Introducing Poetry?

Question

I am trying to put together a poetry unit for my 5th and 6th graders.. I have all of the lessons for the types of poem I want to teach but I am having a hard time deciding how I want to introduce everything in the first day. Any ideas?

Answer 1

I teach first grade and I introduce a new poem to them every week. We break down the poem and study a different skill everyday. I write the poem on a chart tablet and do the following:

Monday: Introduction
On this day I cover the entire poem except for the title. The students take turns predicting what the poem will be about. Afterwards we read the poem and decide what kid of poem it is free verse, rhyming, etc.

Tuesday: Vocabulary
We use highlighter tape to identify unfamiliar words. We discuss the meaning of the word. Can it be replaced, if so does it change the meaning/ flow of the poem? We re-read the poem.

Wednesday: Concepts of Print
We discuss the conventions of print such as directionality (left to right, top to bottom), differences between letters and words, distinctions between upper and lower case, punctuation. You could adapt it to differnt print conventions or maybe even parts of speech for your students. You can even use a different colored highlighter tape to highlight the punctuation marks. Like if I am focusing on a particular type of punctuation- like quotation marks, I look for poems that have quotation marks in it and discuss how they are used, etc… We re-read the poem.

Thursday: Literacy Skills
We discuss the fluency of the poem, we talk about comprehension (Is it easy to understand, etc.)
We learn about the meaning. Read and understand each line, each verse, stanza etc. We re-read the poem.

Friday: Student Response
Each student has a notebook and on Friday I give them a copy of the poem, they glue it into their notebook on the left side- they draw and decorate a border around it and on the opposite page they write their response to the poem. Did they like it? They make connection to other poems(other texts,etc), or to self (does it remind them of somthing that happened to them? something they saw? etc..), or to the world around them.

At the end of the year they have a notebook packed with different poems on different subjects, themes, etc… You could select different types of poems each week or adapt this idea to your students and the information you have that you want to present to them. We use a balanced literacy approach in our school and this is one of the components.

Answer 2

MUSIC! :) I did this with 10th graders, but I'm sure it would easily transfer to 5th and 6th grade. Bring in some song lyrics of songs they know and demonstrate how it's a form of poetry. Some more appropriate artists could be: Will Smith, Natasha Beddingfield, Jewel, David Crowder, DC Talk, Switchfoot, Taylor Swift, etc. Or check out some fun Disney songs or even sung nursery rhymes!

Answer 3

Introduce the poetry one style at a time - not all at once.

For example: Monday, introduce limericks by reading several limericks to your students. Have them tell YOU what makes a limerick 'special', what are the 'rules' for creating limericks.
Then have them create their own and present them to the class.

Each day, (or after several days ~ depending on your student population) introduce a different style of poetry: Haiku, Free Verse, etc.

The bonus of this is that by week's end you have enough student samples to create a class book of poems. Typed up and bound - this always impresses parents and administration, as well as, giving the students a sense of accomplishment and pride.

Answer 4

Ask everyone to write a short poem of their own...4 lines. Then go around the room and have everyone read their poems and ask them what the poem means to them and what they think makes a good poem and what types of poems there are.

Answer 5

Start by having them browse many poetry samples from all types of poetry and write about which poems they enjoyed and why.

Answer 6

In my discovered opinion the folk of the widespread age have lost the respect and potential of poetry. Unknowingly merchandising themselves to a bleak destiny veiled in ineffective supplies of non secular freedom. while actually the excellent human species grows extra inane with its lack of understanding and self absorption. human beings might desire to take inventory in what extremely concerns and convey that throughout the process the words penned.

Answer 7

sing and recite