Beth Kovalcik, Janine L. Certo

Summary

This article overviews a method in teaching a class of second graders poetry. Each day there is a different lesson focusing on one aspect of poetry; color and rhyme, repetition and alliteration, onomatopoeia, and collaborative poetry. This article also addresses how to provide extra support for students struggling with the mechanics of writing so they can still be authors of poems. At the end of this poetry unit, they created a “Café” within their classroom. They invited parents, decorated table with table cloths and vases, and provided refreshments. The morning of their poetry reading students rehearsed while the rest of the class would provide the reader comments, two things the reader did very well and one suggestion for something they could work on. When parents arrived, the class read their collaborative poem, and then each student read his/her poem individually on stage.

Discuss whether and how you would use this approach at your grade level, where it could fit within the language arts curriculum in your classroom, and what it offers for enriching writing instruction beyond what you thought about as you completed Task 1 of this module.

I would love to fit this into our language arts curriculum. It seems like a very positive unit, one that students enjoyed as well. I think that this could fit into our curriculum under our writing category. In our classroom we have journal entries with prompts, this could be something that instead of our usual prompts for a week or two we work on poetry in their journals. This enriches writing instruction because it forces students to think about details, to learn mechanics of poetry such as alliteration and repetition, and also gives them a chance to be an author and feel a sense of ownership. Their poems are something that need to be read aloud, and they should be the ones reading them. This provides a chance for them to learn speaking skills, reading skills, and pride in their work.

Also identify what you think you need to learn to do as a professional in order to use this approach well with your students.

Before I could use this approach, I would need to create a great classroom community where students feel safe and don’t feel like their taking a risk of being made fun of. This is important because students will not want to share their work if they feel this way. As a professional I need to learn skills and activities to do so. I also need to learn more about poetry and focus areas in poetic writing.

Types of assessment necessary for informing your unit development

The article I read for jigsaw, had a point in it where it discussed scripting and transcribing for students as they write. They mentioned that the goal of that assignment was poetry, not spelling and handwriting. This is something that I am going to keep in mind when planning my unit. I will make sure that I can identify the goal, and then decide if there is a way to further promote just that goal without other issues hindering that goal. Because of journals, I have an idea of where students are at in their writing but I need to informally assess students’ spelling and reading skills so I have an idea of what group to place students in during my unit.