Enduring understanding: Poetry is a catalyst for expressing ideas and using rhyme, rhythm, and figurative language.  Poetry provides a pleasurable method to practice reading aloud and to focus on fluency.  Students will experience a variety of poetic forms and will examine the relationship of poetry to song lyrics.  Since regular writing is an aide to building fluency, students can write poetry using instant poetry forms found on the Internet or they can create their own poems.

Books

Finnigin and Friends by Maurice Poe and Barbara A. Schmidt.

Hailstones and Halibut Bones by Mary O'Neill

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech

Technically, It's Not My Fault: Concrete Poems by John Grandits

The Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary by Sue Young

Scholastic Guides: How to Write Poetry by Paul B. Janeczko

Poetry: A Study Guide by Dr. Alice Sheff

Teaching Poetry: Yes You Can! by Jacqueline Sweeney

Websites

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=808 

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=88

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1082

Activities

·     Introduction:  Listen to Pink Floyd’s “Time” as the students walk in.  Say to students, “You will be coming to the library for the next several days.  We will be exploring poetry.  Poetry is one of the three major types of literature.  We will see how poetry is different from a paragraph.  We will learn what makes poetry special.  We will learn about rhythm and rhyming words.  We will learn how poets often create pictures using words.  You will also get the opportunity to read and write poetry.”

·     Ask students questions about music: Do you like music? Why? What kind of music do you like?  How does music affect you?  Hand out lyrics to the song “Time” http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfrm4t9q_28cm3fqs and listen to the song while looking at the lyrics.  Discuss (stanzas, metaphors, rhyming words, etc.)  Then hand the paragraphs on time from Marilyn Burns http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfrm4t9q_29mztn6p.  Discuss.   

·     The librarian/teacher will ask the students to compare poems and paragraphs and share what they already know about each.  (Earlier in the year, the classroom teacher introduced poetry using the textbook.  She also talked about figurative language and did a lesson on idioms.  The students continue to work on writing paragraphs. The librarian will be building on this knowledge and offering a more in-depth study of the subject.)

·     Divide students into groups of 4 for comparison between poems and paragraphs.  Facilitate when needed.  Ask questions to help students get started.

·     Have students work with in groups to compare characteristics of song lyrics and poems.  Prepare a transparency using Dr. Seuss’s, “I do not like green eggs and ham.  I do not like them, Sam-I-am.”  Leave room between lines for the accent marks. Include a graphic.  Illustrate rhythmic patterns.

·     Divide students into teams of 4.  Provide a selection of poetry books.  Have students find poems that have different rhythmic patterns.

·     Make transparencies of examples of narrative and lyric poems http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfrm4t9q_32cw4jhp.  Show the transparency to students, read the poems to the students so that students can hear the poem while they read it.  Have students compare the two. 

·     Discuss the images found in the lyric poem.  Divide students into groups of 4 to discuss what they know about figurative language (remind students what they learned about idioms).  Have students share with the class what they know about figurative language.

·     Make copies of the figurative language chart http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfrm4t9q_25ftbxt6  and distribute to students.  Discuss with students.  Have students work with a partner.  Give them sentences and have them use the chart to identify the types of figurative language found.  Then divide students into groups of 4 to find and identify figurative language that they find in the poetry books.  (Some examples of using figurative language in prose can be found at http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfrm4t9q_27fb8g8b.

·     To ensure that students understand figurative language, have students work in pairs to write original examples of each type of figurative language listed on the chart.  Have students hang their examples on the wall and share orally with the class.  Discuss.

·     Discuss with students what rhyming words are.  Give them some examples.  Have students work in groups to brainstorm rhyming words.  Chart their rhyming words.

·     Select some poems to read to the class that have good examples of rhyming words.  Have students identify the rhyming words.  Have students choral read some rhyming poems as a whole group.  Then divide students into groups of 4 and allow each group to select a rhyming poem and practice reading out loud.

·     Select the poetry websites that contain instant poetry forms:  http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/newpoem.htm and http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp .  Have students login to the computer and show students how to use these sites.  Let students select one of the instant forms that focuses on rhyming words and create a poem.  Print out the poems and let students share their poems find the rhyming words in each other’s poems.