Accelerated Literacy Learning
Region 10
2006-2007
Poetry
Grades 6-8
This genre study is designed to help students develop an understanding of how to analyze
poetry and how to write their own poems. Students need to be exposed to a wide range of
poems that invite them into the world of poetry. The poetry anthologies in the classroom
should contain a variety of poems that reflect the students’ interests and abilities. Many
of these poems will become a source for meaningful discussions in the classroom as
students make deep connections to the poems they are reading.
Students will be engaged in identifying the characteristics and structures of poetry. They
begin the unit by studying the various aspects of poetry. Using the characteristics
identified, students will craft their own poems, borrowing strategies and structures from
the poems they have studied. Throughout the study students learn to think like poets as
they examine, analyze, and respond to published poems while they write their own
poetry.
NCEE Standards
The NCEE standards included in this document offer the teacher guidance with
curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The standards provide a way to bridge daily
instruction with what the students should be able to understand and produce at the
conclusion of the unit.
The following standards represent the expectations for students when producing
literature:
Sixth-Eight Grade:
• Write poems--conforming to appropriate expectations for each form.
• Produce a piece that incorporates elements appropriate to the genre after engaging
in a genre study.
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The Structure of a Genre Study
This packet describes a genre study in poetry. All genre studies follow a similar structure
in which the students are engaged in two strands of work.
Immersion
One strand of a genre study is an immersion in literature; in this case, an immersion in
poetry. During early lessons, the teacher and the students build a definition of the genre
from carefully chosen poems. These are poems that the class is initially exposed to during
Reader’s Workshop and informally during the day (chanting poems during transitions,
reading the poems that are displayed in the classroom with partners, etc.) as well as
throughout the entire unit of study.
These poems should first be read to students in a read-aloud time during which they
experience the poems as readers. This allows them to make personal connections,
understand the content of the poems, and relate the poems to the information they already
know. Students return to the poems during Writer’s Workshop to read or listen to them as
writers, noticing their characteristics.
From these noticings, the students and teacher build a definition of poetry. The teacher
selects a few poems as class touchstones for the unit. Students will experience these same
poems throughout the unit in order to develop and understanding of the essential
elements of poetry.
Student Writing
The other strand of a genre study is the students’ own writing. In this unit of study
students will be studying the elements of poetry. During the immersion stage, after
sharing and talking about poems the class is reading, the teacher creates opportunities for
students to write in their notebook. Students will also study the characteristics of poetry
as the class co-creates a definition. From these initial noticings, students will begin
writing their own poems.
Students will write a variety of poems throughout this unit of study. Their poems will be
based on their feelings, wonderings, observations, and memories. Students will be
exposed to different structures of poetry (i.e., list poems) as they use different formats of
paper provided by the teacher. The poems written in sections one, two, and three are
initial drafts that are revised, edited, and published in section four.
In this unit of study, the class will publish a poetry anthology featuring one or two poems
written and illustrated by each child.
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This template shows the flow of any genre study in the Writer’s Workshop. The arrow
indicates that on some days the work is from the immersion side of the study and that on
other days the work will be from the student writing side.
WRITING: GENRE STUDY OVERVIEW
IMMERSION IN TEXT
 Best-guess gathering
Note: Best-guess gathering can take place
during Reader’s Workshop as students
finish the work from the previous unit
during Writer’s Workshop.
STUDENT WRITING
From the previous unit of study:
 Editing
 Publishing
 Celebration
 Reflection

Building a definition of the genre

Collecting entries in the writer’s
notebooks (or writer’s folders for
K-1)

Sifting and sorting through texts
(students)


Rereading to choose a seed
idea/topic
Gathering around the seed/topic

Selecting class touchstone texts
(teacher)



Drafting
Revising
Editing

Selecting individual mentor texts
(students)




Editing
Publishing
Celebration
Reflection
For the next unit of study:
 Best-guess gathering
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Big Ideas of the Weeks of the Study
The following time frames are suggestions. The teacher should adjust the pacing based on
the needs of the students.
A note on reflection:
We are encouraging students to be reflective learners. In order to emphasize this habit of
mind, the teacher asks students at this early stage to write what they already know about
poetry and what they think they might learn as writers of poetry. Teachers will ask their
students to reflect in the middle and end of the unit.
Best-guess Gathering
Best-guess gathering occurs as the students are editing and publishing the work of the
previous unit of study and before the poetry unit formally begins. This is a period of time
during which the teacher is using Reader’s Workshop, daily read-aloud time, and other
times throughout the day to share many of the poems s/he is going ask the students to
study as they write their own poems.
Section One: Immersion
After students have had the opportunity to read and respond to a variety of poems during
Reader’s Workshop and at other times during the day, they will begin looking for a poem
that somehow defines a part of who they are. As Charles Simic says, “A poem is
someone else’s snapshot in which you see yourself.” They will look and see if they can
find themselves and their lives in the poems they are reading. During this activity,
students will make a deep personal connection to a selected poem before illustrating and
writing their own poem.
Section Two: Building a Definition/Examining Aspects of Poetry
Based on what students learned during their initial exploration of poetry, as well as the
informal talk that occurred during the best-guess gathering stage, the class co-creates a
definition of poetry naming and noticing the various aspects of poems. Then the teacher
selects two or three aspects of poetry to study more deeply. The teacher makes her/his
selection based on a particular aspect that s/he knows will be difficult (e.g., repetition) or
an aspect that students may have misconceptions about (e.g., rhyme).
Section Three: Writing Poems
Students will write a variety of poems. Using the class definition chart created during
section two, students will use these specific aspects as they write their own poems about
everyday objects, their feelings, wonderings, etc.
Section Four: Revising, Editing, Publishing, Celebrating, and Reflecting
Students will be engaged in a grade-appropriate revision process. During this time, they
will focus on the words, rhythm, and form of their poems. Students will edit their poems
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by looking for words that are misspelled. The class will decide how they will structure a
class anthology of their poems, which will be placed in the school and classroom
libraries. The celebration will give all students an opportunity to share their work.
Students will return to their initial reflections and think about how they have grown as
writers.
Best-guess Gathering
During the week prior to the unit actually beginning, students are editing, publishing,
celebrating, and reflecting upon the previous genre study. This is a good time to introduce
the next writing unit of study. During Reader’s Workshop, students will be exposed to a
variety of poems. Students will have the opportunity to listen to, read, respond to, and
chant many poems. Poems should be posted throughout the classroom/school. Becoming
familiar with the form and sound of poetry is crucial to the students writing their own
poems.
Reader’s Workshop Suggestions
Many teachers precede or overlap a genre study in the Writer’s Workshop with some
work in the same genre in their Reader’s Workshop. The teacher may be teaching
students about various aspects of poetry while guided-reading groups or book clubs may
be reading a variety of poems. Some teachers combine their best-guess gathering phase
with interactive read-alouds, followed by specific work for students in their readingresponse logs. The following provides some ideas for reading response work that
supports the genre study in poetry.
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Responding to Poetry
During a series of mini-lessons, students will reflect on a poem they are familiar with
from the best-guess gathering phase, during which they read or listened to a poem and
discussed it as readers. Students will return to the poem, responding to it in a variety of
ways over the course of a week.
Note: Students will need to bring their response journals to the gathering place. The
teacher may wish to photocopy the poem so all students can refer to it.
Connect: “Lately we’ve been reading and listening to many poems.”
Teach: “Today I am going to return to the poem, ‘My People’ by Langston Hughes (or
another previously read poem the students are familiar with).
My People
By Langston Hughes
The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.
“I want to show you how I used my personal responses to a poem to write in my reading
response log.”
The teacher reads the poem aloud two times, asking the students to close their eyes as
s/he reads the poem. Using a think-aloud, the teacher shares how s/he felt while reading
as well as striking elements in the poem. While reading, the teacher stops periodically to
think out loud about connections and responses s/he is making, jotting them down in
her/his response journal or on a chart the class can see. The following is an example of a
teacher’s jotted response:
“My People” by Langston Hughes
Feelings: – “This poem makes me feel an overwhelming sense of peace. I feel as though
I’m in a calm place, where everyone is seeking out the same thing…harmony.”
Personal connection – “This poem reminds me of being on a walk through Central Park
with my best friend, who is beautiful both inside and out. It reminds me of this because of
the natural beauty and wonder expressed in the poem.”
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Intriguing Line: “The line I found most intriguing was when Langston Hughes said,
‘Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.’ It is such a powerful line and one that left
me thinking about the world we live in.”
The teacher creates a chart, “Responses to Poetry,” and includes the types of responses
listed above (feelings, memories, wonderings, intriguing lines/language, etc.) or others
that are pertinent to the lesson given. The class can add other types of responses they
have to the poems they are reading. If the students are familiar with text-to-self, text-totext, and text-to-world connections, this can be a guide for ways to connect with the
poems.
The teacher then shows students how she/he picked one of these responses, put it at the
top of a fresh page, and wrote an entry in her/his response log. The teacher reads the
entry to the students, modeling using one of the types of responses to the poem.
Active Involvement: Students turn and talk to a partner about one thought/feeling they
had while listening to the poem. Students jot that response in their reading logs, just as
the teacher did.
Link: “Remember, when you write today, you are responding to your feelings, images,
and personal connections to the poem.”
Share: The teacher can choose a few students to share responses, looking for a variety of
types of responses to model the many ways individual writers react to a poem. New types
of responses that students try are added to the chart this day and on other days when this
kind of work is done.
Note: Students can respond to this poem on more than one occasion throughout the
course of the week. Some other ways of responding to the poem include:
•
•
•
•
Students draw or paint a picture of the image they had in their mind as they
listened to/read the poem.
Students think about and describe a personal connection they made to the poem.
Students select a line they connect with either through a memory or a feeling and
describe that memory/feeling.
Together in small groups (or as a whole class), the students add movement and/or
musical instruments to the poem.
Response to Literature
During this initial immersion, teachers should expose students to a variety of poems. As
students read poems during independent reading, they can begin copying favorite poems
and collecting them in a work folder. Students may return to some of these poems
throughout the unit as they connect with poetry on a deeper level. By using poems
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students have read during Reader’s Workshop, they will become familiar with many
poems and begin to connect with the poems on a more personal level. The teacher may
decide to have students begin an anthology of their own by selecting, copying, and
writing their own poem in response to the published poem.
Note: If possible, the teacher can photocopy the poem for the students.
