Upper Grade Writing Unit Of Study Big Idea Poetry Date Of Study April/May Grade 4

Upper Grade Writing Unit of Study Big Idea Poetry Date of Study April/May Grade 4

Step in the Collecting Entries Choosing Developing Drafting Revising Editing Publishin Writing g Process

Number of 5 - 8 1 3 2 4 2 2 Days

Poets of Big Idea Poetry Poets of Big Idea Poetry Poets of Big Idea Big Ideas Can Making Our Conventions Aesthetics collect entries that help Choose Entries that Poetry Think Be Written As Big Idea that Convey that Immersion should them and their readers Help Them and Their Through the Idea / Poems Poems Better Meaning Convey happen in: to think about bigger Readers to Think Linger with the Idea Meaning -Shared reading issues in their lives and About Bigger Issues in Before Drafting -Writers can Depending on Poetic use of -Poetry Centers in the world Their Lives and in the draft their poem the mentor punctuation Rewrite -Read Alouds World -Writers of big idea by first writing it texts used in based on poem with Choose 2-3 mentor texts poetry consider the down in a this study and mentor text particular Students should from those used during Students reread entries elements of story narrative lessons taught attention to keep a collection of immersion that best collected in this study when developing their structure and in the previous Use of how favorite poems highlight strong and choose 2 or 3 that ideas; these may then using line study, students Conventions aesthetic emotions; Teachers they feel will become become lines in their breaks to break it will choose based on characteristi Co-create a poetry should consider using strong inspiration for Big drafted poem up into possible from the identified cs can noticing chart that the work of Langston Idea poems lines of a poem. following list needs of affect focuses on ideas Hughes, Eloise Setting / Action Rewrite it as a when revising students overall being shared / Greenfield and Donald Students share their Place poem in draft their poems to meaning messages being Graves among others choices with a partner. form illuminate / Spelling and communicated Angle the talk by highlight the Structure transmissio In collecting, students do verbally stating what was -Writers big idea. Punctuation n of not usually write in strong and memorable External Internal eliminate the emotion Dialogue Dialogue * Teachers should poetic form. This is the about their choice extraneous and -Writers of big consider using time to gather ideas, only use the idea poetry whole class Shared feelings and thoughts Teachers should refer to words they revise their Writing Lessons that may inspire “Big charts co-constructed absolutely need poems keeping model the work Idea” poems later on. during past Read Alouds to convey their the following throughout the during this process. message. (Cross in mind: -Writers of big idea writing process -Writers of poetry reread Students will be out words that poetry study mentor past entries in their supported by big ideas are not essential) texts to prepare them  Changing notebook on the lookout discussed in previously Rewrite using for drafting looking ordinary for entries connected to read texts. only essential closely at the mood of language to strong emotions or words now that other poems and how poetic significant experiences the non-essential poets created it language (This and then “lift a line” to have been helps the write long off of. This Example: eliminated. reader to better can often inspire future Overall mood picture or poems Text What I experience explicitly can infer Example: says about the what the poem mood is trying to Once when I was convey.) walking with my mom, we saw my  Repetition Uncle and he gave us a (Writers repeat ride to the store we particular were going to. We -Writers of big idea words or needed to buy some poetry leave the phrases within things for my birthday reader to infer the idea the poem to party. Etc…. but do not state it add to the directly. They can do mood or to this by creating mood better convey Walking with my and adding detail to the big idea / mom their pieces; Writers message.) My mom and I walk a can complete a T- lot together. We talk chart listing what they  Metaphor / and laugh a lot when want to say / tell their Simile we are walking. readers directly on (Writers use Sometimes I see one side and then how comparison to families walking and they might write it say what they are just listening without telling them something is to music or just directly on the other like rather than ignoring each other but side saying it my mom talks to me or directly.) listens to me if I need her to. The great -When things is that it doesn’t revising, poets even cost anything! reread their We can just make up poems and our own fun and….. consider adding or -Writers of big idea removing poetry find ideas in their words / everyday lives. List phrases in events / things that order to happened in your life in convey their the last 24 hours and then message. reread the list noticing if any questions/reflections surface; write long in response to the questions Example: Things that Questions / happened Reflection last 24 that come hours up about them Woke up and it was cold in the house Had So annoying breakfast that my and we were brother takes out of milk the last of everything Why do Walked to some parents school with let their little my cousin kids walk alone? Hung out with Tyler at lunch Helped Why won’t clean the my mom fish tank trust me with a pet? Etc…

