A Possibility for Poetry

A chillaxed approach to integrating poetry into your daily routine

My Issue

I always taught the Poetry Unit.

Teaching on the Poetry Unit made things weird.
I felt bad for just stuffing poems into novel studies or keeping them all huddled
together in the Poetry Unit together.
They wanted to come out and play all semester not just when a novel had a
connection or when it was time for the Poetry Unit.
Poetry is awesome and short and speaks to our souls and makes us think.

My Cool Resource

I ordered and read Nancie Atwells

Naming the World.
It comes with a teacher guide and DVD
that shows her teaching poems in her
perfect independent school.
I used her structure and my own ideas
to come up with a way to get poetry
into my classroom daily.

My Preparation
I choose a poem to study with my students.
I read it.
I annotate it like a crazy English teacher should.
I take a good look and think about some things:
Why would kids connect to this poem?
Is any background knowledge need?
What devices and interesting uses of language do I notice?
What would be some good things to make sure students notice about this poem?
Why is this poem cool and interesting?

No Pressure, Dude.

I put NO pressure on myself

I put NO pressure on myself
I put NO pressure on myself
I put NO pressure on myself
the poem.
I put NO pressure on myself

to do a certain number of poems.

to do a certain number of activities.
to make sure I do poems every single day.
to make sure I cover every single little tiny thing I see in
to have an assessment for every single poem.

What I do care about:

I DO try to make sure the first reading is relaxed.

I DO try to break each mini lesson into small parts.
I DO let lessons happen as kids bring ideas up.
I DO make sure to review or sneak in the literary terms or devices in a chillaxed way.
I DO pick poems that are interesting to me and hopefully to students.
I DO allow for flexibility and change in plan.
I DO spend more or less time on the poetry as I see how the kids react and as I think
about what else I have to accomplish that day.

The Main Idea

1. Choose a poem.
2. Do your preparation.
3. Break it down and plan out a few focus activities/foldables/stickies/hunts/etc. for the kids to
engage in.
4. First day just read (well) and kids select lines they like or notice. Kids share, no worries or
literary terms (unless its just obvious or student states it).
5. Second day small activity
6. Third day another small activity either new or building on the previous day
7. Next day if you like.as many days as you need. Some poems take me two days and some
I spend four to five days on. None of this is tied to days of the week.
8. Final day (whatever that is) students RATE the poem and reflect. Assessment here if you
like.

First Day
1. Pass out poem. (Glue in interactive notebook
or whatever you like.)
2. Quick look at title any background you like.
3. Read poem well.
4. Have kids go back into the poem and
underline something (you decide and
depends on poem: fav lines, interesting lines,
what they can see/hear/etc.).
5. Have a few kids share. I say, Lets hear from
four people. What lines did you notice.
They can state a reason or not. Just about
sharing today.
6. Put poem away and move on until next time.

Next Day
1. Reread poem.
2. Give kids a term or something to look
for or do.
3. EXAMPLE: For You Cant Write a Poem
about McDonalds I review IMAGERY
with students and remind them its ALL
senses not just visual. They go through
and underline IMAGERY. We create a
quick chart by sense on the board and
they copy it in the margine.
4. Done for the day.

Next Day

1. Reread poem (or not).

2. Give kids a task.
3. Go over it.
4. Move on.
5. EXAMPLE: Plot I told kids next that
this story has a story sort of arc to it, a
beginning, middle, and end. Kids reread
poem and make a list of events: what
happened. We went over it as a class.

Final Day
1. Reread poemits our last day with this poem!
2. Give kids activity.
3. Go over it.
4. RATE POEM Whatever scale they want and include
explanation.
5. Assessment if you like. A constructed response
type question or set of a few multiple choice
questions that mirror EOC or NCFE.
6. EXAMPLE: Theme. We looked at details and have
read poem for a few days. Now what message do
you think poet is trying to get to us. Define theme.
Kids find lines that they feel REVEAL theme. Share
and share their reasons. Write what they think
poem is saying and have a little discussion. Rate
and done!

Variations
Sometimes an intro activity or journal-type question can be good. For example: With
Defining the Magic by Charles Bukowski, I ask kids to jot down their feelings about
poetry AND to them what a good poem should be. Then they can compare their ideas
to the poets.
A personal journal can be nice at the end of a poem, too. With Autobiography in Five
Short Chapters by Portia Nelson, I ask students at the end what their holes in the
sidewalk are. What are their bad habits and what can they do to change. The
responses are personal and sometimes quite serious.
Imitations are good final activities. We write imitations of Where Im From using the
questionnaire in the Atwell book.
Write specific questions for poems that you want kids to discuss and/or answer/think
about.

Putting It All Together

We use interactive notebooks, so we

glue poems to the left side and do all
our work on the right margin, with
highlighters, and sticky notes, etc.
At the end of a study of one poem,
youve got a page full of thinking.

Sample Pages

Dulce et Decorum Est

Litany
The smart boards can be cool resources for this as
well.
Type up a nice version on your board and save the
students ideas each day so you dont lose
anything.
I made a sort of all the comparisons in Litany and
students came up and moved them into categories
to see what types of images/comparisons he used.
Highlighting and annotating are great on the smart
board.
Foldables are great little fun items to add in when
you can.
You can still tie these poems to content. We did
Litany right before reading the scene when Kate
and Petruchio meet in The Taming of the Shrew.