Tips, Titles and Tools for Poetry
A Weekly Collection of Instructional Resources
March 26, 2015
Shelly
Poetry Mentor Texts in Writing Workshop
Sample Poems from Valerie's Class
Poetry Links and Resources
For those of you are are tech-saavy, here are 9 Mobile Apps for Poetry Month! Many of the apps listed are free, easy to use and can be downloaded on your iPads. These tools might be a great way to have students use their tech tools in a purposeful way while exploring poetry!
Reading Rockets has a number of excellent resources and recommendations for National Poetry Month.
I know that many of you love the website Writing-Fix. Check out this link for their poetry resources!
FREE Poetry E-Book from Stenhouse!
Where is poetry in our curriculum?
Level 2: Understands how descriptive words and phrases provide meaning.
Level 3: Understands the use of synonyms and antonyms to add meaning to text.
Level 4: Understands how the use of homophones and homographs impact the meaning of text.
Level 5: (Figurative Language) Understands the use of simile, metaphor, idioms and proverbs add meaning to text.
The literature learning goals for inferring and theme can also connect to your reading of poetry. You can also integrate learning targets related to conventions (adjectives, verbs, adverbs) or the traits of writing (word choice, voice, sentence fluency) in your poetry instruction.
Close Reading with Poetry
- You can ask students to read the poem closely with a lens for figurative language, parts of speech or word choice.
- As a class, you can lift lines from a variety of poems and collect them around your classroom on sentence strips.
- Students enjoy the opportunity to sketch or paint the images they visualize when reading a poem.
- Close reading is an excellent opportunity to discuss the theme or author's message in the poem.
- Can poems be used to inform, persuade, or entertain? Examine the author's purpose in writing the poem.
- Use your close reading poems as an opportunity for students to create their own poems by adapting the words or structure of the author's poem. The book Love That Dog would be a great selection for close reading! I have a sample booklet of the mentor poems included in this text. Let me know if you would like to check it out!
Poetry is a valuable instructional resource!
Poetry Mentor Texts
Where in the Wild
Ten creatures await, camouflaged in artful, full-page photographs, while playful poems offer clues about each animal's identity and whereabouts. Think you've spotted one? Lift one of ten gatefolds to find out. A full page of fascinating information accompanies each animal so readers can learn how nature's camouflage serves hunter and hunted alike.
Dogku
Mirror Mirror
It’s a revolutionary recipe: an infectious new genre of poetry and a lovably modern take on classic stories.First, read the poems forward (how old-fashioned!), then reverse the lines and read again to give familiar tales, from Sleeping Beauty to that Charming Prince, a delicious new spin. Witty, irreverent, and warm, this gorgeously illustrated and utterly unique offering holds a mirror up to language and fairy tales, and renews the fun and magic of both.
Great Poetry Read Alouds
Love That Dog & Hate That Cat
Love That Dog was the first novel written in verse that I used as a read aloud. It's an excellent read aloud for introducing your readers to narrative poetry. Students will learn to love poetry right along with the narrator, Jack.
Hate That Cat, the sequel to Love That Dog, is a perfect read aloud for introducing figurative language, characters changing over time and inferencing.
Love That Dog
Jack hates poetry. Only girls write it and every time he tries to, his brain feels empty. But his teacher, Ms. Stretchberry, won't stop giving her class poetry assignments -- and Jack can't avoid them. But then something amazing happens. The more he writes, the more he learns he does have something to say.
Hate That Cat
This is the story of
Jack
words
sounds
silence
teacher
and cat.
Gone Fishing
Gone Fishing A Novel in Verse would be a fun read aloud from our Black Bear Book Award list. Each poem can be enjoyed individually, but together they tell the story complete with a conflict, resolution and characters changing over time. This text would also be a great introduction in any upper elementary classroom to narrative poetry and different types of poems.
Brown Girl Dreaming
Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.
Shelly Moody
Instructional Coach
Williams Elementary SchoolEmail: smoody@rsu18.org
Twitter: @shelmoody