Close Reading: Poetry Style

Earlier this week, we worked on some of our close reading skills. Using what I've learned from my workshops, we close read some poetry.

We started off with 'Let It Go'. I had my paper passer pass them out blank side down, and then I had the kids flip them over at the same time.

The reactions were awesome! There were some cheers, as well as lots of moans and groans. Most of my kids have little siblings who constantly play the song/movie :).

I had them do the first read on their own, and write down what they thought the message the author was trying to get across was.

After we shared, we came together to do the next part.

I read it a second time, asking them to listen for figurative language as I read. There were some giggles during this, as I was trying hard not to sing...and I guess it came our serious/sarcastic to my kids!

We marked up our text together, numbering the paragraphs, different types of figurative language and rhyme structure.

Then I had them find two examples (from the text-one group somehow got a little confused-even though everyone else knew it was text evidence) of the author's message we came up with. I had them work in pairs for this part, so they could discuss it.

Then I showed them how to do the Poetry sheet I got from the Mailbox ages ago.
Now it was time for them to do it on their own! And by on their own, I mean with partners :)

I had them do the same steps we did for 'Let It Go' for a Robert Frost poem I typed up a few years ago.

Some groups worked very well together, and some needed a little more guidance.

But all of them worked fairly hard!

This lesson took a lot longer than I thought it would-the whole afternoon! I definitely this is was worth it to expose them to more poetry and get those thinking caps going!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn