Poetry

Poetry is often one of the favorite genres of students because they have just worked so hard in Personal Narrative.  Most genres have many different rules about their structures that students get used to following.  Poetry is really about expression of a strong feeling, description of things in a new and interesting way or a free flowing expression of thoughts.  Students love that there are so many styles, many possibilities for punctuation and no right or wrong answers.  Our goals in poetry include letting students practice description, continue to develop skills in writing details/elaboration and creative expression of ideas.  They will try out many forms of poetry including free-verse, rhyme, haiku, couplet, cinquain, diamante, odes, concrete (shape), acrostics and more.

The teacher reads many poems to the class before and during our poetry unit to expose them to new topics, styles and poets.  Reading time during this unit will include 5-10 minutes of poetry reading everyday.  There are also times for students to read poetry aloud to each other, because all poetry is really meant to be read aloud.

Poetry Skills/Lessons include: 

• Looking at everyday objects in a new or different way

• Breaking up lines of a poem specifically to make the poem sound like music and give it meaning

• Find a BIG topic (my cat) that gives you a Big feeling and ZOOM in (when my cat snoozes on me at night)

    Find topics that have both a BIG FEELING and CONCRETE DETAILS you can describe

• Repeating words, sounds, or lines to make meaning clear and give the poem music

• Using sound words or alliteration to make us hear the music and visualize

• Searching for honest, precise words that match what you are trying to say

• Using senses to describe things, including sight, sound, touch, smell and taste

• Using comparative language to describe things (the snow was as white as the milk in my cereal bowl)

• Creating a mood

• Choosing the right structure/type of poem for your topic