GRADE LEVEL: Fifth Grade/Sixth Six Week
ORGANIZING IDEA: Diversity: Strength or Strife
TITLE / SUBJECT: Poetry: Diversity in Rhyme
TIME FRAME: 45 minutes or 3-15 minute sessions
OBJECTIVES: Library skills: 5.A.5 - Self-select materials from a variety of literary genre for pleasure reading and/or to acquire information; 5.A.1—5.A.5c—poetry: Tolisten attentively, critically and purposefully to stories and other texts read aloud.
TEKS: 110.7.b.8.C -Read for varied purposes such as to be informed, to be entertained, to appreciate the writer's craft, and to discover models for his/her own writing (4-8)
110.7.b.8.A - Read classic and contemporary works
110.7.b.8.B - Select varied sources such as nonfiction, novels, textbooks, newspapers, and magazines when reading for information or pleasure
110.7.b.12.D - Recognize the distinguishing features of genres, including biography, historical fiction, informational texts, and poetry
110.7.b.12.G - Understand literary forms by recognizing and distinguishing among such types of text as stories, poems, myths, fables, tall tales, limericks, plays, biographies, and autobiographies
MATERIALS: A selection of poetry books, including multicultural and Spanish ones; overhead or chart; marker.
PROCEDURES:
Introduction:
1. Ask students if they know that April is National Poetry Month and if they’ve read a poem lately.
2. Ask students if they know how poetry is different from prose (may have to review the terms) and use a graphic organizer to record their answers.
3. Ask if they know where the poetry collection is located in Dewey.
4. Explain to them that poetry is as diverse as they are and guide them to the stack of books on each table.
Activity:
- Have students select a poetry book of interest to them.
- Have students peruse poetry books and select one short poem to read aloud to the class. (Circulate to make certain the poems selected are appropriate for reading aloud. Also, see if anyone needs help with pronunciations and meanings.)
- Ask for a volunteer to begin the readings and continue until time is up.
EVALUATION: By observation—students love this assignment and can’t wait to read aloud to their class—evenpoor readers participate. By including Spanish poems, students who feel more comfortable reading aloud in Spanish bring an added benefit to this lesson—helping students who don’t understand the language being spoken to empathize with classmates whose first language isn’t English.
Submitted by Betty Koonce