Why won’t my mom trust me with a pet? I feel sometimes like my mom only pretends to trust me. Trust is something you either have or don’t have. If I can take care of my baby sister, why can’t I take of a fish? Or a hamster? Maybe it is a money thing and not a trust thing. She should just be honest about it. Etc…

-Writers of big idea poetry write about ordinary things and observations and reflect on their significance to inspire future poems

-Writers of big idea poetry often write about experiences and people that bring up strong feelings and thoughts which can inspire future poems

- Writers of big idea poetry think about larger issues in the world around them to inspire future poems

4th Quarter EM’s Addressed

GLE’s W-4-5.1 W-4-10 W-4-2.1 W-4-1.1 W-4-1.1 W-4-1.1 W-4-10 Addressed W-4-5.3 W-4-4.1 W-4-4.1 W-4-4.1 W-4-9.1 W-4-11.2 W-4-10 W-4-4.2 W-4-4.2 W-4-4.2 W-4-9.2 W-4-11.1 W-4-5.1 W-4-5.1 W-4-5.1 W-4-9.3 W-4-11.3 W-4-5.3 W-4-5.3 W-4-5.3 W-4-9.4 W-4-10 W-4-10 W-4-10 W-4-9.5 W-4-10 Upper Grade Writing Unit of Study Narrative Poetry Date of Study April/May Grade 4

Educational Measurables and Grade Level Expectations Across Balanced Literacy Components

Balanced Literacy Component Suggestions for Instruction 4th Quarter EM’s Addressed GLE’s Addressed

Read Aloud

Chose poems relevant to Notice how it unfolds like a R-4-3.1 R-4-4 students’ lives. story. R-4-3.2 R-4-5 Choose Narrative poems Questions might include: R-4-6 *(see suggested list next page) What struck you about poem? R-4-15 Did any words create Poems should be read for interesting pictures? discussion as an interactive read Were there any words you aloud (not for dissection) especially liked? What did you wonder? Keep balance in literacy by reading aloud other genres in In addition to turn & talk, addition to poetry. students can do quick sketches to visualize the poem (or parts of poem)

Shared Reading

Read poem as a read aloud first, Read a poem over 4 days. R-4-3.1 R-4-17.2 before turning a poem into a Ie. Teaching point each day R-4-3.2 R-4-12.1 shared read. may focus on following: R-4-13 Put poems on overhead or chart Day 1-comprehension R-4-7.2 paper for shared reading. Day 2- vocab. R-4-7.3 Day 3-similes, metaphors & Eventually will use other genres other literary language for shared reading during study Day 4- punctuation for to bring balance to literacy phrasing & fluency “Whole Group” Writing May want to do whole class (Modeled / Shared) writing of an ordinary object W-4-5

E.g. Poets see ordinary objects with “poet’s eye” write off of an ordinary object like a pen, or any other ordinary object, and write about it in a not-so ordinary way (my pen is a thin volcano overflowing with blue lava)

This component need not Word / Language Study directly correlate with the R-4-3.1 R-4-2.1 Unit of Study. You might R-4-3.2 R-4-3.1 continue to focus on the R-4-3.2 needs of your students. For R-4-1.1 example, you might teach W-4-9.5 synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, shades of meaning; word structure including base words, prefixes and suffixes; or syllable types.

Words Their Way by Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton and Johnston is a great resource. Upper Grade Writing Unit of Study Narrative Poetry Date of Study April/May Grade 4

Text Suggestions

Children’s Literature Writers’ Notebooks / Drafting Folders Professional Reading Resources to use in your actual teaching. Organizational tips for this study. Professional resources you may find supportive as you as you roll out this study.

“Been to Yesterdays, Poems of a Life” Lee - Students may collect in poetic or non- A Note Slipped Under Door-Teaching from Bennett Hopkins poetic form Poems We Love, Nick Flynn

“Twilight Comes Twice” Ralph Fletcher - Collecting should be centered around The No Nonsense Guide to Teaching Writing¸ strong emotion Chapter 10, Judy Davis and Sharon Hill “Baseball, Snakes and Summer Squash” Donald Graves - Graphic organizers can be helpful for Poem-making: Ways to Begin Writing Poetry, organizing and collecting M.C. Livingston “Sea Watch” pps.11,15,21 Jane Yolen T-Charts

“Brown Angels” Walter Dean Myers - Students should be trying out forms and styles of mentor poems in their “Slam Dunk” Lillian Morrison Writers’ Notebook

“Creatures of the Earth, Sea and Sky” Georgia - Students should use previous entries Heard in their Writers’ Notebook to spur new collecting for Narrative Poetry. Their “Sierra” Diane Siebert notebooks are full of narrative collecting from previous UOS. They “Home, A Collaboration of 30 Distinguished should identify emotions that they felt Authors” edited by Michael Rosen during the events described in the collecting. “Home, A Journey through America” Thomas Locker

Kids’ Poems, Regie Routman Upper Grade Writing Unit of Study Narrative Poetry Date of Study April/May Grade 4

Monitoring Student Learning

Indicators of Understanding When conferring, you might say / ask:

1. Students include all story elements in the narrative poem. 1. Smart writers, when writing Narrative Poetry carefully use the criteria of a Narrative Poem to guide their drafting. Narrative Poetic writing should include all the elements of story. Talk to me about the different elements of story that are a part of your Narrative Poem.

