Unit: Poetry

Teaching Points

 

 

 

notes from 2011:  

     more really good poems

     more students share the poems they're finding

     more on student interest groups

     more time for choice/talk back response at end of unit

     more of form and craft in last 1/3 (patterns and structures)

     more strong writing lessons (activities?)

 

 

 

 

Bend I:  Our Poetry

 

 

What is Poetry?

 

Poetry can be so hard to define.  It's a little like love.  Poetry means

so many different things to so many different people.  What is poetry

to you?  (Student Inquiry)

 

Definitions and Quotations (DOC)

 

 

 

We all love music!

 

My Favorite Songs

Favorite Student Songs

 

 

 

We all love poetry!

 

We all love poetry!  There are poems in all different styles and voices

and forms on all different kinds of issues and topics and ideas.  Strong

readers and writers learn to love the kinds of poetry they can love.

 

My Favorite Poems

My Favoritest Poem

Favorite Student Poems

 

 

 

Poetry, Poetry, Everywhere!

 

There is poetry in everything!  flakdf alkf akldf klasd adflk asdklf 

 

 

 

First Responders:  We read from the heart.

 

Strong readers have natural interests and preferences.  We pay

attention to our first reaction and response to help find poems

and ideas that we connect to.

 

 

Poem: Poetry is Like Bread

Poem: Mess of Poems

 

 

 

We write from the heart, too.

 

We have so many identities: we speak and act and think different

things in different ways at different times.  Strong writers write

honestly from the inside - who we are, who we've been, who we

want to be.

 

• Our interests
• Our ideas
• Our emotions  

 

 

Activity: Poetry Seeds

Poem: Meta-Poem

 

 

Exploring Poetry  (MFPP)

 

Strong readers read a wide variety of texts.  We try out new styles

and new stories and poems to learn and grow.  As we read new

texts, we challenge and revise and develop our ideas and interests

and connections. 

 

Think:  What do you love now?

Think:  What can you love next?

 

 

 

Strong readers learn to develop and revise their reading and writing voice.

They learn to write more of what they like to read.  and they're always 

learning to like more of what they read.  Or learn from more of what they 

don't.

 

Poem: 140 Syllables

Poem: Friend Favorites + Online Search

 

 

 

All Your Different Selves

 

Strong writers write themselves.  We write about all different things for

all different reasons in all different ways,  The strongest poets all write

poetry in different forms and different styles with different craft.  And

that's a good thing!

 

(We say what we want to say in the way that we want to say it.)

 

 

 

thinking about intention and revision.  being aware of your choices and being aware of how to make it better.

 

 

 

 

Bend II:  Growing with Poetry

 

 

 

Exploring Poetry II

 

Strong readers always try to expand their reading and writing ideas

and preferences.  One way readers learn about new genres and styles

is from friends.  We give recommendations and suggestions to other

readers who may have similar interests or tastes.  (interest groups)

 

Poem: Student Favorite

Poem: Mess of Poems (Students I)

 

 

Inside / Out

 

Reading is a transaction.  The strongest writers know that

writing is a transaction, also.  Poetry comes from the inside,

but it lives on the outside.  Strong writers develop poems to

say the very things they want to say.

 

What do you want to say?

 

(Poems come from the inside. . . but they live outside.)

 

 

 

Exploring Poetry III

 

Readers always respond honestly to the poetry they read.  We

read and we love or we hate what we do.  However, really strong

readers build off their first response into into larger ideas in our

life and the world.

 

• We say, What does the poem make you think about?
• The poem makes me think about . . . 

 

 

Poem: Slam Poem

Poem: Mess of Poems II

 

 

 

Intention: Choices that matter

 

Strong writers craft poems with intention: what ideas do you want

your readers think about?  Poets use craft, language, and structure

to emphasize interesting ideas or topics. 

 

     How does the way we write a poem affect the way a reader

     reads a poem?

 

Poem: Found Poem

 

 

 

Exploring Poetry IV

 

Strong readers ask questions to help process and complicate and

investigate poems.  We think deeply about the possible ideas inside

our first ideas.

 

 

Poem: My Papa's Waltz

 

 

 

 

Bend III:  Deepening Poetry

 

 

 

Mentor Poetry: Inspired Writing I

 

Strong writers love to read!   It's true!  Sometimes we learn new

styles and craft and technique in the genre.  Poems we love start

us thinking in ways we want to write.

 

• ideas
• forms
• structures
• styles
• words

 

Poem: XXXXX (Sentence Composing)

 

Exploring Poetry V

 

Strong readers use text features and conventions to uncover or

detail interesting and important ideas.  We use these features to

help develop and explore and support issues or ideas we are

thinking about.

 

Poem: may i feel

 

 

 

Mentor Poetry: Inspired Writing II

 

Poetry is a conversation.  Our poetry stretches back thousands of

years, and our reading and writing joins the conversation.  Strong

writers sometimes talk back to other poems . . . with poems!

 

• Update
• Emulate
• Lift-a-Line

 

 

 

 

 

Bend IV:  Elements of Poetry

 

 

The Speaker (Inspired Writing III)

 

Strong writers use the basic elements of poetry to help craft interesting

and meaningful poems.  The speaker is the poem narrator.  Poets often

write poems from their own personal ideas and memories; however,

they also choose to write poems from different perspectives and

personalities.

 

Activity:  Ekphrastic Poetry (USA Character Project)

 

 

 

Exploring Poetry VI

 

Strong readers have a clear sense of reading genres and styles

that they like and enjoy.  However, we always try to grow and

expand our preferences to help learn about new styles and new

ideas and new techniques. 

 

One way readers do this is by using their current preferences to

help choose new genres and styles they might like.

 

• Topics
• Genre
• Form
• Structure

 

 

 

Reading: Elements of Poetry I

 

Poets use craft, form, and structure to help emphasize ideas

or meaning.  Imagery, sound, and form help readers to explore

ideas and issues in the text.

 

• Form (Pattern, Verse, Stanza)
• Sound (Diction, Rhythm, Rhyme, and Meter)
• Imagery (Metaphor, Simile, Symbol, Repetition)

 

 

 

Exploring Poetry VII

 

Strong readers respond to all different poems in all different ways.

We know that some poems inspire us to write!  Other poems might

inspire us to create art or music or prose.

 

Activity: Choice Response (Art, Music, Talk Back Poems)

 

 

Writing: Elements of Poetry II

 

Poets use a variety of craft to help structure their writing.  Poetry

includes a wide range of forms organized by verse (lines), meter

(syllable stress), and rhyme (scheme or pattern).  Writers always

make choices to include or adapt or even reject poetic forms.

 

 

Intention II:  Craft - Reading Forms

 

Poets use a wide variety of forms to organize their writing ideas.

Forms include historical conventions, as well as original modern

styles.  Poem forms are part trick and part treat.

 

• Verse
• Meter
• Rhyme

 

 

 

 

 

Bend V:  Elements of Poetry II

 

 

Intention III . . .

 

Form:  Verse, Stanza, Canto

Form:  Sonnet

Form: Spoken Word

Form: Haiku

Form: Farfel

Form: Blank Verse

 

Craft: Elements of Poetry

Craft: Rhyme (Patterns)

Craft: Meter

Craft: Enjambment

Craft: Imagery (Metaphor, Simile, Symbol)

 

Response: close reading (explosion)

Response: talk balk