Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 8: Sharing with an Audience

Students could share their poetry with a variety of audiences by:

• Visiting a school or class of younger students and reading poems to the kids there.


• Taking a field trip to a retirement home and presenting poems to the residents.


• Taking a field trip to the children's ward of a hospital and acting out poems for the patients.


• Having a poetry slam that includes several classes or several schools in the area.

Think about your individual community and what is possible. Think about who might benefit from the poetry readings (in addition to your students, of course). Brainstorm audience ideas with your classes.

If there is a community service component to the school's curriculum, groups of students could visit different locations in the community, based on their interest.

Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 7: Formal Paper

Students could write a formal paper analyzing a poem in detail: form, content, and background.

This could be instead of or in addition to teaching a poem in a class presentation.

Alternative activity: Students could write a paper, a journal entry, or a poem about writing and reading poetry.

Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 6: Teach a Poem

Have each student present a poem to the class.

After reading the poem aloud, students can discuss the following:

• Author - Who is the author? What is his or her history? When did he or she write this poem? Give additional pertinent author background information.


• Figurative Speech - metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole


• Poetic Devices - onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration


• Rhyme Scheme - Does the poem rhyme? If so, which lines rhyme? How many lines does the poem contain? How many stanzas? Is this poem in a particular form such as a sonnet or a limerick?


• Meter - What is th meter of the poem? Iambic? Trochaic? How many syllables are accented per line?


• Analysis of the Poem - What does it mean? How is that meaning conveyed? Could there be alternate interpretations?

Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 5: Poetry Mugs, Shirts, etc.

Students can create many items with their poetry and artwork:

• mugs


• coasters


• plates


• greeting cards


• t-shirts


• tote bags


• posters

Here are a few companies where kits can be purchased or where items can be designed online:

• Makit - http://www.makhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifitonline.com/


• Zazzle - http://www.zazzle.com/


• Cafepress - http://www.cafepress.com/

Office supply, photography, and department stores often offer similar services.

Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 4: "Publishing"

Give your students options. Have them publish their best work by:

• submitting it to a newspaper or magazine


• reading it at a coffee house or in another public forum


• displaying it in a public place


• giving it as a gift to another person


• printing it on a shirt or a mug


• putting it on a website

Show students there are many forms of "publishing."

Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 3: Class Poetry Compilation

Create a compilation book of your students' best poems. Put a copy in the library for the entire school to check out.

This could also be used as a resource to give next year's students (or another class) ideas for poems they might want to write themselves.

Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 2: Literary Magazine

Publish a class literary magazine. Make a copy for each student.

If you are feeling adventurous and have a small budget, layout the magazine professionally and make copies available for sale to parents, peers, and members of the community.

Students could be involved in editing, layout, printing, and sales.

Poetry Unit Wrap-Up Activity 1: Coffee House

Have a class coffee house (or even better a school-wide coffee house) where students can read out poems written by themselves or by others.

Parents and the community could be invited to participate as audience members.

Poetry Unit Starter 5: Web Activities

Sign up the class for the computer lab. Visit a poetry website where students can either find a poem they want to share with the class or where students can complete poetry activities (such as www.gigglepoetry.com or www.poetry4kids.com).

Poetry Unit Starter 4: Poetry Free-Write

This activity is done in three parts:

1. Ask students to take 5-10 minutes to write half a page about poetry.


2. Instruct them to circle any 10 words. (Don't tell them what the words are for.)


3. After they have circled the words, ask them to create a poem using the ten circled words. They may add 3 additional words if needed.

Variation: Display one or a few pieces of artwork. Have students do stream of consciousness writing for 5 minutes about one of the pieces of artwork. Have them circle 8 words or phrases in their writing. Then students can create a poem from the circled words and phrases.

Poetry Unit Starter 3: Poem Sharing

Here are a few ideas about starting a poetry unit by reading poems aloud:

1. Read a good poem to students.


2. Read lyrics to a popular song that most of the kids will know. Choose a song that sounds poetic when read.


3. Ask students to bring in a poem they like to share with the class.


4. Ask students to bring in lyrics to their favorite songs to share with the class. Make sure you tell them not to bring in anything with explicit lyrics.


5. Distribute books of poetry to students. Give them 5-10 minutes to look through the books. Have each student find one poem to read aloud to the class. (This activity can be done in the classroom or in the school media center.)


6. Have the class read a poem for more than one reader such as the poems in Paul Fleischman's Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices.

Note: I had a student with low-level reading skills who appreciated the opportunity to pick a short poem from a book that he could practice with a classmate, then read aloud to the entire class. It was one of the rare moments that this student participated in a reading activity involving the whole class.

Poetry Unit Starter 2: "Magnetic Poetry"

Cut words and phrases out of newspapers and magazines. (You can laminate these for later use.) You should probably have about 15-20 words/phrases per group/student.

Each group should arrange a poem out of the words and phrases like they would with "Magnetic Poetry." (It isn't necessary to use all the words, but they should use as many as possible.)

Then each group can share their poem with the rest of the class.

Variation: Have students cut out at least 20 headlines from newspapers. They should arrange the words on a sheet of paper to create a poem. They do not have to use all the words. They should glue down their poems on a sheet of paper and sign it.

Poetry Unit Starter 1: I Wish Class Poem

Ask each student to complete the sentence "I wish ________________" on a strip of paper. Collect the strips. Shuffle them. Then write out each line on the overhead to create a collaborative class poem.

Other sentence ideas:

1. I wish...


2. I am...


3. I like...


4. I like to...


5. I wonder...


6. I think about...


7. If I had a million dollars, I would...


8. If I could change anything, I would...


9. (pick a color) is like...


