I collaborate with the ESL teacher Ms. Blais for the afternoon literacy block in my classroom. Together we have been putting together a unit for poetry. For first few mini-lessons we have been using PowerPoint slides to teach some of the introductory lessons, such as the 5 doors of poetry to generate ideas and framing poetry with imagery, emotion and music. We try to follow the architecture of a mini-lesson with a connection for an introduction, a teaching point, a demonstration and student’s active engagement before a send-off that reminds them of the teaching point.
I am trying to declutter my slides both visually and conceptually. I am finding that using simple strong visuals helps me make my teaching points shorter and more clear. Here is a mini-lesson I’ve created for metaphors:
I have also been trying to sprinkle in some poetry throughout the day from showing clips of poetry my previous students performed to YouTube videos to poetry found in our classroom library. When I sneak a poem into the day, I call it a “poetreat.”
Nice post Kathy – we also have a good poetry unit in grade 8. I love for us to bounces ideas off each other and continue to look at our spiraling curriculum. In our unit, we changed it a lot this year. We added a Camstudio element in which students analyze a poem and record their voice while they critique it. Also, for years, the students have been creating a visual representation of a poem that is about one minute long. Students use either Windows Movie Maker or Photostory to create their production. The students use visuals and music to accurately represent their poem. I’d be happy to share some of these with you – maybe some you could use some to help with your Poetry unit in grade 4?
Thanks, Chris! It would be great to see what your students have done. We have a big Poetry Cafe in grade 4, which I’m sure you are aware of. It would be great to share ideas and see what kind of spiraling is going on.