Last updated: 2/19/2013

Grade 2 - Writing - Poetry

Subject:

English Language Arts (NYS P-12 Common Core)

Grade:

Elementary, 2nd Grade

Unit Title:

Poetry

Approx. Number of Weeks:

3 weeks

Unit Summary:

This ELA poetry unit is taught within writing workshop. Students are encouraged to experiment with language, have fun with poetry, read a variety of poems and write free verse poems. Students will use language in powerful ways to create feelings and images. Skills and content are taught as mini-lessons within the writing workshop structure. Students take what they learn in each mini-lesson and try it in their own poetry writing. The classroom teacher confers with students about their writing process.

Next Generation Skills Addressed:

Collaboration & Communication	Creativity & Innovation	Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
Research & Information Fluency	Social & Emotional Intelligence

1. What will students know and be able to do?

Standards:

W.2.5 -	With guidance and support from adults and peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

W.2.6 -	With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

Essential Understandings:

Poets combine language and precise words in a powerful way to create meaningful images and make readers feel a certain way for a variety of purposes.

Poems are filled with meaningful topics that can be found in the details of our everyday lives.

Essential Questions:

Students will know:

Poets write for a variety of purposes and on meaningful topics.

Poets can find ideas in the details of their everyday lives.

Poets use literary devices like repetition,rhythm, rhyme, simile, and metaphor to create images and convey a mood or tone.

Poetry looks different than prose because of the use of white space and line breaks.

Poets use carefully chosen words to write about ordinary things in compact language.

Poets select language carefully and use language in powerful ways.

Students will be able to:

Read and listen to poems for enjoyment.

Read and listen to poems and analyze the major elements of the genre.

Create poems on topics of importance.

Use a variety of literary techniques when authoring poems (line breaks, white space, repetition, rhythm, simile, metaphor).

Create a collection of original poems.

2. How will we – and they – know?

Authentic Performance Task:

Common Benchmark Assessment:

Answer the following questions:

• What is poetry?

• How do poets use language to express themselves?

Student Self-Assessment and Reflection:

• How has writing poetry helped you grow as a writer?

• What poetry writing strategies/tools did you use?

Students should score a 3 or 4 using the PCSD District Writing Rubric.

pscd grade2-5writingrubric2009.pdf

3. What learning activities will students participate in?

Learning Activities:

Pre-Assessment

Answer the following question: What do we know about poetry?

Suggested Sequence of Instructional Strategies/ Learning Experiences

• Examining the genre/looking for elements: Share/read teacher selected poems, discuss and chart noticings and generate poetry topics.

• Getting a poem down on paper: model writing a poem and discuss noticings.

• White space: hearing the music in poetry.

• Listening for line breaks.

• Powerful feelings/adding emotion to our poems: writing about subjects that matter to us.

• Adding details: revising a poem.

• Choosing careful language.

• Observe the world like poets.

• Using repetition.

• Comparisons/metaphor/simile

• Editing/publishing.

Resources and References

Units of Study for Primary Writing: Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins pages iv,v

Units of Study for Primary Writing:Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Session 3

Units of Study for Primary Writing:Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Session 2

Units of Study for Primary Writing: Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Session 5

Units of Study for Primary Writing: Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Session 6

Units of Study for Primary Writing: Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Session 8

Units of Study for Primary Writing: Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Session 1

Units of Study for Primary Writing: Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Session 9

Units of Study for Primary Writing: Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Sessions 10, 11, & 12

Units of Study for Primary Writing:Poetry – Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages by Lucy Calkins Sessions 13, 14, & 15

Opportunities for Differentiation:

For talented poets:

• Use a thesaurus to select precise words.

• Experiment with metaphor/more sophisticated language.

• Carry/keep a personal poetry sketchbook.

For struggling poets:

• Present a poetry frame or structure for a poem. Model the reading of a poem that uses the frame. Give students the same type of frame for their own writing.

• Utilize peer mentors.

• Copy favorite poems and identify the elements taught.

• Provide blank paper for capturing thoughts/ideas.

Misconception Alerts:

Not all poems rhyme.

Not all poems have an identifiable structure or form – acrostic, list, haiku, etc.

Poetry does not have rules.

Discipline Specific Considerations:

Vocabulary – Specialized and High Frequency

Genre – particular type of writing.

Poetry – art of writing poems.

Poet – person who writes poems.

Prose – writing that is not in verse.

Line Breaks – white space that helps to set the rhythm and shape of the poem.

Repetition – repeated lines or words.

White Space – negative space that groups the words.

Rhythm and Rhyme – sound of the words.

Ending Line – last line of the poem including punctuation.

Free Verse – unstructured form of poetry; non-rhyming.

Noticings – generalizations formed from examination of selected poems.