GLT-Concrete Poems!

What students learned and which students struggled with the lesson.

Of all the lessons in the poetry unit this was by far my favorite. I think this was the students’ favorite poems to write because not only did they get to have fun with it, they were able to create an image and incorporate creativity both into their written poem and the shape/artwork that coincided with it. Every student was able to create a poem that they were excited and proud of. Before students were allowed to make their own poems we brainstormed a class list so that everyone would have an idea, something that I think was very beneficial to students who had trouble thinking of something. This lesson placed importance not only on the picture/shape they drew but also the words they chose. I was glad that we had student’s read their poems without showing the class and allowing their peers to guess what it was about before revealing their artwork. This really allowed students to learn how important good descriptive words could be in writing. I was also blown away by the quality of what students were creating. Not only were they getting into the nitty gritty of using words, phrases, and sentences but they were creating images with their words that you could really tell what they were trying to convey. For example one student did one about lighting and each bolt from the sky was a sentence about it. Students don’t get many opportunities to tune into their creative side and I think all the students took advantage of that during this lesson.

What did you learn about your students? literacy practices that extend beyond your objectives?

As mentioned in the previous question I learned how creative students can be when given the chance. I was also surprised at what they noticed and pointed out in the examples we went through as a class. For example it was ok to split words up and not write complete sentences. One student even said “so today it’s ok if we don’t follow the normal writing rules?” Once students were aware that they could use this to their creative advantage they did. I also learned how excited and proud students were of their work. I knew that they would enjoy them but I underestimated the extent.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who need additional support?

Poetry is a genre of literature that normally gets overlooked or pushed to the side and viewed as less important. But, students all loved this unit and being able to create the different poems. I feel like some of the lessons were a little rushed to make it through the whole lesson and some students weren’t allowed enough time to finish all their poems. With this being said I think poetry could be spread throughout the while year maybe spending 2 or 3 lessons on it a month. That way students get a wide range of examples and kinds and they would be able to focus in and finish their poems regarding that days lesson either that same day or over the next few. In this particular lesson, while we did brainstorm a list of ideas and I circulated while individually helping anyone who seemed to be struggling with creating their concrete poems, we could have created a class poem. This would have been just another example for students to see but also to feel like they were a part of in making thus instilling more confidence and enthusiasm to create their own. After helping students who needed additional support they did achieve excitement about what they were writing about.


If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you do differently and how do you think the changes would improve students?

Overall, I was highly pleased with how this lesson flowed and the outcomes of both the student’s understanding of this type of poetry and the ones they created. The only change I would make would be to create a class poem. This again allows students to practice writing and creating the poem before they are expected to create one by themselves. Also maybe seeing if there were examples of words creating pictures in an ad in the magazines or on a billboard so that they could make a connection to their own lives.

GLT

Concrete Poems Lesson

What students learned and which students struggled with the
lesson.

I was incredibly pleased with this lesson. I found some of the other lessons in which students had to think about syllables, metaphors and similes when writing and analyzing was much more difficult but I found all of the students in my class to excel in this specific lesson. I found all students to truly understand and grasp what this new type of poem I was introducing to them was. I was happy to see their excitement with writing the different concrete poems; they had wonderful ideas and came up with such great topics to write about. I feel there was not much struggle with this lesson and with students figuring out what to write about or how to write this type of poetry because I gave many examples, we made a class example, as well as made a class list on chart paper of ideas for great things to write about as topics for their concrete poems. I was the most pleased with this particular lesson with students understanding the style of poetry, there was little confusion and great poems were written.

What did you learn about your students? literacy practices that
extend beyond your objectives?

I learned a lot about my students through this lesson. I found their ability to use descriptive words as well as their creativity when describing their topic for their concrete poems to be amazing. I was very happy and excited to see how many students were able to write two and three different concrete poems. In past lessons some students struggled with getting through one poem. I also learned about the confidence many of my students have in getting in front of their classmates and talking. In this lesson was the first time my students read their poems to the whole group. I learned about their ability to express themselves as well as read at appropriate speeds and with feeling. I learned about how remarkable my students? imaginations are and how they are able to compare and describe things in such a fun and unique way, which I as an adult would never think of.

When and how will you re-teach the material to students who
need additional support?

I will try my very best to fit in time for more poetry review. I would like to add in each month one lesson for a review of the different types of poetry we learned about throughout the unit. I know that will be difficult because of the very tight schedule we already have but that is my goal. I will also try and make any connections between texts we read, stories we tell or anything we see throughout the year that may relate to my poetry unit. I want to try and remind them throughout the year of all they learned throughout the two week period and help them to understand the importance of continued practice of reading, analyzing and writing poetry. If students would like to stay in during recess time or take home a poetry packet to work on I would be more than happy to make up something like that. Some students seem to be so excited still about writing poetry and I see them writing poems with any free time they have. I believe having an option for an extra assignment or activity for students to do outside of school that relates to my unit would be fun and incredibly beneficial for students remembering and sticking with all they learned throughout the unit and actually practicing it beyond the two weeks we had together.

If you were to teach this same lesson again, what would you
do differently and how do you think the changes would
improve students?

I feel many of my poetry lessons I would have taught differently but with this specific one I was very pleased with the outcome. I would have liked to have more time at the end for students to read their poems and quiz each other on trying to guess what the topic of their concrete poems were. It saddens me each time when we share that I am not able to get to all students. I would have liked to hit half the students during the end of the lesson and the other half at the beginning of the following day but time just simply does not allow for that. I feel describing the set up of concrete poems, giving many examples and setting up expectations for writing concrete poems was very helpful in this lesson going successfully. I also believe it was very beneficial for us as a class to make a concrete poem. It allowed students to not only see examples, but be a part of making a class example and really experience the process. I also believe making a brainstorming list of topic ideas for the poems was helpful for any students that frequently have troubles with getting started on writing their poems.

GLT

The introduction to my literacy unit went extremely well (as did the unit overall). My students were introduced to Patricia Polacco as an author and as a person. They were truly involved in the read aloud and discussion of Polacco. They also learned how we would be using an author study to help us learn and strengthen our reading strategies. This lesson was very important for my entire unit as it set up the atmosphere and expectations for the 9 days that followed. I encouraged all students to participate, thus ensuring that the majority of them would learn some key ideas about the author. Using a group share discussion also assisted with their learning, as 30 students sharing their ideas helped spark the connection for students who may have been struggling.

In reading my students entries in their Author Study Journals, I discovered that several of them were not using their resources to assist with spelling (many errors with high frequency words and words that we had listed together on the SMARTboard). Setting up the journal in an example was helpful to many of them, but I noticed several entries that were almost exactly the same as the example I shared with them. Several students struggle with capitalization, punctuation, and sentence structure. After teaching this lesson, I learned that I needed to spell out my expectations for their writing every day to remind them of these practices.

I would not re-teach this exact unit specifically, but I am definitely open to teaching another Author Study. I felt that using an A.S. was an excellent way to teach reading strategies within a specific genre. If I were to teach the same lesson again, I would have given more explicit instruction to assist the students who needed additional support. I also would have had these 5 students sit with a parapro or parent volunteer to keep them on track and help them structure their writing. Having a small group be involved with an adult would have been very beneficial in improving my students' learning.