The following is a suggested structure for compiling a book using 81/2 by 11 sheets of
paper side-by-side:
Selected poem
(Copied in students’
handwriting or photocopied)
** Note: Students should follow
the actual form (line breaks and
shape) of the selected published
poem.
Student’s Own Poem
Students write their own poem in
response to the selected poem.
They may be drawn to a particular
in one or more of the following
ways:
* Form/structure
* Rhythm
* Content (personal connection)
* Image
Their own poem will be a
reflection of their chosen poem.
The students then illustrate both poems. This work is ongoing throughout the unit of
study. Therefore, by the end of the unit this collection will serve as one of their
publishings.
Other opportunities to respond to poems in the classroom:
Homework
Students select a poem to take home and respond to it in their logs for homework. They
can share and discuss the poem at home with family members or friends.
Partner work
Students choose a poem of mutual interest with a partner, read and discuss it together, jot,
and write responses in their notebooks. During share time, they share the response entry
with the original partner.
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Section One: Immersion
Launching the Poetry Unit of Study in Writer’s Workshop
Students will use what they have already learned during the best-guess gathering as they
continue to develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for poetry. They will closely
examine the characteristics of poetry and co-create a definition of poetry based on their
noticings.
Cover the walls of your school and classroom with poetry
Display poems on the walls, bulletin boards, and the door of your classroom. Ask
students to read poetry anthologies, looking for favorite poems. Have them place sticky
notes indicating why they chose the poem as well as what they notice about the poem
(e.g., repetition, rhyme, strong images). Ask the students to select one of the poems and
then copy it. Take students on a walk around the school, looking for natural places to put
their poems. For example, students could put poems about food in the cafeteria, one
about reading or being quiet in the library, and so forth.
Note: Putting poems around the school can be ongoing throughout the unit of study.
Later on, students can also use poems they are collecting in their booklets during poetry
stations time (see lesson on poetry stations) for this purpose.
Creating an Interactive Poetry Wall
Create an interactive poetry wall (bulletin board, hallway display, etc.). This wall should
be located in a central place in the school where students, teachers, family members,
custodial staff, supervisors, and visitors all have access to it. Put a few poems on the wall,
using pushpins (so they can be easily removed) to start. In a simply written statement,
explain that if you take a poem, you need to give something back in response.
Note: The students will be creating an interactive poetry wall in their own classroom
prior to participating in the school-wide interactive poetry wall.
Connect: “We have been collecting and copying some of our favorite poems. These
poems are hanging in our classroom and throughout the school. You responded to some
of these poems in your reading-response logs, making personal connections, describing
your emotions/feelings as you read the poem, etc.”
Teach: Naomi Shihab Nye, the poet, says, “Most poetry happens before you write it.
You need to be aware and keep the door open.”
“Today we are going to start an interactive poetry wall. This wall is a place where you
can post your own poems, poems that you find interesting/intriguing, or items that you
think about when reading a poem. As I was getting the wall ready, I found a few poems
that are some of my favorites.”
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The teacher points to the poems on the wall and then explains the procedures for using
the wall. “If you take a poem, you need to give something back in response. It is possible
to replace the poem you take with another poem, a letter, photo, article from the
newspaper or a magazine, an object, etc. Last year a boy took a poem about drinking tea
and replaced it with a tea bag (his mother’s favorite tea) and wrote on it, ‘my momma’s
eyes are the color before the storm.’ A poem that I selected is ‘Words’ (from the The
Color of My Words) by Lynn Joseph. I replaced this poem with an entry that I wrote
about being passionate about keeping my writer’s notebook.”
Words
May I have some paper, please
Please, may I have some paper
‘Cause these words of mine
go walk away
they go walk away all by themselves
and get lost in the crowd.
May I have some paper, please
Please, may I have some paper
To catch these words
and wrap them up
where they can’t walk away
slip off the edge
and drown.
From The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph
Active Involvement: The students turn to a partner and share what they might place on
the wall in response to the poem. The teacher listens in on a few partnerships and makes
public a few ideas.
Link: “Today you are going to look for things that you can post on the interactive poetry
wall or find something already on the wall and replace it with something new. A place to
start may be your very own writer’s notebook”
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Section Two: Self-image Poems
When we read a novel or story, we often can see ourselves in the text. The same is true
for poetry. After reading poems, we often find ourselves identifying with the text in a
powerful way. A self-image poem is a poem in which you see yourself; the poem reflects
who you are much like a mirror is a refection of who you are.
Prior to this lesson, the students will need to have read and responded to a variety of
poems. During this lesson, students will return to some of those initial poems and begin
to think about the poem in a deeper way.
Preparation:
• The teacher will need to find a poem where s/he recognizes him/herself in the
words—either all or part of who s/he is to use as a model.
•
Locate poems or anthologies that students are able to read and relate to on a deep
level.
Connect: “We have spent time writing in response to the poems we have read and we
have begun to collect our own favorite poems.”
Teach: “Today we are going to look for poems that are a reflection of who we are or a
reflection of a part of our own lives. We often read a novel or story and see ourselves in
the text. The same is true for poetry. After I’ve read certain poems, I’ve found myself
saying, ‘Wow! That’s just like me!’ It is like I am seeing myself in a mirror. As I read
the poem, I am able to see a part of me in the words of the poem.”
The teacher reads a poem that reflects a part of his/her own life and describes how the
poem is a reflection of who he/she is.
“When my mother died, a friend sent me the following poem by Marie Howe.” The
teacher reads the poem he/she selected.
What the Living Do
Johnny, the kitchen sink has been clogged for days; some utensil probably fell down
there.
And the Drano won’t work but smells dangerous, and the crusty dishes have piled up
waiting for the plumber I still haven’t called. This is the everyday we spoke of.
It’s winter again. The sky’s a deep headstrong blue, and the sunlight pours through
the open living room windows because the heat’s on too high in here and I can’t turn it
off.
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For weeks now, driving, or dropping a bag of groceries in the street, the bag breaking.
I’ve been thinking: This is what the living do. And yesterday, hurrying along those
wobbly bricks in the Cambridge sidewalk, spilling my coffee down my wrist and sleeve.
I thought it again, and again later, when buying a hairbrush: This is it. Parking.
Slamming the car door shut in the cold. What you called that yearning,
what you finally gave up. We want the spring to come, and the winter to pass. We
Want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss. We want more and more and then more of it.
But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say the window of the corner video store, when I’m gripped by cherishing so deep
for my own blowing hair, chapped face and unbuttoned coat that I’m speechless
I am living. I remember you.
--Marie Howe
Using the poem you select as a model, discuss with students how you connect with it.
Make certain the students understand this is a poem you connect with on a deep level.
Note: During the modeling, it is important that the students know that they are not
looking for a surface connection. For example, students should not select a basketball
poem as a self-image poem because they play basketball a lot. A student may select a
poem about basketball if it is a reflection of their determination and dedication to the
sport.
Teach (continued):
“The poem’s sentiments about the grieving process touched me in an obvious way, but I
also knew that the poem brought up another issue. Since my mother was the second of
my parents to die, I was no longer anyone’s child. I could see myself in the poem’s words
then and I still see myself in them today.”
The teacher thinks-aloud as she/he models writing how the poem is a reflection of who
she/he is.
“I saw myself reflected in the words, it was very upsetting. I realized that the ‘everyday’
life does keep going on. There was also this sense that although I don’t expect to die right
now, I am the next generation in my family that will die. The sense of my own mortality
became clearer to me. When we are young, we think life goes on forever.”
“Today you are going to look for a poem that reaches out to you. It is like looking in a
mirror and seeing your reflection staring back at you. After you select a poem, you will
write a notebook entry describing how you see yourself in the words of the poem.”
“You have started collecting some of your own favorite poems. As you begin this work
today, start by reading the poems you already have in your anthology to see if there is a
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poem that you connect with on a deep level. You can also return to the anthologies and
the other poems we have in the classroom.”
The teacher can show a few examples of how a student may see a reflection of
him/herself in a poem. For example, many students identify with a family pet and that pet
provides a strong connection in some families. Other students may identify with nature or
see themselves as a part of nature.
Active Involvement: Ask the students to read through the poems they have started
collecting in their ‘Favorite Poems’ anthology, looking for a self-image poem. They can
tell a partner what they are noticing. The teacher can listen on a few partnerships and
share with the class if s/he discovers a student has found a self-image poem.
Link: Prior to sending the students off to the work time, remind them they are not for a
“that reminds me of …” They are looking for a poem that somehow reflects a deeper part
of who they are.
Day #2:
The students will draw an image of themselves using the words they wrote when
describing how the poem is a reflection of who they are. The teacher continues modeling
this process, using his/her own poem. In the above example (“What the Living Do”), the
teacher drew a picture of herself in the middle of a piece of paper without anyone else in
the drawing. The teacher explained to the students that if she were illustrating the poem
“What The Living Do,” she might draw herself staring through the window of a
Blockbuster Video Store, gazing inside the store.
Note: It is important that students understand the difference between drawing the image
of themselves and illustrating the poem they selected.
The teacher then modeled writing about her picture, describing how she now feels a sense
of being alone in the world. During work time, the students draw/write about an image of
themselves, illustrating how the poem is a reflection of a deep part of who they are. This
writing can be a seed for their self-image poem that they can write later in the unit.
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Building a Definition of Poetry
This lesson is designed to immerse students in the study of poetry before they begin
writing their own poems. A definition of poetry will be co-created as students begin to
recognize, and later internalize, the essential characteristics of poetry that they have
previously experienced during the best-guess gathering stage.
Connect: “We’ve been reading a variety of poems and doing some writing in our
notebooks inspired by our responses to some of the poems we have read. Last week,
when doing our initial in work in poetry (poetry stations or self-image poem), we noticed
that poems are different in many ways from the personal stories and nonfiction writing
we did earlier this year. We have talked about our upcoming work as writers of poetry,
but we have not yet created our definition of poetry.”
Teach: “Today we are going to go back to ‘I Love the Look of Words’ (or another
previously read poem). I am going to read it again, and I want you to follow along
noticing how the poem is written. We are looking for characteristics of poetry.”
The teacher reads the poem as the students follow along. He/she makes his/her thinking
public, noting a few of the characteristics of this poem (e.g., repetition, incomplete
sentences, unconventional punctuation). A chart is begun, “Poetry...” (Please see chart
example below.)
