Poetry

[|scientist's eyes.doc]

other ideas
=**Poetry Notebooks:**= //Although we will not do this during the 2008-09 school year, in future years we will launch a poetry notebook to launch the unit and build excitement around poetry. In future years we will also be moving a lot of the identity work that we did in the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Students will be able to connect poetry - the language of the heart to their identity. This year we also realized that it was premature to launch Writer's Notebooks to students in the second grade. So towards the end of the year and at the beginning of the poetry unit students will launch a poetry notebook. They will bring in photographs and magazines from home to collage their notebooks. It might make sense to have Matt P. do this with students at the launch of the unit next year. Sample letter to families: [|poetry notebooks.doc]//

=**Ingredients of a Poem:** [|Ingredients.pdf]= //Students will learn that poetry is language from the heart. Poetry has the following elements - music, writing from the heart, looking at things through a poet's eyes. As each of these elements are taught, the teacher will put up a poster to show it. Print this PDF out at the beginning of the unit.//

=Inventory of Poems: [|poems.doc]= //This is an inventory of poems on a Word document. This document has 43 poems with links to direct your straight to the poems. This inventory has good poems that are appropriate for second graders. Poems for shared readings can be found here along with good poems to show line breaks, music, poetry from the heart, as well as looking at things through a poet's eyes in a new and unique way. Please add to this inventory!//

=Launching the Poetry Unit:= //These lessons will launch the poetry unit. It is imperative that there is a lot of excitement from the teacher to build excitement about the unit. It is important that the teacher take on the role of a poet during these units - constantly looking at things through a different and unique eye and talking about how students say certain things poetically. The KWL chart will act as a pre-assessment and as a way to get students pallets wet for poetry. 2-Day Lesson:// [|Lesson 1.doc] [|KWLPoetry.doc]

=Looking through a Poet's Eyes:= //Students will learn that poet's look at things through new eyes. In some ways it is like they look at things like an alien or a baby would - like they are looking at something for the very first time. They will read two poems, one about a pencil sharpener and one about the ceiling. They will see that the author truly looks at these things as though she is seeing them for the first time. At this time the first poster from the Ingredients of a Poem PDF should be introduced to students. 2-Day Lesson: [|L2poet's eyes.doc]//

= Poet's Eyes versus Scientists Eyes = //This lesson is a great connection to Science. Students think, write, and sketch through a scientists eyes and then through a poet's eyes. The lesson is written to talk about mealworms. This can be changed depending on what we are learning about in science. This lesson can happen during science or writing. 2-Day Lesson: [|poetsandscientists.doc]// //Sheet for students to record work://[| scientist's eyes.doc]

= Heart Mapping: = This is a two day lesson. Be sure to reveal the second ingredient of a poem today: writing from the heart. //Learning Target: I can create a heart map to show the things and memories that mean a lot to me.// [|heart mapping.doc] [|heart mapping2.doc]

Where Poetry Hides
Re-read Poetry Hides. Ask them to brainstorm other places they could find poetry. (Turn it into a class poem?) You can write your own poetry hides poem.

Wonderings Poems
Introduce a poem called "I wonder??" (p. 55 in Georgia Heard) Kids can write their own I wonder poem

Kinds of Poems Lesson
Give kids a piece of paper broken into 4 boxes Go over the above kinds of poems (where poetry hides, worries, wonderings, memories) Kids jot down words and ideas Then they can go and pick one to turn into a poem Or do 2 per day Day 1: [|kinds of poetry1.doc] Day 2: [|kinds of poetry2.doc]

Observation
go out side and write about what you hear, see, smell, and feel Make a class poem or individual poems.

=Crafting Poetry lessons=

Ordinary language versus Poetic language
Describe something (a tree, something related to science in your class?, an important person in your life?) and list "ordinary" words to describe it. Make another column and list poetic words to describe it. How can you show that the tree is tall, without saying it is tall?

Give students 2 columns and have them pick an important person, yourself, an important place, or something beautiful to describe with ordinary and poetic language

=Personification:= Read John Henry to teach the concept of personification. Take students outside to work on personifying different things in nature. worksheet: [|personification.doc]