Poetry. Some teachers love teaching poetry, while others run the other way. I’ll be the first to admit I fell into the running category. However, when I knew I was taking over all of the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade Reading/ELA at our school – I knew I had to up my poetry game. NOW! That’s why I decided to add more poetry into my classroom.
Below you will find how I was able to add more poetry into my classroom within just the first five minutes of class. (To go even a step further I created a four and five day schedule, because just because you have a five-day school week doesn’t mean schedules can be followed 100% every day.) This gave me a chance to collect student work, answer any questions, and simply get the class moving. These poems proved to be a perfect way to get students transitioned and ready for class.
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Based off Jill Eggleton’s book Lighting the Literacy Fire, I wanted to have a weekly poem but with a different focus each day. Jill’s book is geared for students in PreK-2nd grade, but I adapted it to work with my 4th, 5th, and 6th graders.
On Monday, I will display the weekly poem on the ActivBoard. We will simply read through the poem and discuss it. We will discuss the title, author, and illustrator (if applicable). Any general questions we have about the poem will be discussed and we will finish by rereading the poem together as a class.
On Tuesday, we will focus on vocabulary. We will look for any interesting, unusual, or difficult words. This will also be a great time to focus on figurative language. (My first unit of the year will be figurative language, so I’m hoping this keeps all of the various types fresh in students’ minds throughout the year!)
Wednesday we will work on determining point of view and author’s purpose. Those are both Common Core standards and something I’ve found my students struggle with in the past. I’m hoping that working on these each and every week will solidify them into my students’ brains.
Thursday we will determine theme and the tone/mood. Again, I’ve had a lot of students who just can’t remember each of these. My goal is to give consistent practice and therefore help them remember these all year and into the future.
Finally, Friday will be for summarizing the poem and making connections. I want students to compare and contrast poems throughout the year, and I hope they are able to make connections with their own lives. I know I will have to do a fair amount of modeling at the start of the year, but I’m hoping it gets easier as time goes on.
We will capture each day in our interactive notebooks (another new undertaking for this year that I’m extremely excited about, but also freaking out over!).
We will capture each day in our interactive notebooks (another new undertaking for this year that I’m extremely excited about, but also freaking out over!).
Let’s recap –
- Monday – Comprehension
- Tuesday – Vocabulary
- Wednesday – Point of View & Author’s Purpose
- Thursday – Theme & Tone/Mood
- Friday – Summarize & Make Connections
I know there will be week’s where we have a three or four day week. Those weeks I plan to choose a random, fun poem to focus on. Jack Prelutsky, Dr. Seuss, and Shel Silverstein are just a few of the authors I will choose from on those weeks. During different holiday weeks I will try to find poetry that fits that way.
Then I started thinking (because I tend to do way too much of that)… I might only be able to work on poetry four days a week due to other obligations, snow days, and just the simple fact that things often come up that are beyond my control. So I made a four day schedule as well. Here’s the short version of that –
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade
Then I started thinking (because I tend to do way too much of that)… I might only be able to work on poetry four days a week due to other obligations, snow days, and just the simple fact that things often come up that are beyond my control. So I made a four day schedule as well. Here’s the short version of that –
4th Grade
- Monday – Comprehension – RL.4.1,RF.4.4a, RF.4.4b
- Tuesday – Vocabulary – RL.4.4
- Wednesday – Point of View, Author’s Purpose, Connections – RL.4.6+
- Thursday – Theme, Summarize – RL.4.2
5th Grade
- Monday – Comprehension – RL.5.1, RF.5.4a, RF.5.4b
- Tuesday – Vocabulary – RL.5.4
- Wednesday – Point of View, Author’s Purpose, Tone – RL.5.6, RL.5.7
- Thursday – Theme & Summarize – RL.5.2
6th Grade
- Monday – Comprehension – RL.6.1
- Tuesday – Vocabulary – RL.6.4
- Wednesday – Point of View, Author’s Purpose, Theme/Mood – RL.6.6
- Thursday – Theme & Summarize – RL.6.2
Is your next question, where will I get poems? Yea – mine too. So I started doing some research. A teacher-blogger buddy of mine suggested these last spring (and of course now I can’t remember who that was – sorry!). I’ve bought the ebook version of 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. This way I can project poems each day directly from my ipad. I’m hoping it’s quick and painless…
Here’s where you can get the various K-8 books on Amazon. I hope you find them worthwhile like I do. The 5th grade book has 36 poems – which should be plenty to last the entire year. You can access the entire K-5 paperback version here or the K-5 ebook here. If you are looking for just the 6th-8th grade version, that’s available for those of you who are middle school teachers. Here are the ebooks for Kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, and fifth grade.
My goal is to get to the point where we are spending just five minutes a day on our poetry. I’m hoping it keeps skills fresh in students’ minds and exposes them to various types of poetry. They encounter poems on state tests AND poetry is often part of everyday life. The more I can expose them to now, the better off they’ll be in the future.
Updated to add: Adding more poetry to our classroom was a great success! All students got repeated exposure to important skills and standards. The high flyers could be pushed to think more deeply when coming up with a theme and making connections. Students who fall in the middle of the road got the necessary practice, and – as our routine became more solidified – I was able to go around and discuss with students who may need more help. Finally, our struggling students still found success. The special education teacher and I worked very closely together. She knew exactly which poem I was teaching each week and which skills I was working on. This gave those students an even better chance to keep up on everything. It was great teamwork on our part, and I’m so thankful it worked well for all our learners to add more poetry into the classroom.
Love the idea. 🙂 Let us know how it goes. (Maybe if I can get my booty into gear we can *share* experiences!.)
Love this and would like to see ur plan for 3rd grade. Thanks for sharing!
I love teaching my students how to read and write poetry. What a great idea for starting each day.
I love these ideas!! Do you have any great ideas for teaching English Language learners these concepts?
Laura –
Based on my previous experience with ELL, I would probably do much the same concept. Except I might use a poem for two weeks instead of one, allowing me two days to go through each of the components. It really depends on where they are at with language acquisition. Last year I had one little guy who was only in his second year in the US, and he held his own with his native-English peers. It was harder for him, but he was able to plug along. 🙂
When I taught 100% ELL students, I didn't do this concept – but I know they could have handled it. Starting the year SLOWLY and modeling a LOT would be crucial! However, it's definitely possible. Good luck! And please stop back and let us know how it goes if you go this route.
Thanks!
~HoJo~
As part of our morning routine (2nd grade) we do an art reproduction of the week, with a song for the week, and a poem for the week. (organized in an art history timeline from ancient to modern)We practice all week & on Fridays the kids present their poems to the class. They really get "into" it with props & costumes etc.