Does anyone else out there use poetry on a weekly basis with their students? This is one of my goals for the new school year. We will have reading “binders” that house their reading journal, guided reading work, center activities and a poetry notebook section.
Each Monday during my Skills Block (think: Vocabulary/Grammar) we would read a new poem and introduce a new skill. The skill is always embedded into the poem. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we reinforce the skill through partner games, poem-related activities and other printables. We reread the poem everyday to build fluency. I’m going to post the poem each week as a center workstation and have the kids do an activity that connects the poem to a reading skill… visualizing, connections, etc. On Friday, I assess the current skill as well as reviewing skills previously taught during Skills Block.
Each unit I’ve created has been posted in my TpT store. For some reason, the unit on singular and plural nouns will not upload to Teacher’s Notebook. The order of the units for me is based on the skills mandated by my state (GA) and school system.
Week 1: Prefixes (just un- and re-… We go back and add more throughout the year.)
Week 2: Synonyms and Antonyms
Week 3: Homophones
Week 4: Singular and Plural Nouns
Week 5: Contractions
Week 6: Suffixes
Week 7: Review and Extend
(I only have 7 weeks for this quarter because we spend the first week of school introducing the 7 Habits, Reader’s Workshop and Writer’s Workshop. The second week is spent reinforcing rituals and routines and introducing Words Their Way.)
I just finished a fun new unit on suffixes! I’m putting it up in my TpT store and my Teacher’s Notebook store. It’s only $2 right now!
BACK to my original question….
How do you use poetry in your classroom? I would love to hear from you!
This year I plan on making it a required reading section in my library like the Book Whisperer. I hope to have some more kids blogging about poetry. I will also have to do several weekly lessons of poetry but that is because we are sure that the new STAAR test is going to have a section on poetry.
I used to do a big poetry notebook with my students. We did a unit of poetry towards the end of the year and it was a huge HIT! I would be more than happy to share ideas with you.
Poetry will be one of the genre requirements for my 30 book challenge. We also use poetry to help us practice fluency. I put poems in the fluency center for them to time each other.
I begin poetry in January. I present the students with short poem consisting of 5 stanzas or so on the board for them to copy or I give them a copy. I recite the poem, we chorally read it together and then I do boys read and girls read. We then discuss figurative language or a comprehension skill. We do this everyday for no more than 10 minutes. Then on Friday students are to find a group of 4 friends to recite the poem. Students then make podcasts of their groups chorally reading the poem. Some of my students turn the poems into raps. They love making it their own!
I do a poetry notebook. We get a new poem *just about* every week. I do them for content areas or holidays or whatever. It is displayed by our calendar area and we read it daily- chorally or student volunteers.
On Friday when I give spelling tests (I have three lists, so it takes about 20 minutes) my kids add their new poem to their notebooks (a composition book) and they re-read old poems for fluency.
Here's a link to that page of my website: Mrs. Bainbridge's poetry notebooks
🙂
Christina
Mrs. Bainbridge's Blog
I love using poetry in my class and my students love their poetry notebooks! I agree with @Amber that I would really like to get them blogging about their poetry this year.
Here's a link to my blog about poetry notebooks: Teachable Moments: Poetry Notebooks
J'Lynn