Note: The definition chart is begun in today’s lesson (or the class can begin creating the
chart during the poetry-stations time), but it is kept in a prominent place in the meeting
area so the class can continue adding noticings to it throughout the unit.
Active Involvement: “Turn and tell a partner what you notice about this poem.” The
teacher listens in on a few partnerships and adds some of the students’ noticings to the
chart.
Work Time: Students work in groups to examine the poetry in the classroom. They look
for characteristics on the chart begun during the lesson and for new noticings to add to
the chart.
Share: Groups share characteristics and the teacher adds them to the chart.
This work can be repeated on subsequent days as the class continues to build the
definition chart.
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Possible characteristics for the chart:
Has a rhythm or beat
May rhyme
Can be unrhymed
Includes vivid language
Repetition
Sensory images
Poetry…
Metaphors and similes
Alliteration
Evokes emotions
Plays with words
Uses unconventional punctuation
Includes fragments or isolated words
Note: Not all of these characteristics will be elicited from the students during one lesson.
There may be other characteristics that students notice, depending on the poems they
study.
Section Three
Collecting Student Writing
During this section students will begin writing their own poems. As they write poems
they will continue developing their understanding of poetry. Students will return to some
of these first poems as they move into revision later in the unit.
First Poems
The purpose of this lesson is to form a link between the poems that students have been
reading and their initial noticings as they begin to write their own poetry. The poems
selected for this lesson focus on rhythm, surprising language, imagery, word play, and
poetic form. The teacher can select any poems that highlight the aspects of poetry the
class has been studying. If the teacher has student samples of poems that reflect similar
aspects of poetry, they can use these poems instead.
Connect: “We have been studying poetry and have created a definition of ‘Poetry.’ We
have spent time examining and noticing aspects of poetry. We discovered that each poet
has his/her own style unique and that there are many decisions a poet can make when
composing a poem.”
Teach: “We are now ready to start selecting ideas for our own poems. Poetry can
sometimes create a strong image in your mind. It can make you want to dance and snap
your fingers to its beat. Some poems help you look at something in a new way. Often
poems take your breath away.”
Using the Poetry… chart remind students that they know a lot about how poems are put
together. Review various aspects of poetry on the chart with students. For example:
• Chant “Things” having the students snap their fingers or clap their hands as they
say it. Tell them that the rhythm of the poem makes us want to snap or clap.
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•
Read “Winter Moon” by Langston Hughes. Lean towards the students and lower
your voice as you whisper the poem. Read the poem twice. Tell them that
Langston Hughes must have gotten so quiet, so still on a winter’s night when he
wrote this poem. He must have looked and looked at the moon to see it in that
new and surprising way. Remind the students that the words of the poem give us a
clear picture.
Winter Moon
How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!
How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight
•
Chant “Clickbeetle” by Mary Ann Hoberman with the students. Take a slight
pause at the end of each line. Tell students that Mary Ann Hoberman doesn’t use
any punctuation, but instead ends the lines purposefully to give her poem a
desired rhythm. Explain that the words are the sounds and the pauses (line breaks)
are the silence.
Clickbeetle
Click beetle
Clack beetle
Snapjack black beetle
Glint glitter glare beetle
Pin it in your hair beetle
Tack it to your shawl beetle
Wear it at the ball beetle
Shine shimmer spark beetle
Glisten in the dark beetle
Listen to it crack beetle
Click beetle
Clack beetle
--Mary Ann Hoberman
•
Read “Thistles” by Karla Kuskin. Ask the students to listen to the sounds of the
words. There are short, bristle sounds and soft sounds, as well as the sounds of
many s’s and t’s (alliteration)
THISTLES
Thirty thirsty thistles
Thicketed and green
Growing in a grassy swamp
Purple-topped and lean
Prickly and thistly
Topped by tufts of thorns
Green mean little leaves on them
And tiny purple horns
Briary and brambly
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A spiky, spiny bunch of them.
A troop of bright-red birds came by
And had a lovely lunch of them.
After sharing the poems, tell the students that poems can be about anything—the moon, a
beetle, or thistles, etc. Explain that poets write what they know a lot about or are
interested in.
Active Involvement: “Close your eyes and get a picture in your mind as you think about
the things you are interested in. Once you have a clear picture of what you want to write,
open your eyes and share your idea with someone sitting close to you.” The teacher
listens in on a few partnerships and shares a few of the students’ ideas for their poems
with the whole class.
Link: “As you go off to write your poem today, remember to look at the definition chart
and use what you’ve learned about poetry.
Additional Mini-lessons:
• This lesson can be repeated using the students’ work as their poems reflect the
various aspects of poetry the class has been studying.
The following are some ways students can share their writing at the end of work time
throughout this unit of study.
•
•
•
•
•
Process Share: Students talk about the process they used when writing their
poems and how this process worked.
Popcorn Share: Students share a favorite line or word from their poem, focusing
on poetic language or a specific aspect from the definition chart.
Partner Share: Students read the poem they wrote to a partner.
Author’s Chair: The teacher selects a few students whose work connects to the
mini-lesson.
Fish Bowl Share: The teacher may select a student or a group of students to
highlight a certain aspect of a conference that he/she wants to make public to the
whole class.
Aspects of Poetry
In this series of lessons, students will carefully study various aspects of poetry listed on
the Poetry… chart created earlier in the unit (refer to section one). Over the course of a
few days, students will study some of the aspects of poetry. The teacher needs to select
the elements to be studied based on the students’ confusions or misconceptions. For
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example, if the students think a repeated line is the only type of repetition, then that
would be a good aspect to study in greater depth. Together with students, notice and
categorize the different ways poets use repetition—e.g., repeating a single word, line
(refrain) or stanza; the title and the first line are the same; same first/last line (circle
poem). During the work time, students will pick one use of repetition they think is
effective and try it in their poem that day.
Connect: “We have been studying poetry and have created a definition of ‘Poetry.’ We
have spent time examining and noticing aspects of poetry. We discovered that poetry is
unique, each poet has his or her own style, and there are many decisions a poet can make
when writing a poem.”
Teach: “Today we are going to focus on repetition and the different ways a poet uses
repetition in his or her poem.”
The teacher should hand out copies of poems (or copy the poem onto a large piece of
chart paper) that the students can examine. Students will notice the various ways poets
use repetition in their poems.
“Let’s look at the poem ‘I Like Stars’ by Margaret Brown (or another poem that uses
repetition in a variety of ways). Notice how this poet repeats the line ‘I like stars’
throughout her poem. She uses this line as the title, as well as the first and last lines of the
poem (circle poem). She also repeats the word ‘star’ on every line.
I Like Stars
I like stars
Yellow stars
Green stars
Blue stars
I like stars.
Far stars
Quiet stars
Bright stars
Light stars
I like stars.
A star that is shooting across the dark sky,
A star that is shining right straight in your eye,
I like stars.
I like stars.
--Margaret Brown--
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Active Involvement: After the students have read the poem, the class charts the ways in
which this poet uses repetition. The class will continue to add to this chart as they study
other poems that use repetition.
Ways to use repetition in poems
Repeat an important word
Repeat an important line or series of lines (refrain)
Repeat the same line at the beginning and end
Use the first line as the title of the poem
Link: “Today you are going to pick a use of repetition that you think is effective and try
that method in your poem.”
Note: The class will continue to add to this chart as they discover other ways of using
repetition during Reader’s Workshop. As students find new noticings, they can do
additional try-its during Writer’s Workshop.
Additional mini-lessons:
Repeat this lesson as you study other aspects of poetry based on the students’ confusions
and misconceptions. For example, in future mini-lessons students could study the
following:
• Rhythm
• Alliteration
• Form/Shape
• Rhyme
Note: Publishing and celebrating can be ongoing throughout the study. Each week
students can select a poem they wrote, illustrate it using different mediums, and display
the poems in the room.
List Poems
Writing list poems helps students see themselves as successful poets. The body of this
type of poem contains a list of some sort: the first and last lines, and sometimes the title
of the poem, act as a frame for a list in the middle.
Preparation: Write the poem on a piece of chart paper.
Connect: “We have started looking at the different ways poets write their poems.”
Teach: “I want to share a certain type of poem with you today that is called a list poem.”
The teacher reads “Dog Around the Block” by E.B. White (or another list poem),
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pointing out that the poem has a distinct beginning line and ending line (in this case the
same words making it a circle poem) and that the middle part of the poem is a list.
Dog Around the Block
Dog around the block, sniff
Hydrant sniffing, corner, grating,
Sniffing, always, starting forward,
Backward, dragging, sniffing backward,
Leash at taut, leash at dangle,
Leash in people’s feet entangle—
Sniffing dog, apprised of smellings,
Meeting enemies,
Loving old acquaintances, sniff,
Sniffing hydrant for reminders,
Leg against the wall, raise,
Leaving grating, corner-greeting,
Chance for meeting, sniff, meeting,
Meeting, telling, news of smelling,
Nose to tail, tail to nose,
Rigid, careful pose,
Liking, partly liking, grating,
Then another hydrant, grating,
Leash at taut, leash at dangle,
Tangle, sniff, untangle,
Dog around the block, sniff.
--E.B. White
“I’m going to read another list poem, called ‘Riding on the Train’ by Eloise Greenfield. I
want you to listen, paying close attention to what Eloise Greenfield does in her poem.”
RIDING ON THE TRAIN
--Eloise Greenfield
I see
fences and fields
barns and bridges
stations and stores
trees
other trains
horses and hills
water tanks
towers
streams
old cars
old men
roofs
raindrops crawling backwards on the window
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“In this poem Eloise Greenfield is listing the things she sees outside the train window.
The title and the first line set the context for the list. She ends her poem with a longer
descriptive line.”
After reading the poem, the teacher should model, using a think-aloud, how s/he selects
an idea for her/his list poem. The teacher should mention topics that would not be
suitable for a list poem (not enough items for the list, not interested in the topic, etc.) as
well as topics that would be suitable for this type of poem.
“After reading and ‘Riding on the Train,’ I decided that I would like to try this structure
for my own poem. I’m going to start by thinking about the topics I can write about. I can
write a list of things I see outside the window of my car, but that is too much like Eloise
Greenfield’s poem. I need to come up with a topic that is different and important to me. I
can write a list poem of all the kinds of foods I love to eat, a list of my best friends, or the
things I like to do on vacation. However, just this morning I could not find a pair of socks
in my drawer. It was driving me crazy. I’m going to write a poem listing all the kinds of
socks in my drawer.”
