Spring into April - The Important Thing for Test Review

Hullo! Gary here from ScrappyGuy Designs. I get to write today's post for the Primary Peach. Good times, good times.

When I heard that it was for National Poetry Month, I started scratching my head. My brain is so full of stress Standardized Testing that it took me a bit to wrap my brain around turning to poetry. Then it hit me. Why not create poems for test review?

Fun, right? A perfect way to get the students to think back to material we've covered this year, especially in Social Studies and Science. It would require them to look carefully through their notes and come up with pertinent information to create a poetry piece.

I love using Margaret Wise Brown's book, The Important Book, as a  mentor text in my poetry unit. Her poems use a simple structure that the students can recreate with almost any topic. She starts off with a main idea sentence :

The important thing about a daisy is that it is white.

Then she lists a few details about the flower, or spoon, or rain. Then she repeats the main idea sentence again:

But the important thing about a daisy is that is it white.

Students love using this format and apply it to the various topics  we've studied this year.

Here's one I use with them about grass:

You can let them get crazy with the fonts, color, sizing, and stuff to really show off their creativity.

Here is one of the poems past students have created using our academic content:

The Important Thing about Ferdinand Magellan   By: Mike Lagat

The important thing about Ferdinand Magellan

is that he discovered the Philippine Islands.

He went to Spain to get boats.

He named an ocean the Pacific [Peaceful].

His crew traveled around the world.

So, the important thing about Ferdinand Magellan is that he discovered the Philippines Islands.





  

Spring into April - Using Found Poetry to Dig Up Main Idea

One of my favorite ways to have students connect with a passage or story is through found poetry. With found poetry students can identify the main idea and supporting details in a text.

Found poetry takes specific words and phrases from a piece of writing and organizes them into a poem.  This can be done numerous ways. Students can highlight or underline on a page that is copied. If the text can't be copied (such as a textbook)  students can lightly underline the words/phrases with a pencil (they can erase these marks when the lesson is complete).

                         

Once the words or phrases are chosen, the students will cut or write the words.

Students will then organize the words into a poem. The poem will usually be a free verse poem.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sample Lesson Plan

Essential Question: What is the main idea? 

Objective: Students will create a found poem using the important words and phrases from a reading passage. 

Standards: RL.1.1, 2.1. 3.1, 4.1, 5.1 

Procedure: 

1. Introduce the topic: "Today we are going to go on a dive to see if we can find some poetry. Everyone put on your scuba gear, grab your pencils, and let's go swim with the sharks!"

2. Read this Bull Shark Passage. (Just click to access the FREE download) 

3. Read the passage as a whole group, in partners, or independently depending on the level and purpose of your lesson.  Tell students to read for the purpose of learning the most important thing(s) about Bull Sharks. 

4. Then have the students reread the passage.  Have them underline or highlight the words/phrases they feel are the most important or those words really stand out to them.  

5. Students will cut out or write the words they chose.  

6. The words will be organized into a poem (free verse is typically the easiest for this lesson) 

7. Have an Author's Share.  I usually start with 2-3 students and then have the class break into smaller groups to ensure that all students get to share.  If you want to learn more about author's share time, read this post.  

Assessment: 

Ticket Out the Door - What is the most important thing you learned about Bull Sharks? 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the poem I wrote. 

Bull Sharks

By: Jessica Zannini

Zambezi, Slip-away

most dangerous shark 

head-butt snout

highly adapted kidneys

Atlantic, Indian, Amazon lake

fresh river

tiny eyes diving

shrinking

close to shore

murky water

safe? 

Looking for more ways to teach poetry?  Check out these posts:

You can also follow this Teaching Poetry Pinterest Board for more engaging poetry ideas.  

Follow Notes From the Portable's board Teaching Poetry to Kids on Pinterest.