2. Students convey the strong emotion or crucial nature of the 2. Smart writers, when writing Narrative Poetry, attempt to moment in the narrative poem. communicate a strong emotion through the telling of an event. Let me read your poem back to you and you tell me what emotion the poem communicates. What words, images, and sounds might help communicate the emotion you want your reader to experience.

3. Students demonstrate knowledge of poetic form and its 3. Smart writers of Narrative Poetry attempt to communicate uses. meaning through words but also through form. White space, word choice, and shape can help communicate the emotion and meaning of the poem. Lets look at our list of poetic forms that we might use to better use form to communicate meaning and emotion.

4. Students demonstrate understanding of the ways 4. Smart writers of Narrative Poetry see how conventions and convention and aesthetics can convey meaning in poetry. publishing can add to the meaning of their poetry. Are there some way that you can use color or font , punctuation or sentence structure to better communicate the meaning and emotion of your poem. Suggestions for Intensive Small Group / One-on-One Work

When data shows… / For students who you notice are… You might try…

1. Not following the narrative poetic style and have not 1. Working within a T-Chart that allows the small group of included story elements in their Narrative Poems… students to line up the story elements from a Narrative Story in one column and the same story elements in poetic form in the second column or reviewing the criteria chart of a Narrative Poem with them or refocusing the student on their chosen Mentor Poem and reviewing what it is about the poem that makes it a Narrative Poem and identify the different story elements in the Mentor Poem

2. Not invoking a strong emotion or crucial feeling in their 2. Exploring vocabulary that conveys strong emotion or Narrative Poems (poems that do this will be more a reporting revisiting Mentor Poems through a small group read aloud of an event without the emotional connections)… during which you are able to model the strong emotions through expressive reading of the Poem or partnering two students together to tell the Narrative of their poems to each other complete with relating the thoughts and feelings of the moment in their telling or working with a T-Chart that lines up the events in one column and the emotions connected with each event included in the Narrative.

3. Unable to use poetic form and are still writing their 3. A small group to which you demonstrate how to break up narrative in prose… the narrative into specific events or emotion. Then in a T- Chart transpose a line of prose about a specific event or emotion in the narrative into a poetic line that gets across the same specific event or emotion or demonstrate the differences between narrative and narrative poetry in your own writing. (This issue will arise with some students. Remember that their prose is their first approximation of Narrative Poetry. They are just having a harder time letting go of the more familiar prose style. Give them multiple examples of how a story can be told in prose and in poetry.)

4. Not attending to the aesthetics (publication, color, font, 4. Demonstrating the strength of aesthetics to convey illustrations, etc.) and their ability to convey the story or the meaning through your own writing (e.g. using red to write a emotion… Narrative Poem in which anger played a big role, using ALL CAPS to convey importance of a specific word or section of a poem, using punctuation to slow a reader down at a lazy part of the poem or no punctuation to speed a reader up at a nervous part of the poem) or create a chart where you take one line of poetry through various different colors, fonts, punctuations, and forms that express different feelings with each change. e.g. - squeak (small quiet squeak) SQUEAK (very loud, huge door) Squeeeeeeaaak (opening an old door slowly) Six Room Image Chart

______

Image Light

Sound Questions

Feelings Repeating Words Thunderstorm, from Basketball, Snakes, and Summer Squash, by Donald Graves

Rags trembles under the table with the first sound of thunder; the second boom sends her panting into the bedroom to lie on Mother’s clothes.

Mother brings George and me out to the screen porch of our summer cottage. Lightning pierces the dark like silver darts, rumbles follow. I wonder if war sounds the same.

“Start counting , one-one hundred, two-one hundred the second you see the lightning flash, then you’ll know how many miles away the storm is.”

“When thunderstorms come, your Aunt Helen draws the shades and curtains and jumps into bed, even pulls the covers over her head.”