The teacher models writing the content/list (middle) part of the poem. “Now that I have
my list, I’m going to look at ______again. I want to borrow her strategy of ‘framing the
poem’ by using the same line at the beginning and ending of my poem.”
The teacher models the process of deciding on a line that can be repeated at the beginning
and end of his/her poem.
Active Involvement: “What would be a good idea for your own list poem? I’ve already
done a poem about socks. Remember that for this type of poem you will need to pick a
topic that will allow you to create a list. When you have your idea, turn and tell a
partner.” The teacher listens in on a few partnerships and then makes some ideas public.
Link: “When you begin working, think about the other aspects of poetry we have
studied. There may be an element, like repetition, that you want to try in your poem
today.”
Where Poets Get Ideas For Their Poems
Students have studied, listened to, read, and chanted a variety of poems. They have
written a few poems of their own. In the following lesson, the class will discuss ways a
poet thinks of an idea for his/her poem.
Connect: “We are real poets—writing our very own poems. We have noticed that poems
come from our own experiences, wonderings, and noticings. I’m so amazed by all the
different ideas you have had for your own poems.”
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Teach: “Today we are going to talk about how poets get their ideas.”
The teacher reads the poem, “Where Do You Get the Idea for a Poem” by Karla Kuskin
Where Do You Get the Idea for a Poem?
Where do you get the idea for a poem?
Pippety
Poppety
Peep.
Does it shake you awake?
Do you dream it asleep?
Or into your tiny head does it creep
And pop from your pen when you are not aware
Or leap from your pocket
Or fall from your hair
Or is it just silently
Suddenly
There?
In a beat
In a breath
In a pause
In a cry
One unblinking eye
That stares from the dark
That is deep in your head
Demanding attention
Until it is written
Until it is rotten
Until it is anything else but forgotten
Until it is read.
--Karla Kuskin
Remind the students of the wide range of poems that they have been reading, listening to,
and writing themselves. Tell them that poems are like little wisps in our day. They can be
the small moment that lingers, some sound we keep hearing, one look of light on the
desk, a word bouncing around in our mind, and the questions we carry with us daily.
Co-create a chart with the students, listing the ways in which poets get ideas for their
poems. The chart may include the following:
• Wonderings
• Experiences
• Wishes
• Noticings
• Words that bounce around in our heads
• Poems written by other poets
• Pictures
• Emotions/feelings
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•
•
•
•
•
Dreams (while sleeping)
Memories
Observations of everyday objects (e.g., maps, pencils, hair brush), as well as
things found in nature
Newspapers, books, magazines, flyers, etc.
Previous published student writing/notebook entries
Note: Be sure that students have access to the chart so that they can add and refer to it
over the course of the study. The teacher can post the poem “Where Do You Get the Idea
for A Poem” with the chart, modeling for students that poets write poems about the
process they are experiencing.
Active Involvement: “Lets look at the ideas we have listed on our chart. Select a
category. Try to think how you want your poem to start.” The students can share their
opening lines with a partner. The teacher listens in on a few partnerships and shares some
of the students’ ideas with the class.
Link: “When you go back to your workspace to write your poem, remember to also use
some of the elements on our definition chart.”
Poems about Feelings
In this lesson, students will be encouraged to write a poem about their own feelings or
about a time when they experienced a strong emotion.
Connect: “Yesterday we discussed where poets get ideas.” (The teacher refers to the
chart listing where poets get ideas.) “We have noticed that some poems reflect the
outside world (i.e., the things that are happening to us, our noticings, etc.). Other poems
are about how we feel and tell the inside story of our lives.”
Teach: “Now I am going to read a poem to you. Please listen closely so you can hear
how this student poet wrote about her feelings.”
“Different Feelings”
If I was so happy I would
jump for joy and
sing for the rest
of my life.
If I was so sad
I would cry until
my eyes turned red.
If I was so angry
I would scream until I
stop and I will never
stop
If I was frightened
I would hold on
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to a pole
and never let go.
It’s hard to let
go if you’re frightened.
Note: A first-grade student wrote this poem. It has been edited for standard spelling,
capitalization, etc. The teacher can select another poem that describes strong feelings.
“Most of us can relate to this poet’s feelings. I’m sure there have been times you’ve felt
so happy that you’ve wanted to jump for joy or so angry that you’ve screamed and
screamed and it felt as if you would never stop, etc. This poet helped us relate to the
poem because she described what each feeling is like.”
“The strength of the poem ‘Different Feelings’ lies in the image attached to each feeling.
In fact, this student doesn’t need to say, ‘If I was so happy…’ for the reader to experience
the happiness described. You should create a strong image with words that describe your
feelings.”
The teacher should share a poem (or a portion of a poem) that describes his/her feelings.
The teacher can begin by brainstorming or thinking aloud about a specific time he/she felt
excited, scared, lonely, etc. It is important when writing this kind of a poem to show, not
tell.
Active Involvement: Tell the students to think of a time they had a strong feeling. Have
them name the feeling to themselves and then share it with a partner. Next, ask the
students to visualize the image in their mind connected to that feeling.
Link: “When you write your poem, you should focus on capturing your feelings through
describing the image of the remembered experience.”
Poems about Wonderings
Students wonder about their everyday experiences as well as what is happening in the
world. Their wonderings will be the springboard for the poems they write in this lesson.
Preparation:
The teacher should model generating a list of wonderings by sharing some of his/her own
questions and wonderings. As an example, you can tell students that early one morning
you noticed both the moon and the sun in the sky at the same time. Generate a chart
labeled “I wonder about…” Together with the class, collect an initial list of wonderings.
The chart might look like this:
Things I wonder about…
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How can the moon and the sun be in the sky at the same time? (Susan)
Why can’t people find a way to get along in the world? (Jorge)
When will we find a cure for cancer? (Yasmen)
Connect: “We have been collecting our wonderings and questions over the past few
days.” The teacher refers to the ‘Things I Wonder About’ chart.
Teach: “Sometimes our questions can lead us to do additional thinking and wondering.
Karla Kuskin wrote a poem where she thought more about her wondering.
Read the following poem, “The Question” by Karla Kuskin, to the students.
The Question
People always say to me
“What do you think you’d like to be
When you grow up?”
And I say, “Why,
I think I’d like to be the sky
Or be a plane or a train or mouse
Or maybe a haunted house
Or something furry, rough, and wild…
Or maybe I will stay a child.”
--Karla Kuskin
After reading this poem to the students, discuss how she doesn’t answer the question, but
continues to think about it as she considers different humorous possibilities.
Active Involvement: Ask students to select a question/wondering from the chart created
prior to the lesson and share that wondering with a partner.
Link: “Today you are going to write a poem about the wondering or question you have.
Remember to do what good poets do, get a clear picture in your mind and choose your
words.”
Follow-up Mini-esson:
Read the following excerpt from “Will We Miss Them?” by Alexandar Wright:
Will We Miss the Galapagos Tortoise
The Galapagos tortoise lives only on the Galapagos islands. When the first people
arrived, there were so many tortoises that the people could not have walked across the
islands without walking on tortoises! Unfortunately, when these explorers landed,
rats left their ships. These rats ate the tortoise eggs. The people made tortoise soup.
Today, few tortoises are left.
Discuss with the students what they learned about the Galapagos tortoise from the text.
Then read the following poem, “The Galapagos Tortoise” by Georgia Heard.
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The Galapagos Tortoise
The last of his kind,
One Galapagos tortoise
Wanders the island for plants to eat.
The last of his kind—
Sailors killed them for food,
Cattle trampled their nests,
And rats ate their eggs.
The last of his kind.
Once there were thousands.
Now he’s the only one.
Have the students compare the information in both pieces. They will notice that Georgia
Heard’s poem has almost the same information from Alexander Wright’s book. In fact,
it’s as if Georgia Heard read the excerpt before writing her poem. Then discuss what
distinguishes the poem from the information text. The students will probably notice the
difference in form, as well as the use of the repeating line or refrain, ‘The last of his kind’
in the poem.
During the work time, have the students write a poem that includes informational facts
about a wondering.
Note: You can ask the students to imagine that if Georgia Heard were a student in the
class, what wonderings that led to her poem might she have listed on the chart?
Following this lesson, reintroduce the observation station as described in section two. Or,
if you began immersion in poetry with the ‘Self-image Poem’ lesson, the teacher can
create it now.
Find an area in the classroom where you can place interesting objects and the ‘I Wonder’
chart, surrounding it with poems that include facts and poems that ask questions, as well
as nonfiction books so students can investigate some of their wonderings. This now
becomes a discovery center. During the work time, students can write poems that include
their wonderings/questions or poems that include factual information that originates from
their wonderings.
The following are suggested anthologies that include poems with facts:
• Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky by Georgia Heard
• Beast Feast by Douglas Florian
• Insectlopedia by Douglas Florian
• In the Swim by Douglas Florian
The teacher can also collect poems that begin with a question–or have a question
in the middle or at the end–from other sources.
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The teacher will need to provide some nonfiction books in this center so that students can
research a topic from the chart to gather facts for their poem.
Surprising Language
Read a couple of poems about everyday objects in which the poet has described the
object in an extraordinary way. Some suggested poems to use in this lesson include:
Soap bubble
Great soft sphere
Bends out of shape
On the air,
Leans, rounds again,
Rises, shivering, heavy,
A planet revolving
Hollow and clear,
Mapped with
Rainbows, streaming,
Curled: seeming
A world too splendid
To snap, dribble,
And disappear.
In “Soap Bubble” Valerie Worth sees a soap bubble as a planet in the universe.
Safety pin
Closed, it sleeps
On its side
Quietly,
The silver
Image
Of some
Small fish
Open, it snaps
Its tail out
Like a thin
Shrimp, and looks
At the sharp
Point with a
Surprised eye.
--Valerie Worth
In “Safety Pin” Valerie Worth sees a safety pin as a silver-finned fish.
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Tell the students that Valerie Worth must have looked closely at these objects so she
could see each of then in a new, surprising way.
Select an object all the students can observe (e.g., a tree outside the classroom window,
the classroom door). Create the following chart:
Boring/Ordinary
Poet’s Eye
The teacher models describing the object using ‘ordinary’ language. S/he then describes
that same object using surprising language. The following is an example:
Boring/Ordinary
Poet’s Eye
Branches
Arms reaching toward
the sky
Leaves
Bad hair day
Trunk
Subsequent Mini-lesson:
There are some words that sound good or look interesting. For example, the teacher can
tell students that s/he recently saw a chrysanthemum plant at a flower show. “I wrote the
name in my notebook because it sounds good when you say it out loud.” Following the
mini-lesson, the teacher can ask the students to collect words. The following is a variety
of ways that students can collect words:
• Favorite words used daily
• “Sound” words: Words or phrases discovered in magazines, newspapers,
advertisements, on food boxes, etc.
• Specific types of words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
It is important that students write down the words they are collecting in their writer’s
notebook. The teacher can also establish a common container for words that students
want to share with one another.
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Rhythm and Form
The lessons in this section, thus far, focus on craft. The students generate a new poem
during the work time each day. Their writing should reflect what they have learned about
poetic language, rhythm, imagery, etc., but their poem may not “look” like a poem. The
following lessons focus on poetic form as students study line breaks and white space.
Connect: “When we were working in poetry centers, you learned about different aspects
of poetry. For example, when we did the illustration center, we saw that the words of a
poem paint a picture in our mind. The observation center showed that poets look closely
at objects.”
Teach: “Today we are going to look at the rhythm and form of poems. Poets use line
breaks to determine the rhythm of their poems. A line break is where the poet ends the
line and wants the reader to pause before going on.”
“I’m going to read you ‘Clickbeetle.’ I want you to listen to how this poem sounds as I
read it to you.”
CLICKBEETLE
Click beetle
Clack beetle
Snapjack black beetle
Glint glitter glare beetle
Pin it in your hair beetle
Tack it to your shawl beetle
Wear it at the ball beetle
Shine shimmer spark beetle
Glisten in the dark beetle
Listen to it crack beetle
Click beetle
Clack beetle
--Mary Ann Hoberman
After reading the poem, write a few lines of the poem on a piece of chart paper in the
following way:
Click beetle clack beetle snapjack black beetle Glint glitter
Glare beetle pin it in your hair beetle Tack it to your
Read the poem aloud with the class (remember to pause at the end of each line (i.e.,
glitter, your).
Discuss with students how the rhythm changes depending on the line breaks. Students
will notice that the second one is much faster than the first.
Now write a few lines of the poem on the chart paper in the following way:
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Click
beetle
Clack
beetle
Snapjack
black
beetle
Glint
Read the poem aloud with the class. Remember to pause at the end of each line (after
each word).
Compare the rhythm of this version to the second version. Students will notice that this
version is much slower.
Note: When poets write longer lines, the rhythm is faster. When they write shorter lines,
the rhythm is slower.
Active Involvement: Select a poem the students have not seen before. The teacher could
use the following poem by Karla Kuskin.
It is grey out.
It is grey in.
In me
It is as grey as the day is grey.
The trees look sad
And I,
Not knowing why I do.
Cry.
Prior to the lesson write the entire poem on a large piece of chart paper so that it is in
paragraph form (similar to version two of “Clickbeetle”).
Tell students that you have written the poem, changing the line breaks. Read the poem
aloud with the class, pausing at the end of each line. Explain that you are now going to
read the poem as it was actually written. Using a magic marker, ask a student to call out
where she thinks a slash mark is needed, noting a pause. Remind students to listen to the
rhythm of the poem as you read it. Discuss the difference in the two rhythms.
Note: Show students the actual poem after you’ve discussed it. They will notice that it
has the form/shape of a poem.
Link: “Some poems have a finger-snapping beat, like ‘Things’ and ‘Click Beetle.’ Other
poems have a slower beat, like the poem be Karl Kuskin. Today when you are working
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on revising a poem you have written, you are going to work with the line breaks in your
poems.
Note:
• Students can use a slash mark to denote the different line breaks for their second
version.
• White space (the space between lines, verses, and parts of a poem) also affects the
rhythm.
• Line breaks and white space determine the form/shape of a poem, as well as its
meaning.
Subsequent Mini-lessons:
• Give students a worksheet of four or five poems that are written in paragraph
form (see appendix for examples). The students will then use slash marks to
denote where they think the line breaks belong. Ask the students to recopy the
poems based on where they’ve placed the line breaks. Have them compare their
work with a partner, discussing any differences. After students have discussed
with a partner, have the class discuss how the different uses of line breaks/white
space affect the rhythm of a poem.
Note: When students recopy the poems, they can also arrange the words to
incorporate white spaces.
The following are some additional mini-lessons to use as students continue
generating their own poems.
Image Poems
Tell students that poets get their ideas from personal interests, experiences, and things
they feel deeply about. Ask students to think about things in their everyday lives. Then
students should close their eyes and think of the image that describes the aspect of their
life that they are thinking about. The teacher can use the following questions as a guided
visualization:
• What are the sounds? What do you hear?
• What do you see?
• What feelings does this image evoke?
• What are you wondering or thinking about this time?
After students have thought deeply about their image, ask them to determine what they
will use as the first line of their poem. Students name their first line and then return to
their workspace to write their poem based on the images they selected.
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SECTION FOUR
REVISION
Note: Prior to the revision stage of this unit, students will have a variety of poems from
the previous sections (including the writing students did during the best-guess gathering
and immersion phases). The teacher should make explicit that on any day when the
students have finished that day’s revision work, they can go on to write a new poem.
Word Choice
In this lesson, students will learn how to select better words for their poems. During the
work time, students will revise a poem that they have already written (changing ordinary
words into surprising words).
Note: Students will need to bring a poem/poems they wrote during the previous minilessons to the gathering area.
Connect: “We have been spending a lot of time discovering interesting things about
poetry. We have realized that poets have so much freedom when writing their poems.”
Teach: “Today we are going to learn more about how poets choose their words. Poets
need to think about their words carefully. Sometimes they use words that are
unexpected.”
Read the following excerpt from My Mama Had a Dancing Heart by Libba Moore Gray
(or an excerpt from another book that contains surprising language).
“And when the winter snows
Came softly down
shawling the earth…”
“Libba Moore Gray surprises us when she uses the word ‘shawling’ to describe the
winter snow on the ground. Usually we hear it described as, ‘the snow covers or blankets
the ground.’ The use of ‘shawling’ is different and that gives life to her writing.”
“As I read you a poem, I want you to listen carefully for surprising words this
kindergarten student uses.”
Note: This excerpt could be copied on chart paper so students can read-along during the
lesson.
Blue hair
Woman
At the beauty
Parlor
Someone
Is tie-dyeing
Her hair
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Blue
The teacher briefly explains to the students that you tie-dye clothing, but when you color
your hair you dye it. Students will recognize the unusual use of tie-dyeing instead of
dyeing hair.
“After reading this poem, I thought that I should go back to some of my own poems and
make some changes. I know that I can write more surprising words that will make my
poems better.”
The teacher should model, using a previously written poem, how to go back and change
the word(s) of the poem to make the language sound more surprising. For example, in a
poem about his/her bedroom, instead of saying ‘so many clothes on my bedroom floor…’
the teacher can change it to ‘climbing over mountain-high piles of clothes…’
Active Involvement: “Look at the poems you have with you right now and find one
poem that you want to work on some more. See if there are some words you think you
can change.”
Link: “Start your writing today by going back and changing the words you shared with
your partner. You can then read the rest of the poem, looking for other words that can be
changed. Remember to use words that will surprise the reader. When you finish, you
might want to try writing a new poem using surprising words.”
Popcorn Share: Students popcorn-share lines from their poems that contain surprising
language.
Note: It is important that students write down the words they are collecting. These words
can be incorporated into their own poems or, in some cases, may become an idea or topic
for a poem.
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•
Write each word of a poem on different index cards. Using a pocket chart,
students can move the words around to try different rhythms.
•
Cut 8 1/2 X 11 paper into the following shapes
Using a published poem or a student’s poem, discuss how the poem might change
depending on the shape of the paper. For example, paper #1 could have a long first line;
paper #2 could have a repeating line or refrain; paper #3 could be a circle poem (the first
and last lines are the same).
Note: Paper in these shapes forces students into using poetic form, as well as other
poetic devices.
Additional Revision Mini-lessons:
The following lessons/activities will help students focus on revising their poems. The
teacher should use his/her own work or student work to model the revision strategy.
•
•
•
You need to determine the confusions. For example, if students think rhyming poetry
must be silly rhyming, the class needs to study other ways of using rhyme. Use a
variety of touchstone poems to help students understand the various ways rhyme can
be used in poems.
Students select a poem they’ve written and illustrate it. Students then revise their
poem by checking to make sure the details in the illustrations are described in the
language of their poem.
Select a poem (i.e., “Things” by Eloise Greenfield—see below) and copy the poem
onto chart paper. Add the extra words to make the lines of the poem complete
sentences (see example below). Then discuss how Eloise Greenfield took out extra
words, making the poem sound/look more poetic. Eloise Greenfield intentionally left
words out in order to create her poem. Have students revise their poems, looking for
words to delete.
Note: Select a poem your students are familiar with and grade-level appropriate.
THINGS
Went to the corner
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Walked in the store
Bought me some candy
Ain’t got it no more
Ain’t got it no more
Went to the beach
Played on the shore
Built me a sand house
Ain’t got it no more
Ain’t got it no more
Went to the kitchen
Lay down on the floor
Made me a poem
Still got it
Still got it
--Eloise Greenfield
Complete Sentences:
I went to the corner and then I decided to walk in the store.
I bought some candy
But I ate it
So I don’t have it any more.
Note: You can model these different strategies using your own poems, published poems
and the students’ poems.
SECTION FIVE
EDITING
SECTION SIX
PUBLISHING
Teachers may have two publishings out of this unit of study. The students may decide to
publish their collection of ‘Favorite Poems’ with their own poems written in response to
those poems. Students may also publish their poems as part of a class anthology. During
a series of mini-lessons, the teacher will show the students the structures of various
anthologies the class has used throughout the study to see how they are organized. Here
are some examples:
• All the poems are by one poet
(i.e., Honey I Love by Eloise Greenfield)
• All the poems are about the same subject (either written by one poet or several poets)
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(i.e., Extra Innings by Lee Bennett Hopkins)
• Poems are organized by subject (for example: seasons, sports, pets) and are written by
different poets
(i.e., The Random House Anthology of Poetry)
The class will decide how they want to publish their class anthology.
After looking at the various structures of anthologies, the teacher and the students can
decide how to organize the class anthology. Students can illustrate their poems and may
include an ‘About the Author’ paragraph.
Section Seven
Celebration
When the pieces are edited and published, it is time for students to do what authors do –
celebrate their efforts and send their writing out into the world to be shared. This is an
opportunity for students to participate in a poetry reading. The poems can be read
individually or with a partner, or chanted in small groups. The anthology can be placed in
the class and school libraries and, if possible, students can take home their own copy.
Section Eight
Reflection
The teacher spends a day in Writer’s Workshop reflecting on the learning in this poetry
unit of study. Ask students to name what they learned about poetry during this unit and
what they want to learn more about as writers in the next unit.
Students could do a reflective piece of writing using the form below. After gathering
evidence of their learning, students can write a narrative piece reflecting on this unit of
study.
Characteristics of Poetry
the Class has studied
(definition chart)
Best Example from a
Poem I wrote
Comments
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APPENDIX: POEMS TO USE WHEN STUDYING LINE BREAKS AND WHITE
SPACE
Peace and Joy
Peace and joy
And love and warmth
And happiness
Throughout the nation
Summer vacation!
--Shel Silverstein
No Matter
No matter
how hot-burning
it is
outside
The Mirror
I stare at the face,
I see mean eyes, tight look.
Whose face is it?
I turn my head
and realize the face is mine.
when
--Cindy Hayward
you peel a
long, fat cucumber
The Garden Hose
or
In the gray evening
I see a long green serpent
With its tail in the dahlias.
It lies in loops across the grass
And drinks softly at the faucet.
I can hear it swallow.
--Beatrice Janosco
cut deep into
a fresh, ripe watermelon
you can
feel
coolness
come into your hands.
--Lee Bennett Hopkins
I Wish I Had a Friend
I wish I had a friend!
who cared for me
who loves to spend
some time with me
who stood up to me
in a shy way
well in time I’ll see
if a friend comes along
Rain
in a pinch for me.
mud
puddles
paths
damp robins
in
splashed
nests
flood
in the woodchuck’s
burrow,
wet fur
wet feather
weather
--Lillian Moore
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APPENDIX: Surprise Poems
Apple
Winter Moon
How thin and sharp is the moon tonight!
How thin and sharp and ghostly white
Is the slim curved crook of the moon tonight!
--Langston Hughes
The dark gray clouds,
The great gray clouds,
The black rolling clouds are
elephants
Going down to the sea of water.
They draw up the water in their
trunks.
They march back again across
the sky.
They spray the earth again with
water,
And men say it is raining.
--Natalie M. Belting
Marbles
Marbles picked up
Heavy by the handful
And held, weighted,
Hard, glossy,
Glassy, cold,
Then poured clicking,
Water-smooth, back
To their bag, seem
Treasure: round jewels,
Slithering gold.
--Valerie Worth
Kaleidoscope
Only a litter
Of bright bits,
Tipped and tumbled
Over each other
Until they huddle
Untidily all
In one corner.
Where their
Reflections wake
And break into
Crystals, petals,
Stars: only
The tricks of
Mirrors, but
Still miracles,
Like snowflakes
Shaken from jumbled
Clouds, or earth’s
Rough muddle
Jostled to
Jewels and flowers.
At the center, a dark star
Wrapped in white.
When you bite, listen
For the crunch of boots on
snow,
Snow that has ripened. Over it
Scratches the red, starry sky.
--Nan Fry
Soap Bubble
The soap bubble’s
Great soft sphere
Bends out of shape
On the air,
Leans, rounds again,
Rises, shivering, heavy
A planet revolving
Hollow and clear,
Mapped with
Rainbows, streaming,
Curled: seeming
A world too splendid
To snap, dribble,
And disappear.
--Valerie Worth
--Valerie Worth
Seastar’s Wish
Once there was a star
And it came from afar
To the sandy beach.
In the shallow water it floats
Underneath some boats
Near an empty can of bleach.
It’s a five-pointed fish
And it made a wish
That it could reach the sky.
--Mark Sostre, age 7
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Dragon Smoke
Leaves
Breathe and blow
white clouds
With every puff
It’s cold today,
cold enough
to see your breath.
Huff!
Breathe dragon smoke
today!
The leaves fall
Like big pennies,
And the sidewalk catches them.
--Paul Walker
Clockface
Hours pass
Slowly as a snail
Creeping between the grass
blades
Of the minutes.
--Judith Thurman
--Lillian Moore
At Night
When the night is dark
My cat is wise
To light the lanterns
In his eyes.
--Aileen Fisher
The wild geese returning
Through the misty sky—
Behold they look like
A letter written
In faded ink!
--Tsumori Kunimoto
Some say the sun is golden earring,
The earring of a beautiful girl.
A white bird took it from her
When she walked in the fields one day.
But it caught on a spider web
That stretches between the homes of men
And the homes of the gods.
Cat Kisses
--Natalie M. Belting
Sandpaper kisses
on a cheek or a chin—
that is the way
for a day to begin!
Sandpaper kisses—
a cuddle, a purr.
I have an alarm clock
that’s covered with fur.
--Bobbi Katz
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APPENDIX: POEMS WITH REPETITION
Turtle wanders
through the wetness
until it’s time
to go inside
and listen
to his old friend
rain whisper,
sleep, sleep, sleep,
from Inside Turtle’s Shell
by Joanne Ryder
Harlem Night Song
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing
THINGS
Winter
Went to the corner
Walked in the store
Bought me some candy
Ain’t got it no more
Ain’t got it no more
brown boots
gray coat
blue scarf
Mad children!
with the hat
black pants
red mittens
Mad children!
It’s a cold
cold cold
cold cold
cold cold
day.
Went to the beach
Played on the shore
Built me a sand house
Ain’t got it no more
Ain’t got it no more
Went to the kitchen
Lay down on the floor
Made me a poem
Still got it
Still got it
--Hue Cao Loi, P.S.
105
Class 1-224, age 5
I love you
Across
The Harlem roof-tops
Moon is shining.
Night sky is blue
Stars are great drops
Of golden dew.
Down the street
A band is playing.
I love you.
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.
--Langston Hughes
Poem
I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There’s nothing more to say.
The poem ends.
Soft as it began—
I loved my friend.
--Eloise Greenfield
Stopping by Woods
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sounds the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles before to go before I sleep.
--Robert Frost
--Langston Hughes
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APPENDIX: POEMS WITH A COMMON SUBJECT (RAIN)
Light Rain, a Downpour,
and Pigeons Feasting on
Crumbs
from a Picnic in the Park
Pitter patter,
splitter splatter,
skitter scatter.
--Eve Merriam
A Rainy Day
No balls are batted,
dog’s fur is matted
crossing guard is rubber-hatted
sidewalk is splattered,
hair curl is flatted,
quarrels are spatted,
scraggly cat is scattered,
dampness is dratted.
--Eve Merriam
A shower, a sprinkle,
A tangle, a tinkle,
Greensilver runs the rain.
Like salt on your nose,
Like stars on your toes,
Tingles the tangy rain.
A tickle, a trickle,
A million-dot freckle
Speckles the spotted rain.
Like a cinnamon
Geranium
Smells the rainingest rain!
Rain
Rain hits over and over
On hot tin,
On trucks,
On wires and roses.
Rain hits apples, birds, people,
Coming in strokes of white,
Gray, sometimes purple.
Rain cracks against my eyelids,
Runs blue on my fingers,
And my shadow floats on the
sidewalk
Through trees and houses.
Summer Rain
Rain
The rain screws up its face
and falls to bits.
Then it makes itself again.
Only the rain can make itself.
--Eve Merriam
--Adrian Keith Smith, Age 4
(New Zealand)
--Adrien Stoutenburg
April Rain Song
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night—
The dark gray clouds,
The great gray clouds,
The black rolling clouds are elephants
Going down to the sea for water.
They draw up the water in their trunks.
They march back again across the sky.
They spray the earth again with the water,
And men say it is raining.
--Natalie M. Belting
And I love the rain.
--Langston Hughes
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APPENDIX: POEMS WITH INTERESTING ENDINGS
We Real Cool
Koala Means The World to Her
We Real Cool
The pool players
Seven at the golden shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
Koala means the world to her.
His nose and paws are getting bald
Koala, whispered in his ear,
Is the only name he’s called.
I cannot guess why he’s preferred
To all the others sitting by—
The pandas, teddies, foreign dolls
Koala has a missing eye.
He’s made of fur.
Perhaps because he is so soft
She keeps him near.
There is a secret that she sees
That I don’t see in him
That’s clear.
Koala means the world to her.
--Gwendolyn Brooks
--Karla Kuskin
Missing You
Once we laughed together
by the river side
and watched the little waves
watched the waves.
Now I walk
along the bank
the water’s very blue
and I am walking by the waves
missing you.
--Charlotte Zolotow
Bad Day
Fueled
Fueled
by a million
man-made
wings of fire—
the rocket tore a tunnel
through the sky—
and everybody cheered.
Fueled
only by a thought from God—
the seedling
urged its way
through the thickness of black—
and as it pierced
the heavy ceiling of the soil—
and launched itself
up into outer space—
no
one
even
clapped.
--Marice Hans
Johnny was acting
funny today.
I couldn’t get him
to come and play.
He just sat there and
picked at a stick
and fooled around with
a yellow brick.
He didn’t seem to
know I was there.
But I don’t care.
I might take a walk
and look at cars
or chin myself on
the playground bars
or hang around with
another bunch…
Maybe he’ll come out
after lunch.
--Marci Ridlon
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APPENDIX: POEMS TO USE WHEN STUDYING LINE BREAKS
Teachers photocopy each poem in paragraph form on a separate sheet of paper so students can practice
inserting line breaks and white space.
WIND SONG by Lillian Moore
When the wind blows the quiet things speak. Some whisper, some clang, some creak. Grasses swish.
Treetops sigh. Flags slap and snap at the sky. Wires on poles whistle and hum. Ashcans roll. Windows
drum. When the wind goes—suddenly then, the quiet things are quiet again.
WIND SONG
When the wind blows
the quiet things speak.
Some whisper, some clang,
Some creak.
Grasses swish.
Treetops sigh.
Flags slap
and snap at the sky.
Wires on poles
whistle and hum.
Ashcans roll.
Windows drum.
When the wind goes—
suddenly
then,
the quiet things
are quiet again.
-- by Lillian Moore
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I HEARD A BIRD SING by Oliver Herford
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December, a magical and sweet thing to remember. “We are nearer to
Spring than we were in September,” I heard the bird sing in the dark December.
I HEARD A BIRD SING
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical
And sweet thing to remember.
“We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,”
I heard the bird sing
In the dark December.
-- by Oliver Herford
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DOGS by Marchette Chute
The dogs I know have many shapes. For some are big and tall, and some are long, and some are thin, and
some are fat and small. And some are little bits of fur and have no shape at all.
DOGS
The dogs I know
Have many shapes.
For some are big and tall,
and some are long,
And
some are thin,
And some are fat and small.
And some are little bits of fur
And have no shape at all.
--Marchette Chute
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UNTIL I SAW THE SEA by Lillian Moore
Until I saw the sea I did not know that wind could wrinkle water so. I never knew that sun could splinter a
whole sea of blue. Nor did I know before, a sea breathes in and out upon the shore.
UNTIL I SAW THE SEA
Until I saw the sea
I did not know
that wind
could wrinkle water so.
I never knew
that sun
could splinter a whole sea of blue.
Nor
did I know before,
a sea breathes in and out
upon the shore.
--Lillian Moore
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SPRING IS by Bobbi Katz
Spring is when the morning sputters like bacon and your sneakers run down the stairs so fast you can
hardly keep up with them, and spring is when your scrambled eggs jump off the plate and turn into a
million daffodils trembling in the sunshine.
SPRING IS
Spring is when
the morning sputters like
bacon
and
your
sneakers
run
down
the
stairs
so fast you can hardly keep up with them,
and
spring is
when
your scrambled eggs
jump
off
the
plate
and turn into a million daffodils
trembling in the sunshine.
--Bobbi Katz
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No Matter by Lee Bennett Hopkins
No matter how hot-burning it is outside when you peel a long, fat cucumber or cut deep into a fresh, ripe
watermelon you can feel coolness come into your hands.
No Matter
No matter
how hot-burning
it is
outside
when
you peel a
long, fat cucumber
or
cut deep into
a fresh, ripe watermelon
you can
feel
coolness
come into your hands.
--Lee Bennett Hopkins
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WE REAL COOL BY Gwendolyn Brooks
We real cool the pool players seven at the golden shovel. We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We
strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz June. We die soon.
We Real Cool
We Real Cool
The pool players
Seven at the golden shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
--Gwendolyn Brooks
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HARLEM NIGHT SONG by Langston Hughes
Come, let us roam the night together singing I love you across the Harlem roof-tops moon is shining. Night
sky is blue stars are great drops of golden dew. Down the street a band is playing. I love you come, let us
roam the night together singing.
Harlem Night Song
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing
I love you
Across
The Harlem roof-tops
Moon is shining.
Night sky is blue
Stars are great drops
Of golden dew.
Down the street
A band is playing.
I love you.
Come,
Let us roam the night together
Singing.
--Langston Hughes
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APPENDIX :POEMS TO USE WHEN WRITING POEMS ABOUT
WONDERINGS
Pete at the Zoo
I wonder if the elephant
Is lonely in his stall
When all the boys and girls are
gone
And there’s no shout at all,
And there’s no one to stamp
before,
No one to note his might.
Does he hunch up, as I do,
Against the dark of night?
--Gwendolyn Brooks
The Question
People always say to me
“What do you think you’d like to be
When you grow up?”
And I say, “Why,
I think I’d like to be the sky
Or be a plane or train or mouse
Or maybe a haunted house
Or something furry, rough and wild…
Or maybe I will stay a child.”
--Karla Kuskin
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Poems published as picture books
These poems have been published as picture books. Students could use these books as mentor texts if they
decide to publish a poem as a picture book.
Knoxville, Tennessee
I always like summer
best
you can eat fresh corn
from daddy’s garden
and okra
and greens
and cabbage
and lots of
barbecue
and buttermilk
and homemade ice-cream
at the church picnic
and listen to
gospel music
outside
at the church
homecoming
and go to the mountains with
your grandmother
and go barefooted
and be warm
all the time
not only when you go to bed
and sleep
--Nikki Giovanni
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I live in music
By Ntozake Shange
i live in music
is this where you live
i live here in music
m love in C# street
my friend lives on b avenue
do you live here in music
sound
falls round me like rain on other folds
saxophones wet my face
cold as winter in st. louis
hot like peppers i rub on my lips
thinking they waz lilies
i got 15 trumpets where other women got hips
& a upright bass for both sides of my heart
i walk round in a piano like somebody
else/be walkin on the eart
i live in music
line in it
wash in it
i cd even smell it
wear sound on my fingers
sound falls
so fulla music
ya cd make a river where yr arm is &
hold yourself
hold yourself in a music
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Hoops
By Robert Burleigh
Hoops.
The game.
Feel it.
The rough roundness.
The ball like a piece
of thin long reach for your body.
The way it answers whenever you call.
The never stop back and forth flow,
like tides going in, going out.
The smooth, skaterly glide
and sudden swerve.
The sideways slip
through a moment of narrow space.
The cool. The intro
and under and up.
The feathery fingertip roll
and soft slow drop.
Feel your throat on fire.
Feel the asphalt burning beneath your shoes.
The two-of-you rhythm.
The know-where-everyone-is without having to
look.
The watching
and waiting
to poke
and pounce.
The fox on the lurk.
The hunger.
The leap from the pack.
The out-in-the-clear
like a stallion
with wind in your face.
The bent legs tense
as the missed shot swirls
and silently spins.
The hawk.
Your arm shooting up
through a thicket of arms.
The lean
and brush
and burst free.
The skittery, cat-footed dance
along the baseline.
The taste
for the rock in your hands
when it counts the most.
The weight of you
hanging from fine,
invisible threads.
The eyes.
The arc.
The no sound
sound of the ball
as it sinks through nothing but still,
pure air.
Yes.
Hoops.
The game.
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POEMS ABOUT POETRY
Feelings about Words
Some words clink
As ice in drink.
Some move with grace
A dance, a lace.
Some sound thin:
Wail, scream and pin.
A mug, a pot,
And some are plump,
Fat, round, and dump
Some words are light:
Drift, lift, and bright.
A few are small:
A, is and all.
And some are thick,
Glue, paste, and brick.
Some words are sad:
“I never had…”
And others gay:
Joy, spin, and play.
Some words are sick:
Stab, scratch, and nick.
Some words are hot:
Fire, flame, and shot.
Some words are sharp.
Sword, point and carp.
And some alert:
Glint, glance, and flirt.
Saunter, hazy.
And some words preen
Pride, pomp, and queen
Some words are quick:
A jerk, a flick.
Some words are slow:
Lag, stop, and grow,
While others poke
As ox with yoke.
Some words can fly—
There’s wind, there’s hi
And some words cry:
“Goodbye…
Goodbye…”
--Mary O’Neil
Inside a Poem
It doesn’t always have to rhyme,
But there’s the repeat of a beat, somewhere
An inner chime that makes you want to
Tap your feet or swerve in a curve;
A lilt, a leap, a lightning-split:-Thunderstruck the consonants jut,
While the vowels open wide as waves in the noonBlue sea.
--Eve Merriam
I Love the Look of Words
Popcorn leaps, popping from the floor
of a hot black skillet
and into my mouth.
Black words leap,
snapping from the white
page. Rushing into my eyes. Sliding
into my brain which gobbles them
the way my tongue and teeth
chomp the buttered popcorn.
When I have stopped reading,
ideas from the words stay stuck
in my mind, like the sweet
smell of butter perfuming my
fingers long after the popcorn
is finished.
I love the book and the look of words
the weight of ideas that popped into my mind
I love the tracks
of new thinking in my mind.
--Maya Angelou
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Valentine for Ernest Man
You can’t order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, “I’ll take two”
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, “Here’s my address,
write me a poem.” Deserves something in reply.
So I’ll tell you instead:
poems hide. In the bottom of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across our celings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them.
Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn’t understand why she was crying.
“I thought they had such beautiful eyes.”
And he was serious. He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so. He really
liked those skunks. So, he re-invented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him. And the poems that had been
Hiding
in the eyes of skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.
Maybe if we re-invent whatever our lives give us,
we find poems. Check your garage, the odd sock
in your drawer, the person you almost like, but
not quite.
And let me know.
--Naomi Shihab Nye
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Keep a Poem in Your Pocket
Keep a poem in your picket
and a picture in your head
and you’ll never feel lonely
at night when you’re in bed.
The little poem will sing to you
the little picture bring to you
a dozen dreams to dance to you
at night when you’re in bed.
So—
keep a poem in your pocket
and a poem in your head
and you’ll never feel lonely
at night when you’re in bed.
--Beatrice Schenk de Regniers
After English Class
I used to like “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
I liked the coming darkness,
The jingle of harness bells, breaking—and adding to
--the stillness,
The gentle drift of snow…
But today, the teacher told us what everything stood for
The woods, the horse, the miles to go, the sleep—
They all have “hidden meanings.”
Where Do You Get the Ideas
for a Poem?
Where do you get the ideas for a
poem?
Pippety
Poppety
Peep.
Does it shake you awake?
Do you dream it asleep?
Or into your tiny head does it creep
And pop from your pen when you are
now aware
Or leap from your pocket
Or fall from your hair
Or is it just silently
Suddenly
There?
In a beat
In a breath
In a pause
In a cry
Or unblinking eye
That stares from the dark
That is deep in your head
Demanding attention
Until it is written
Until it is rotten
Until it is anything else but forgotten
Until it is read.
--Karla Kuskin
It’s grown so complicated now that,
Next time I drive by,
I don’t think I’ll bother to stop.
--Jean Little
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Poets as Teachers
Poets
What They Teach
Valerie Worth
Aileen Fisher
Lillian Moore
Naomi Shihab Nye
Saying things in a new way
Transforming ordinary to poetic
Lillian Moore
Robert Frost
Rhyme
Eve Merriam
Barbara Juster Esbensen
Langston Hughes
Eloise Greenfield
Image
Pattern/repetition
Eloise Greenfield
Barbara Juster Esbensen
Word play
Word awareness
Ann Turner
Writing in your own voice
Writing about everyday things
Myra Cohen Livingston
Writing difficult personal truths
Deborah Chandra
Mary Oliver
Valerie Worth
Observation
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Poetry Reflection
Look back at the work you have done throughout this unit. Look for places in your
writing where you used the characteristics of poetry the class has studied. Record the
characteristics you used in column one and cite an example from one of your poems in
column two. Describe how this aspect of poetry lifted the level of your writing in the
third column.
Characteristics of Poetry
the Class has studied
(definition chart)
Best Example from a
Poem I wrote
Comments
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What Poets Say about Poetry:
Naomi Shihab Nye:
For me poetry has always been a way of paying attention to the world. We hear so many voices every
day, swirling around us, and a poem makes us slow down and listen carefully to a few things we have
really heard, deep inside. For me poems usually begin with “true things”—people, experiences,
quotes—but quickly ride off into that other “territory of imagination,” which lives alongside us as
much as we will allow in a world that pays too much attention to “facts” sometimes. I have always had
a slight difficulty distinguishing where the “true” part ends and the “made-up” part begins, because I
think of dreaming and imagining as being another kind of true. Once I made up a song that ends, “You
tell me what’s real, what I see or what I feel?” and I think that corresponds to the poems we make out
of our lives.
Sometimes there’s no one to listen to what you really might like to say at a certain moment. The
paper will always listen. Also, the more you write, the paper will begin to speak back and allow you to
discover new parts of your own life and other lives and feel how things connect. Poets are explorers,
pilgrims. Most of the poets I know are not in the least bit frilly. Poets are also regular people who live
down the block and do simple things like wash clothes and stir soup. Sometimes students ask, “Are
you famous?” as if fame is what would make a poet happy. I prefer the idea of being invisible,
traveling through the world lightly, seeing and remembering as much as I can.
N.S.N.
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Note: Poems can be placed on ‘Find Poetry Everywhere’ paper. Students can copy
poems onto this paper and hang the poetry throughout the school. For example, a
student may copy a poem about food in the cafeteria or a poem about books in the
library.
The following poem could be placed in the computer lab.
Computer
A computer is a machine.
A machine is interesting.
A machine is useful.
I can study a computer.
I can use it.
Who made it?
Human beings made it.
I am a human being.
I am warm. I am wise.
I have empathies for animals and
people.
I conduct a computer.
A computer does not conduct me.
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Find Poetry
Everywhere
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Poetry Book List
A Bird About to Sing
A Jar of Tiny Stars
A Poke in the I
A Pocketful of Poems
A Tisket-a- Tasket
African American ABC’s
All the Small Poems and Fourteen More
Animal Vegetable Mineral
Laura Nyman Montenegro
Bernice Cullinan, ed.
Paul Janeczko
Nikki Grimes
Ella Fitzgerald
Ashley Bryan
Valerie Worth
Myra Cohn Livingston
And to Think That We Thought We’d Never be
Friends
Any Me I Want to Be
At the Crack of the Bat
Balloons and Other Poems
Baseball, Snakes, and Summer Squash: Poems
About Growing Up
Been To Yesterdays: Poems of a Life
Big Talk: Poems for Four Voices
Birthday Poems: A Celebration
Black Cat
Black is Brown is Tan
Bling Bang
Blues Journey
Bring on that Beat
Brown Angels: An Album of Pictures and Verse
Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea
Brown Sugar Babies
Butterscotch Dreams
Cactus Poems
Carver: A Life in Poems
Casey At the Bat
City Kids
Color Me a Rhyme
Come to the Great World: Poems
Around the Globe
Confetti Poems for Children
Cool Salsa
Could We Be Friends?
Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky
Daddy Poems
Days Like This: A Collection of Small Poems
Desert is My Mother, The
Diamond Life: Baseball Sights, Sounds,
Mary Ann Hoberman
Karla Kuskin
(compiled by) Lillian Morrison
Deborah Chandra
Donald Graves
Lee Bennet Hopkins
P. Fleischman
edited by Jason Shinder
Christopher Myers
Arnold Adoff
Woody Guthrie
Walter Dean Myers
Rachel Isadora
Walter Dean Myers
Joyce Carlol Thomas
Charles R. Smith Jr.
Sonja Dunn
Frank Asch
Marilyn Nelson
Ernest L. Thayers
Patricia Hubbell
Jane Yolen
(selected by) Wendy Cooling
Pat Mora
Lori M. Carlson
Bobbi Katz
Georgia Heard
(selected by) John Micklos, Jr.
Simon James
Pat Mora
Charles R. Smith
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and Swings
Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices
Discover the Seasons
(narrative procedures with poems)
Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up
Earth Verse and Water Rhymes
Ellington Was Not A Street
Extra Innings
Fearless Fernie: Hanging Out With Fernie and Me
FEG: Ridiculous Poems for Intelligent Children
Flicker Flash
Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and
English
Genie in the Jar, The
Girls Got Game
Glorious Angels: A Celebration of Children
Going Over to Your Place
Grandparent Poems
Haiku Picture Book for Children
Have You Been to the Beach Lately
Happy Birthday
Heart to Heart
Home
Home to Me: Poems Across America
Honey, I Love, and Other Love Poems
Hopscotch Love: a Family Treasury of Love
Poems
Hoop Queens
Horizons
Hour of Freedom: American History in Poetry
I Gave My Mom a Castle
I See the Rhythm
In Daddy’s Arms I am Tall
In the Land of Words
In the Swim
Insectlopedia
Inside Turtle’s Shell, and other Poems of the Field
The Invisible Ladder
Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems
Just the Two of Us
Knock on Woods: Poems about Superstitions
Knoxville Tennessee
Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me At All
(selected by) Paul Janezcko
Diane Iverson
Lisa Westberg Peters
Patricia J. Lewis
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Gary Soto
Robin Hirsch
Joan Bransfield Grahman
Alma Flor Ada
Nikki Giovanni
Sue Macy
Walter Dean Myers
(compiled by) John Micklos, Jr.
Keisuke Nishimoto
Ralph Fletcher
Lee Bennett Hopkins
(edited by) Jan Greenberg
Michael J. Rosen (editor)
(selected by) Lee Bennett Hopkins
Eloise Greenfield
Nikki Grimes
Charles R. Smith Jr.
Jane Yolen
(compiled by) Milton Meltzer
Jean Little
Toyomi Ugus
Javaka Steptoe
Eloise Greenfield
Douglas Florian
Douglas Florian
Joanna Ryder
Liz Rosenberg
Mel Glenn
Will Smith
Janet S. Wong
Nikke Giovanni
Francisco Alarcon
Maya Angelou
Compiled by John Agard
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Love Letters
Arnold Adoff
Love that Dog
Sharon Creech
Low Song
Eve Merriam
Max Makes a Million
Maira Kalman
Meet Danitra Brown
Nikki Grimes
My Black Me: A Beginning Book of Black Poetry… Arnold Adoff
My Dolly
Woody Guthrie
My Man Blue
Nikki Grimes
My House is Singing
Betsy R. Rosenthal
My Mexico—Mexico Mio
Tony Johnston
My Own Harlem
Pellom McDaniels
Nathaniel Talking
Eloise Greenfield
Neighborhood Odes
Gary Soto
Off We Go!
Jane Yolen
On the Road of Stars: Native American Night
John Bierhorst
Poems
Once Upon Ice
Jane Yolen
Opening Days
Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins
(The) Other Side: Shorter Poems
Angela Johnson
Outside the Lines
Brad Burg
Out of the Dust
Karen Hesse
Pass it On: African-American Poetry for Children
Wade Hudson
Patrol
Walter Dean Myers
Perfect Harmony
Charles R. Smith
(The) Place My Words Are Looking For:
Paul Janeczko
What Poets Say About and Through Their Work
Please Baby, Please
Spike Lee
Poetry for Young People
Robert Frost
Poetry From A to Z: A Guide for Young Writers
Paul Janeczko (designer)
Poetry in Motion
(edited by) Molly Peacock
Rainbow Hand, The: Poems About Mothers and
Janet S. Wong
Children
Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle…
(compiled by) Stephen Dunning,
Eduard Lueders, Hugh Smith
Remember the Bridge: Poems of a People
Carol Bosston Waterford
Road Not Taken, The, and Other Poems
Robert Frost
Right Outside My Window
Mary Ann Hoberman
Rimshots
Charles R. Smith
Salting the Ocean
(selected by) Naomi Shihab Nye
Seeing the Blue Between
Paul Janeczko
Shoe Magic
Nikki Grimes
Short Takes
Charles R. Smith Jr.
Sing to the Sun
Ashley Bryan
Sky Scrape/City Scrape: Poems of City Life
(selected by) Jane Yolen
SLAM
Torrie Amos (introduction)
Slam Dunk
Compiled by Lillian Morrison
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Soft Hay Will Catch You: Poems by Young People
Sola Sol
Something Permanent
Song and Dance: Poems
Split Image
Stepping Out With Grandma Mac
Still I Rise
Stopping by Woods on A Snowy Evening
Street Music: City Poems
Strings…
Sun Dance, Water Dance
Sun Is On, The
Sun, the Moon, and the Stars, The
Swing Around the Sun
Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Talking Like the Rain
Ten Second Rainshowers: Poems from the Middle
East
(selected by) Sandford Lyne
Lori Marie Carlson
Cynthia Rylant
Lee Bennett Hopkins
Mel Glenn
Nikki Grimes
Maya Angelou
Robert Frost
Arnold Adoff
Paul Janeczko
Jonathan London
Linda Michelle Baron
Nancy E. Wallace
Barbara Juster Esbensen
Maryann Kovalski
(selected by) X.J. Kennedy and
Dorothy Kennedy
Naomi Shihab Nye
(The) Tree is Older Than You Are: A Bilingual
Naomi Shihab Nye (editor)
Gathering of Poems and Stories from Mexico with Paintings from Mexican Artists
That Sweet Diamond
Paul Janeczko
This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort
(selected by) Georgia Heard
This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems
David Booth
Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems
Kristina O’Connell
Tortillas Para Mama and Other Nursery Rhymes/
Barbara Cooney
Spanish and English
Touch the Poem
Arnold Adoff
Tree is Older Than You Are, The
(compiled by) Lillian Morrison
Under the Sunday Tree
Eloise Greenfield
Visiting Langston
Willie Perdomo
Wake Up House
Dee Lillegard
Water Music
Jane Yolen
(The) Way a Door Closes
Hope Anita Smith
When Whales Exhale
Constance Levy
Wild Wings
Jane Yolen
Witness
Karen Hesse
World According to Dogs Poems and Teen
Joyce Spidman
Voices, The
Wonderful Words: Poems About Reading,
Writing, Speaking, and Listening
Lee Bennett Hopkins
Yummy! Eating Through a Day
Lee Bennett Hopkins
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