10. I am happy when...


11. I am (any emotion) when...


12. If I could go anywhere, I would...


13. I have learned that...


14. I like (season), because...


15. It's (season), so...


16. If I were an animal, I'd be a ______________, because...


17. If I were a car, I'd be a ________________, because...


18. If I were a place, I'd be __________________, because...

Sharing a Poetry Notebook

Here are a few ideas for ways that students can share their poetry notebooks:

1. Pass notebooks to the person to the left of them to read silently for 5 minutes. Then the books can be passed again for as many times as the teacher would like.


2. Visit a school or class of younger students and read poetry notebooks to the kids there.


3. Read their favorite poems out loud to the class. This could be done as a coffee house or poetry slam.


4. Place poetry notebooks in the classroom and/or school library.

Creating a Poetry Notebook

A poetry notebook can be made up of poems that the students wrote themselves - or created from poems the students found by other authors - or a mixture of the two.

In any of these cases, it is important to create a rubric that identifies what kinds of poems should be included and how many poems. Do you want students to write or find poems in different forms, such as haiku, sonnet, cinquain? Or should it be a collection of the students' very best writing? Or should it be a collection of poems that mean something to the student? How many poems should be included?

I think it is important to set a minimum for the number of poems in the book. Ask students to include a table of contents at the front of the book, so you can see at a glance what is included.

Here is a sample rubric that I wrote for an assignment for a poetry notebook of my students' original writing:

Dialogue Poem (5 points)
Emotion Poem (5 points)
Environmental Poem (5 points)
Dada or Found Poem (5 points)
Color Metaphor Poem (5 points)
Concrete Poem (5 points)
Being the Thing Poem (5 points)
Narrative Poem (5 points)
Now & Then or Mirror Poem (5 points)
Haiku, Cinquain, or Limerick (5 points)
Your Choice (5 points)
Your Choice (5 points)
Your Choice (5 points)

Effort (5 points)
Cover (10 points)
Table of Contents (10 points)
Neatness (10 points)
Total

Then & Now Poem

Directions: Think about your life now and how it has changed since you were younger. In a "Then & Now" poem, you write one line that describes a part of your life now; then, the next line describes what that part of your life used to be like. I recommend at least 4 stanzas for this poem.

Example:

I can write stories and poems confidently
I used to scribble in my mother's notebook and think I was writing

I can score points in tennis
There was a time when I was too little to hold up a tennis racket

I understand everything in my math book
Once I had trouble with math and had to ask my mother for help

I don't know how to play any instruments now, but
I used to play a flute in the school band

My brother and I get along really well today, but
we used to call each other names and hit each other every day

Sense-sational Poems

You can make your poetry come alive by using all your senses. What does your subject look like? Sound like? Smell like? Feel like? Taste like?

Use all your senses that make sense to describe your subject. You can use the format below which uses similes, or you can use a format of your own.

Format:

Line 1: Your subject
Line 2: Looks like ________________.
Line 3: Sounds like ________________.
Line 4: Smells like ________________.
Line 5: Feels like _________________.
Line 6: Tastes like ________________.
Line 7: Another name for your subject

Example:

Goldfish
Looks like a yellow submarine
Sounds like rippling water
Smells like food flakes
Feels like a sequined broach
Tastes like Friday dinner,
but I’ll never eat
My pet, Sharkie

Season Poem

Follow the following format to create a poem about one of the seasons:


Line 1: (season) is (adjective)

Line 2: Like (another thing that can be described by this adjective)

Line 3: It feels like (What does the season feel like?)

Line 4: It sounds like (What does the season sound like?)

Line 5: It smells like (What does the season smell like?)

Line 6: It tastes like (What does the season taste like?)

Line 7: (What else can you say about this season?)

Example:

Winter is white
Like a blank sheet of paper
It feels like being wrapped in blankets
It sounds like holiday music
It smells like chimney smoke
It tastes like hot chocolate
I love the first snow fall, but I am happy when Spring comes

Noisy Poem

Read the poem "Noise" by Jessie Pope. All the words in the poem that sound like their meaning are examples of onomatopoeia. (whoop, thud, rattle, boom, etc.)

Think of a rain storm. What are some of the words associated with a rain storm? A clap of thunder, rain drops, sprinkles, dripping, splashing.

Pick a topic to write about that has a lot of noises associated with it. Write a poem about this subject, including as many sounds as you can.

Example:

Too Noisy to Study

I'm trying to study. I really am.
I must do well on my next exam.

But what is that dripping and dropping and plinking?
It really is affecting my thinking!

And what is that buzzing and humming and drone?
Those sounds are really making me moan!

And what is that ticking and tocking and gonging?
For some silence, I really am longing!

And what is that crunching and munching and slurping?
I think it's the dog. Oh no! Now, he's burping!

Everyone quiet! Not one more sound!
How can I study with this noise all around!

Hmmmm.....now, it's too silent without even one peep.
It's too quiet for thinking. I think maybe I'll sleep.

Narrative Poem

Narrative poems tell stories. They can be long epic stories that fill a book or they can be short stories that fill a page. They can be serious thought-provoking tales, silly fun tales, or something in-between. What you absolutely have to have in a narrative poem, though, is all the elements of a story.

Example:

Big Girl

(introduction)

When I was a little girl
I wanted to show everyone
I was finally a big girl
So I walked beside
Daddy
His legs were longer than
My little, short legs
But I kept up with him to show
I was a big girl

(rising action)

It was hard
And I got tired
But I made sure
My little legs
Kept up with
Daddy's

(climax)

Then, one day
I stopped
And turned around
And saw Mommy
Behind us
She was tired
And it was hard for her to
Keep up with
Daddy and Jeffrey and me
She wasn't as big as us
She was small
Way back there
So, I stopped racing
And trying to show how big I was
And I walked with Mommy

(denouement)

And maybe we were way back
And small
But I felt bigger