writing Workshop,
Grade 2 by Lucy Calkins and colleagues
From the Reading and Writing Workshop
Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages
by Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parsons
The Big Book of Classroom Poems
An Irresistable Collection of Learning
Poems on All the Topics You Teach
This is a Scholastic book by
Kathleen M. Hollenbeck
Kids’ Poems Teaching Second Graders to
Love Writing Poetry by Regie Routman
Tiger Lilies, Toadstools, and Thunderbolts
Engaging K-8 Students with Poetry by
Iris McClessan Tiedt
Immersion
A Curricular Plan for the Writing Workshop,
One way to get kids going with this
Grade 2 by Lucy Calkins and colleagues
unit is to have them read lots and lots From the Reading and Writing Workshop
of poems.
(pages 118-119)

Choral reading of a poem
 Act out poems with movements
 Partners read a poem in a
Reader’s Theater format in front
of the class

Give the same poem to
different groups to practice and
perform ; after the performance
differences in interpretations
can be discussed

Watch videos of authors reading
their poetry
Creating a Poetry Friendly Space
Once kids are ready to write, it is fun Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages
for them to see poetry as a new way
by Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parsons
to explore the world. Encourage them (page 1 of Session I)
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by
Robert Frost and Illustrated by Susan Jeffers
This book would be a nice part of the
introduction because it shows how one poem
can be important enough for its own book.
The New Kid on the Block by Jack Prelutsky
This is a great book of poems by just one
author that can show kids how much fun
writing silly poems can be.
Farmer’s Garden: Rhymes for Two
Voices by David L. Harrison
Unit of Study: Poetry Writing
to experience the world, and the
little things in it, with a sense of
wonder.
Create a classroom “museum”.
Have fun and interesting objects to
see and handle.
Try some of these: bird nests, rocks
shells, tree bark, miniatures,
interesting found objects, great
photographs
Have a place to display finished poems
for people to read. Students will love
seeing their work out in public.
First Day Discussion
Kids’ Poems Teaching Second Graders to
After a lot of poems have been
Love Writing Poetry by Regie Routman
read and or experienced by the
(p 12)
class, meet as a class to gather
information about what they
have gleaned about poetry.
Create a poster that can be added
to through the course of the unit.
Lesson Opener Each Day
Students will be writing their poems
very quickly. Opening each
lesson with some of their work will
help students see ideas that others
have been trying. If this does not
feel comfortable to begin with, use
poems from other sources.
A Tiny Topics Notebook
Students will want to keep track
of some of their poetry ideas.
One way to do this is by having
them keep a little book to jot
down their ideas. This could
be another way to start off each
Kids’ Poems Teaching Second Graders to
Love Writing Poetry by Regie Routman
(pages 40-79)
The last section of this book has student
samples. There are two copies of each poem.
The first one shows how the students wrote
their poem with all of their errors and
corrections. The second copy is their final
one, which is presented in word processed
format with a student illustration.
A Curricular Plan for the Writing Workshop,
Grade 2 by Lucy Calkins and colleagues
From the Reading and Writing Workshop
Unit of Study: Poetry Writing
day, as students share some of
their favorite saved ideas.
Coming up with a Title
This can sometimes be difficult for
students, but with poetry, students
might want to use their “seed” idea
as their title to begin with. They can
go back after their poem is written
to see if revising would make their
title better.
You might also try to read several
poems to students without giving
them the title and have them come
up with some suggestions before
sharing the author’s choice.
Focusing in on a Topic
It is often hard for students to break
the habit of adding all of those
details that they have been asked
to write in other writing forms. Their
goal is to make the reader see a
picture of the topic without long
multi-sentence descriptions.
As a group, come up with a small
topic and try writing a group poem
that captures the essence of that item
without being too wordy.
Display these posters to help students
on their journey with focusing.
The Shape of a Poem
Show students examples of paragraphs Poetry: Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages
and poems. Make comparisons
by Lucy Calkins and Stephanie Parsons
between the two forms. Be sure to
discuss the possibilities that space
can give to their pieces. The spaces
can be very meaningful in a poem.
Hailstones and Halibut Bones
by Mary O’Neill
This book is a great help in showing students
how to stick to one topic. Each poem is
about one color.
What is Gold?
Gold is a metal
Gold is a ring
Gold is a very
Beautiful thing.
The Important Book by Margaret
Wise Brown
The poems in this book focus on one
simple topic like a spoon, a daisy, the
rain, or grass.
Unit of Study: Poetry Writing
Concrete Poems
These poems are written in the shape
of the poem’s topic. (Example: A
poem about a ball could be written
in a circle shape.)
These can be a lot of fun for kids to
write and illustrate.
Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing
Instruction by Maria P. Walther and
Katherine A. Phillips (p. 138)
To Rhyme or Not to Rhyme
Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing
That is the Question!
Instruction by Maria P. Walther and
If you have spent a lot of time with
Katherine A. Phillips (pages 137 and 138)
poetry by the class and poetry by
adult authors, students may have
already had questions about rhyming.
As a class, a poem with simple rhymes
can be written. Students should be
allowed to choose whether or not
they attempt rhyming.
This discussion could also include using
repeated lines.
Similes and Metaphors
A Curricular Plan for the Writing Workshop,
Similes compare things using the
Grade 2 by Lucy Calkins and colleagues
words like or as. Metaphors state
From the Reading and Writing Workshop
the comparison without like or as.
(page 121)
Simile: Her hair was as black as
The poem “Night Story” by Beverly
night.
McLoughland is suggested as an example.
Metaphor: She was a bird who sang
The author says that the sky of stars has
sweetly.
a story to tell.
Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing
Instruction by Maria P. Walther and
Katherine A. Phillips (pages 81 and 82)
Alliteration
Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing
Alliteration is when a beginning sound Instruction by Maria P. Walther and
is repeated in several words in a
Katherine A. Phillips (p. 135)
row. These may sound like
tongue twisters. (The seven silly
sisters sat in the sand.)
Come to My Party and Other Shape
Poems (Roemer, 2004)
“Here Comes Summer” (p33)
A Light in the Attic (Silverstein, 1981)
“Today’s a Foggy Day” (p36)
A Pizza the Size of the Sun
(Prelutsky, 1996)
My Dog is as Smelly as Dirty Socks
(Piven, 2007) Use this poem with the
Lesson from Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing
Instruction
A My Name is Alice (Bayer, 1984)
Four Famished Foxes (Edwards,1995)
Unit of Study: Poetry Writing
Onomatopoeia
Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing
Words that sound like the noise they
Instruction by Maria P. Walther and
describe are fun to use.
Katherine A. Phillips (p. 135 and 136)
As a group, the class can come up with
a list of fun words that may help them
with ideas for their poems.
Achoo! Bang! Crash! The Noisy
Alphabet (MacDonald, 2003)
Phooey! (Rosenthal, 2007)
“The Fourth” (p.15) in Where
The Sidewalk Ends (Silverstein, 1981)
Common Formative Assessment Tasks: Checks for Understanding
Students can now be asked to write a poem on their own. The assessment of the poem will be based on the
specific skills that your class has covered in this short 2 week unit!