Literacy-Reading Lesson Plan

Lesson: Introducing Poetry

Standards:
CSS: Reading, Writing, and Communicating 1.1.a. Students can
describe people, places, things and events with relevant details,
expressing ideas and feelings clearly.
CSS: Reading, Writing, and Communicating 1.2.b. Students can
ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud
or information presented orally or through other media.
CSS: Reading, Writing and Communicating 1.3.a. Students can
demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables and
sounds (phonemes).
CSS: Reading, Writing and Communicating 2.1.b.i. Students can
use craft and structure to identify words and phrases in stories or
poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
Purpose: The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize students with the
features of poetry by sharing examples of Earth, Moon and spacerelated poetry.
Goal for Learners: My goal for learners is that they will be able to
recognize that poetry is a certain literary style in which the author
expresses feelings and ideas through distinctive style and rhythm.
Learning Principles: I believe that students learn best when given a
chance to practice integrating new skills. Therefore, as part of this
lesson, students will identify key features of poetry first with the
teacher, then be given an opportunity to write a class poem together
that integrates these features.
Learning Objective: Students will be able to identify key features of
poetry (emotional expression, varied structure and punctuation,
possible rhyme, etc.) and write a collaborative poem that integrates
these features.
Setting: This lesson will take place in the classroom (room 107).
Students will remain on the carpet area during instruction and the
group poem writing exercise.
Materials:
Sample poems
Writers notebooks
Promethean Board

Object for group activity (used pencil)

Activity Procedure:
1. Introduction
a. We briefly touched on poetry last week, and today were
going to take another look at it.
b. Poetry examples
2. Key features/characteristics of poetry
a. So what makes a poem a poem?
b. Poetry web
i. Expression of feeling or ideas
ii. Distinct style
iii. Rhythm
iv. No rules
v. Interesting structure
vi. Describes something
3. Circle activity
a. Students sit in a circle while I show them an ordinary object
b. Tell students to look at the object very closely then close
their eyes and think about what they saw
c. Ask the students to share one thought about what they
saw (describe something about it, tell about something
that it makes them think of, say how it made them feel to
look at it)
d. Write a poem together about the object with student
responses
Differentiation: Students D and L will be directly called upon to
contribute to our class poem or ask a question. In this way, I will be
able to determine whether they have adequately understood the
characteristics of poetry and been able to consolidate what they have
learned and are able to contribute to the poem.
Assessment: I will assess the poem we write together as a group to
determine whether the students understand the characteristics of
poetry. I will also do a What We Learned chart at the end of the
lesson.
Extensions: Students who are interested will be encouraged to write
their own poem during Writers Workshop.