Poetry Assignment

By Jennifer Jones

Learning Context:

Students are in sixth grade; this included an inclusion and an average classes. They are working on a Winter Olympic multi-genre project.

·  Plan:

-  Review the characteristics of an I Poem by sharing selected pages of Mojave by Diane Siebert on the overhead.

-  Discussed and underline on the transparency the words and phrases that contain precise, interesting, and factual language.

-  Then pass out McDonalds’ cups with I poems on them. Make a chart on the board about the precise, interest, and factual language used in those I Poems.

·  Mini-lesson:

Show students a short video of the luge, and pass out a page about the luge from the Time for Kids website.

-  Have student underline important information on the page about the luge.

-  Then display template of the I Poem on the overhead.

-  Have class create I Poem together using template on the overhead. Discuss whether words were interest, precise, and factual.

-  Provide invitation and rubric to students.

-  After students draft their poems, have them work on revising the content based on the rubric.

-  Have students edit their drafts to correct errors in spelling and mechanics.

-  Invite students to publish their final poems on the computer and create a magazine for the school library.

Memo

To: All 6th Grade Contributors

From: Mrs. Jones, Editor

Date: 2/23/04

Re: SSE Magazine Special Winter Olympic Edition (Third Assignment)

SSE Magazine Special Winter Olympic Edition will also include a special poetry section.

Your next magazine assignment will be to create an I Poem for this section about your Olympian, your country, or sport.

Use the research you have collected to help you write your poem. Be sure to use interesting and precise words and factual information in your poem.

Olympic Assignment Grading Rubric

Criteria / Criteria Met / Points
Yes / No
Assignment #1:
Press Pass
Includes your name and name of magazine / /8
Includes your country / /5
Includes picture of yourself / /2
Includes symbols/designs / /5
Total Points Received / /20
Assignment #2:
Magazine Products
Includes a product from each section using topic / /10
Products are neatly and colorfully done / /10
Products contain factual information / /5
Total Points Received / /25
Assignment #3:
Poem
Poem is about your topic / /5
Poem is in I AM format / /5
Poem describes your topic in interesting and precise words / /5
Poem includes accurate factual information about your topic / /5
Total Points Received / /20
Self – Assessment
Answered all self-assessment questions / /4
Questions are answered in complete sentences / /3
List of resources is included / /3
Total Points Received / /10
Total for all assignments / /75


Analysis of Poetry Assignment

By Jennifer Jones

I started out by designing my poetry project around a social studies unit I had planned on the Medieval World, but changed my mind after my students had shown an interest in the Winter Olympics. I decided to incorporate this assignment as part of a multi-genre project I had designed for them on the Winter Olympics. I started with the literary model of Mojave. We discussed the words she chose to describe the desert. I then passed out the cups. Next time I teach this I will show them the cups, but I will pass out a paper with both poems on it. The cups became playthings. We talked about the poems on the cups, and the words used to describe the athletes. We also discussed how poetry can show up anywhere, even on McDonald’s cups. The luge video caused some problems. Next time I will download it to CD and then show it. We had problems with bandwidths. I think modeling how to pick out the information from the page on the luge was an important step. It made writing the poem on the overhead a lot easier, because they had some ideas first. Moving into writing their own poems was somewhat hard. I wish I would have designed a graphic organizer for them to put precise, interesting, and factual language onto before they wrote their poems. They had a hard time getting beyond winning medals in their poems.

From their poems I can see that there was some impact on their learning. It wasn’t as much as I had hoped. I think the graphic organizer would have really helped. I noticed in many of my students’ poems that they did learn some factual information about their Olympian, sport, or country. Some of them were able to transfer what they had read to their poems. Others were able to only work at surface level. Again, the graphic organizer probably would have helped them dig beyond the surface.

Some of my students’ writing did improve. Some were able to use more precise and descriptive words in their poems.

I was hoping for some outstanding work, and I got a couple good poems. My students have minimal vocabularies, and this is something we continue to work on. I was hoping to see more descriptive words, but I didn’t. I think that graphic organizer would have probably helped.

I have continued to use poetry in other areas. I used it with a women’s history project I designed, as well as, a poetry project on a specific poem.

This project has impacted my teaching by making me think outside the box. I had gotten hung up on using the same types of assignments for content areas for years. It was refreshing to use poetry with my students instead of having them write dull paragraphs about what they have learned. I hope to find more ways to integrate it.