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

Holiday Poems

One of my favorite things to do with students this month is ...Nicole Shelby's Holiday Sensory Detail Poems!

This year, I did it a little differently.

First, I reviewed the different sense that we could use.

Then, I brainstormed a bunch of things that went along with each sense (although I used the 4th of July to model!)

The students then decided that they wanted to brainstorm in partners words/things that they associated with the holiday season (some asked if they could focus more on Christmas, and I said that it was fine)

(I had offered them partners, trios or quads. I picked their partners from my stick bin)

Of course, some were more organized...

than others...

After they brainstormed, we did a gallery walk and I let them add words if the wanted

I gave them on of the sheets from Nicole's pack, and had them brainstorm words (independently) that they wanted to use in their poems.

Then I modeled a very simple poem on the board-and had them do the same on the back of their paper.

After they finished, we talked about how boring that poem was, and how we could make it better-with revisions, adding in more details and figurative language.

Now it was their turn!

They revised their poem, and then went to their final drafts. They had their choice of papers, or they could do it on plain and decorate it.

Some wonderful poems!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Workshop Wednesday: Poetry

Happy Wednesday!

Jivey picked one of my favorite topics this week: Poetry!

It's one of my very favorite things to teach students-and I spend time on it all year long!

I usually start out by showing them an example of what we are going to do, or show them a SMART Exchange lesson.

This week, we are going to be focusing on Haikus, so I'll be showing this (yes, I know it's grade 1, but it is a good intro-since most of my kids have never heard about it before!) and this.

After we learn a little about the type of poetry, we brainstorm a list of ideas we could use to write.

Then, I usually model how to write a poem (using an opposite topic-for example- if they are writing about Spring, I'll write about Fall or Winter)

Yes, I know those are cinquians-but they show my point :)

Then I send them to work!

They usually do a rough draft, and we edit it-they do it on a nice piece of paper and illustrate.

They love doing it too! Our poetry lessons are usually a fun, quick lesson that they kids enjoy-they always ask if they can do another one!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Fluency Fun

One of my groups has been really struggling with their fluency while reading. I wanted something quick and easy to help them, that we could do every day-practice makes perfect!

I found exactly what I was looking for in Teaching With a Mountain View's shop (she has amazing stuff btw!)

Fortunately, she had bundled her task cards!


So after printing, laminating, hole-punching, we were ready to use them!

Each day, I give the kids two cards to practice on (They practice independently when group is over).

The next day, I have them read the cards that they had. When they are done, we discuss (as a group) what they could have done better. This way, I have the other kids listening for what good fluency sounds like-and they may pay more attention to it in their own reading!

After we discuss what they need to improve on-we talk about what they did well! Now they are feeling good about themselves, knowing they are doing some things well with their fluency.

Since I have four students in group, we switch cards for the second day (ex. Student A has cards 1,2 and B has 3,4. Now Student A has 3,4 and B has 1,2). This also makes the students 'experts' on the second day, so their critiques are more thoughtful, because they know what the card says and have an idea what it should sound like.

I've also found this book helpful-it's full on fun poems!

We used this last week on Thursday and Friday (because we are on vacation this week and I didn't want to start a new book).

On Thursday, I introduced the poems and we did a 'cold' read. We talked about how we could improve-and then I read it to them and asked them what they noticed. Then on Friday, we read the same poem again-with 100 times improvement!

These small strategies has really helped this group! One of my girls basically reads word by word, and just by doing the cards, her fluency has improved (I'm not saying that it is awesome and amazing, but it is better!).

My hope is that this group will be fluent, expressive readers by the end of the year!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Thursday Throwdown: Poetry!

Happy Thursday!

Time for Thursday Throwdown with Erin!

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know that I LOVE teaching poetry to kids!

It's something that most kids enjoy, and they can get so creative and not worry all the pesky things like complex sentences with dependent and independent clauses.