ZZZZZZZt – bang! “That was right on top of us.” We giggle our excitement. Mother says, “I wouldn’t miss this show and it doesn’t cost a penny.” On Being Sent to My Room from Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash by Donald Graves

Each morning I hurry through chores before school: dry the dishes, dump the trash, make my bed.

One day I skip chores; I hope to finish them when I come home. Mother waits for me when I come through the door.

“Why weren’t the chores done?” “Well, the day isn’t over, I’ll do them now.” “Too late. Go to your room and think it over.”

I sit in my room, read my book; I cook a plan. I won’t come downstairs not even for supper.

“You can come down now.” “I’m still thinking.” I read my book I have a cracker in my desk drawer.

“You can come down now; time for supper.” “Nope, still thinking.” “You have five seconds to be down these stairs, one, two, three….” Fake It from Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash by Donald Graves

Miss Johnson gives us fifty math problems, a whole page of misery that ruins a perfectly good evening of reading my book.

In the morning I wake with forty math problems staring at me.

At breakfast Mother says, “Finish your cereal, Donald. You’ll be late for school.”

Gradually my moth fills and I swallow nothing until my cheeks bulge. I spring from my seat, race for the bathroom and BLAH, I blow the whole mess into the toilet.

“Ma, Ma,” I yell. “I’ve just thrown up.”

Mother races in, looks over my shoulder. “You do that again and I’ll tan your hide.” Grades from Been to Yesterdays by Lee Bennett Hopkins

K through three in Scranton, PA.

Grade four in faraway Newark, NJ.

Grade five another school another teacher another new face.

Grade six in some other new part of another Newark-place

One thing I learned from all of these schools is that I am someone who will make my own rules. Foul Shot by Edwin A. Hoey in Slam Dunk by Lillian Morrison

With two 60’s stuck on the scoreboard And two seconds hanging on the clock, The solemn boy in the center of eyes, Squeezed by silence, Seeks out the line with his feet, Soothes his hands along his uniform, Gently drums the ball against the floor, Then measures the waiting net, Raises the ball on his right hand, Balances it with his left, Calms it with fingertips, Breathes, Crouches, Waits, And then through a stretching of stillness, Nudges it upward. The ball slides up and out. Lands, Leans, Wobbles, Wavers, Hesitates, Exasperates, Plays it coy Until every face begs with unsounding screams – And then And then, And then, Right before ROAR-UP, Dives down and through. The Grandstander by Anne Haeusler in Slam Dunk by Lilliam Morrison

The score was tied with a minute to go. Ball caught at midcourt – she poised for the throw, a two-handed shot, a perfect long loop. Unbelievable! Right into the hoop. She should have passed but all the same her team forgave her for winning the game. The Bully

Bobby Nelson is the toughest kid in our class; I am the smallest His hoarse voice finds me every day on the way to school and home again. “Hey, Rabbit, whatcha doin’?” A rock drops into my gut. He walks next to me, throws his elbow into my ribs and edges me to the curb hoping I’ll take a swing at him. I tried once and he flipped me like a toy dog.

One day Jim, my best friend, gets fed up with Nelson’s jabs and taunts. Someone on the playground yells “fight” and a ring of kids surrounds them. “Hit ‘im Jim.” “Take him, Nelson.” They shove back and forth saying, “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, think you’re big, think you’re tough.” Nelson takes a swing; Jim catches his arm and twists him to the ground; the dust flies, the circle cheers. Jim sits on Nelson like we own the playground, the school, and everything in it. GRANDPA Ralph Fletcher

Grandpa came to visit every spring. In Grandpa’s study we drank hot chocolate We’d get up early, just he and I, while he read from a book of fairy tales. and sneak outside at sunrise I saw on his windows the blooming frost while diamonds danced all over the lawn. and asked about those delicate lines. Grandpa told me how spiders work Grandpa told me about the winter elves stringing water beads on the finest thread, who come at dusk with magical brushes decorating their webs with morning dew, to sketch on glass their silvery hues, and Grandpa never lied so I knew it was true. and Grandpa never lies so I knew it was true.

In winter Grandpa took me on long walks. Once Grandpa took me ice fishing at night. We always stopped at Tolliver’s barn He held my hand while we crossed Spy Pond to pull down wicked icicle swords, and showed me how to cut out circles of ice. each one filled with sharp clear light, When I asked if he still missed Grandma and challenged each other to death by duel. fat young tears rolled down his cheeks Grandpa explained how wind works at night and I heard the ice settle and moan. sharpening icicles long as they grow, He said: “Ice this deep can talk to you,” and Grandpa never lied so I knew it was so. and Grandpa never lied so I knew it was true.

taken from: Water Planet, 1991