Reading
Poetry can be easily infused into any reading program or
series. In my district, we use the workshop model to teach reading and writing.
Focused lessons are taught in 5-10 minutes. Students are provided with about 45
minutes of work time to try out the concept taught in the lesson. (Primary
students are also given work within literacy centers during this 45 minutes of
work time.) Each lesson closes with a time for students to share what they have
learned. We also use national performance standards and poetry
is mentioned in the reading and/or writing standards in all grades kindergarten
through fifth grade.
K-2 classrooms use literacy based centers and 3rd-5th grade classes mainly use independent reading during the 45 minute
student work time to build reading stamina.
Like a bedtime story, Shared Reading occurs when
everyone can see the text being read, an expert reads with intonation and rhythm
while the learner actively participates or follows along.
(Shared Reading, NCEE 2003.)
- Poems are great for shared reading. Provide each student with a copy of the
poem and have them track the words while you read the out loud.
- A poetry journal is a good idea. Poems are quick and
easy to copy in a word document, an overhead or poster maker. Students will
need a place to collect and organize their poems. The journal can be anything
you want it to be: a spiral, a 3 ring binder, a composition book, a
construction paper cover with blank copy paper pages inside - if that is what
you have readily available. My point, it doesn’t need to be fancy!
- Create a poetry center. Provide one copy of a poem at a
poetry center. Students can copy the poem in their poetry journal and practice
reading it to each other. If you rotate centers where one group goes to a
different center each day, then you only need one poem a week, which is
manageable. You can usually find easy-to-read poems in the reading series or
on the web.
- Give students an individual copy of a poem for their
poetry journal. Also provide a copy of 6 x 6 square. Have students read and
interpret a poem as a group or individually. Each student will illustrate
their interpretation of the poem, cut out the square and glue into the poetry
journal near the poem.
If your students are writing their own poems, have them illustrate their own
work!
- Add a poetry basket to your classroom library if you
don’t have one. Song books and nursery rhymes are also great since most of
them are poems anyway.
- Write poems on sentence strips and let your students put
them in the correct order. Provide a copy of the poem or nursery rhyme in the
poetry center so that the student can self-correct. Younger students can put the nursery rhymes in
order using the whole sentence. To help build fluency with struggling readers
in the upper grades, cut each word apart and let them try to put the
individual words in order. Nursery rhymes work well
since most students already know the word order. They can use prior knowledge
to assist them with the words that they may not recognize in print.
- Make popsicle puppets to act out poems - good center
work. Students can also make their own puppets, if time allows. Remember, a
good literacy center has the students focused on the words more than an
activity.
- Check the Dolch word list or high frequency word lists
– many poems and songs include repetition which strengthens reading skills.
For example, think about the following nursery rhyme:
Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Without using any official sight word list, just think
in your head about the words you might consider a sight word. This is what I
came up with: and, went, up, the, to, a, of, down, his, came, after
The beauty of using nursery rhymes is that most of your
students will already have the poem in their memory banks! Most struggling
readers can pick out beginning and ending sounds to differentiate between J-k
for Jack and J-l for Jill to try and put the words into the correct order.
And, if the poem is available for them to self-correct then it becomes a very
safe learning environment.
Students enjoy performance poetry. Performance poetry is
a powerful teaching tool. Rereading is a cornerstone of building fluency. If
students are going to perform and memorize a poem, then they must read and
reread the same poem over and over. All students need a copy of the poem and
know which part they are going to read or perform – and time to practice.
- April is Poetry Month. On April first, I like to give
the faculty a calendar with a poem provided for each day.
- At the end of April, celebrate with a Poetry Festival.
We had 2 performances last year; one for Pre K – 2 performances and one for
the 3rd – 5th grade students. The festival was a huge success and the teachers
even suggested we have 2 festivals a year rather than one!
- Provide (or write!) poems that require more than one
reader. There are many poems out there that require two readers.
Here is one I wrote for first grade last year during
Valentine’s Day activities: Maybe Next Year
. . .
There are lots of sight words in that one which is perfect
for first grade readers. If you want to blend lessons, you can use the same poem
to teach writing skills – dialogue, commands, onomatopoeia, punctuation.
- Being able to rhyme words at the primary level is an
indicator of future reading success. Once you teach the students a poem (i.e.
pattern), let them write their own. They will need support so create a class
word bank of rhyming words or a Word Families book for each student or to add
to a poetry center.
- Create a Poetry Genre study. Compare a poet’s work the
way you would study a picture book author.
Skills Block
- Have students write couplets with spelling words
rather than sentences for a homework assignment. A couplet is a poem with only
2 lines and those 2 lines end with rhyming words.
- Seek out poems that match the skill you are
concentrating on in, for example, compound words. Can’t find exactly what you
are looking for? Write one to match your needs!
My Favorite Subject is Lunch has a few contractions that students can identify and separate
if contractions happens to be the focus of your skills block lesson.
- Write a poem for the students with the spelling words.
This is a little hard and always seems a little choppy to me. I try to write a
poem each week for my daughter who is currently in the second grade. The poem,
Little Mouse, Big Dreams was written with one of
her weekly spelling word lists. Her spelling words are in bold type.
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