Plus, even your struggling  and LD students can succeed at this!

We've done Cinquians

Haikus

Sensory Poems

and Abstract Noun Poems

Nothing gets my kids writing juices flowing by saying we're going to learn a new type of poetry!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Workshop Wednesday: Figurative Language

Happy Wednesday!

I'm having our first snow day of the school year-and writing this, I'm watching 8-14 inches of snow fall outside! (Good call school district! They called it last night-which I love! No alarm! :)

Time for some fun with Jivey!

This week's topic is figurative language. I LOVE figurative language and teaching it to the kids. I think it makes their writing so much more interesting-and the kids really get in to it.

This year, I taught it a little easier than usual-thanks to Mentor Sentences! But I love it, because now, in every since piece of writing, I can saw to throw some figurative language in there! (Even our how-to's...I saw a lot of whooosh! and snip, snip, snip!)

Even more important, figurative language is fun for the kids-they love playing with it!

This year, I started off by making an anchor chart-to keep all types in one place, so if they need a reminder, they know where to look.

I know, I forgot Alliteration-I don't know what I was thinking!

That day, we focused heavily on similes and metaphors-they got a piece of paper to write a simile on one side and a metaphor on the other-and illustrate it! They were too funny! Then we focused on doing Nicole Shelby's Language Notebook entry for similes and metaphors.

We do a lot of poetry in my room-so we are always adding in some figurative language to out poetry.

We'll also do some practicing with Joy in the Journey's figurative language task cards. She has similes and metaphors, personification, hyperbole, idioms...they so cute and amazing!

 I spread them all around the room, and have the kids rotate through-they love any chance to sprawl on the floor!

I also found a wonderful game on SMART Exchange-figurative language football! 

You divide them up into teams, they choose a football- and if the they can answer the question then they move however many yards on the question. My kids had a blast with it last year-we played it quite a few times (although they knew the answers by the end-they still had a lot of fun!)

As you can tell, we spend a lot of time on it, and use it as much as possible! Good thing they enjoy it so much!

Stuck under Snow,
Kaitlyn

Abstract Noun Poetry

I first saw this over at All Things Upper Elementary and thought it would be a wonderful idea-and a fairly quick time filler if I needed one!

Well, on Monday I needed one! We were going to exchange our Snowflake How-To's and see how well they wrote their directions...

...but I had 4 kids out and 1 sent home for a total of 5 missing! Plus, I would have 3 leave for Gifted and Talented halfway through.

So our How-To's have been postponed until next week :)

We have about an hour forty-five for Writing once a week (we don't choose to switch reading groups on that day-making it easier to do some longer lessons-otherwise it is squeezed into our half-hour whole group-along with everything else!).

I split the time in half-having the kids work on finishing their How-To's (some were so close!) or freewriting (which turned into comic writing!), and then the rest of the time was poetry!

First, we talked about abstract nouns-things you can't touch-mostly feelings.

Then, we got a little deeper with our feelings (with some significant help from me! ;)

After we came up with the list, I told them that they had to pick a word to write a poem on- and it did have to be one that was on the board!

I modeled how to do with with one of my favorite words-and one that I think describes me fairly well! (They did help a little-I like to ask their opinions!).

Then they got to work!

A few had questions about if they and a friend picked the same word-and I told them it would be fine because they would come up with different poems because they saw that word differently. (We had a lot of  'luck'!).

I also made it a requirement that they had to use at least one type of figurative language in their poem-just to make it more interesting!

They turned out great! I was impressed with some of them-I loved reading what they thought of the word they picked.

This is one of my LD kids-who struggles with writing! (and reading). It says: Luck Smells like a wild clover after a rainfall. Tastes like gold out of a fresh stream. Sounds like sweet music in the olden times. Feels like a colorful rainbow going through the sky. Lives in a King of true heart. How awesome is that!!

So, an excellent lesson/review as well as being creative-go for it!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn