Unit Plan: Community in Poetry

Unit Name:  Community in Poetry

Subject and Grade Level: Reading, 4th Grade

Learner Population:

This 4th grade class consists of 18 students. A little less than half of them are native English speakers (although three of those students have a second language in the home as well). About one-third of the class are in the intermediate fluency stage, and there are also a few students in the beginning fluency stage as well as the speech emergent stage. 

There are a handful of learning differences in the class to be mindful of. Two students have been diagnosed with ADHD. One student has diagnosed autism as well as dyslexia. One student is in the process of getting a neuro-psych evaluation done, with a suspected processing disorder and/or ADHD. There are three additional students who have never had an evaluation, but who show many indicators of ADHD. (Total of 6 students with diagnosed or suspected learning differences.)

This thematic unit comes after a unit on economics, so students will have a baseline understanding of concepts such as goods and services, bartering, money, and natural resources, human resources, and capital resources. These vocabulary charts will remain up during our Community in Poetry unit.

In the class we have students reading at F&P levels ranging from K to V. Most students have fairly good literal comprehension, but I foresee the skill of making inferences as a likely challenge for several students as they practice interpreting poetry and identifying the theme of a poem. A handful of students (including students in the speech emergent stage as well as my dyslexic student) are still building their reading fluency, and will need to be able to read a poem several times to take time to decode new words and practice reading with increasing fluency. Most of my students with either diagnosed or suspected ADHD find it challenging to consistently recall details from their texts, and will benefit from specific note-taking strategies to build this skill.

Standards: 

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.4.4.B Read grade-level poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) when writing or speaking about a text.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.5.A Explain the meaning of simple similes and metaphors (e.g., as pretty as a picture) in context.

Overarching Goals: 

• By the end of this unit, students will be able to explain (orally or in writing) what a poem is mostly about (i.e. identify the theme).
• By the end of this unit, students will be able to read poetry out loud in a way that reflects the emotion and/or theme of the poem.

Objectives:

• Students will compare and contrast poetry and prose.
• Students will be able to identify and name a theme of a poem and provide evidence for their findings.
• Students will explain, orally or in writing, what a simple and familiar simile or metaphor is trying to convey.
• Students will, after practice and feedback, read short poems orally with fluency and appropriate expression.
• Students will record themselves reading their own poetry fluently and with expression.

21st Century Skills addressed: Literacy Skills, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills, Communication, Perseverance, Technology Skills and Digital Literacy

Prerequisite Skills: 

This thematic unit will include reading, writing, and social studies components. It comes after a unit on economics, so students will have a baseline understanding of concepts such as goods and services, bartering, money, and natural resources, human resources, and capital resources. These vocabulary charts will remain up during our Community in Poetry unit.

Students will need a baseline of broad exposure to and familiarity with various types of prose, such as narrative writing, procedural writing, and informational writing.

This unit will come after a unit on nonfiction texts, so students will have an understanding of terms such as “main idea,” “supporting detail,” and “text evidence.”

Summative Assessment:

• Teacher prepares a set of poems students can choose from. These poems are chosen strategically because they include the necessary literary elements (e.g. figurative language), as well as accessible vocabulary and themes.
• Students, with the help of their parents, select a culturally relevant poem to analyze. In this analysis they fill in a word web (speech emergent, beginning fluency stage) or write complete sentences (intermediate fluency, native English speakers) to explain the theme of the poem and what details (word choice, punctuation, rhythm, etc) makes them think that is the theme of the poem. They will also explain the meaning of a simile or metaphor from the poem. Finally, they will record themselves reading the poem out loud to demonstrate their understanding of the poem by reading with fluency and appropriate expression. By recording themselves (and having the opportunity to do more than one take), they can be sure they are submitting their best work.

Formative Assessment: 

• Writing characteristics of poetry on sticky notes to add to class chart
• Exit ticket to briefly compare and contrast poetry and prose (using texts read in class)
• Partner work to create a word web identifying the theme (main idea) and supporting details from the poem
• Exit ticket to name the theme of a poem and give one piece of supporting evidence
• Exit ticket to explain a sample simile
• Exit ticket to explain a sample metaphor

Note: the exit tickets would be differentiated for students in the speech emergent stage by offering a word bank or yes/no questions. They could also be completed in a small group so that I could read the questions out loud and, if necessary, guide  students to write their answers. For all students, exit tickets would include a sample response to scaffold language use. 

Lessons:

Note: For this assignment I have selected one lesson from each week of my Community In Poetry curriculum map. These lessons are not intended to reflect the full scope of the unit, nor would they be done sequentially. Each lesson represents or is indicative of the topic of a particular week from the fuller unit.

Lesson 1: What Is a Poem?

Skills: Reading, speaking, listening, writing

This lesson will come at the end of our first week, during which time students will have been exposed to print and audio of many styles of poems, such as haiku, limericks, free verse, acrostic poems, etc. Poems will be placed around the room, and students will have a small guide to styles of poetry they have constructed over the course of the week. Students will work with a partner, and will visit the poems around the room. They will take turns to read the poem out loud, then tell their partner what style of poetry they believe the poem demonstrates, and why. Their partner will say if they agree/disagree, and why. In the end students will write a brief journal entry about one poem that was harder to identify (or that the two partners disagreed on) and what made that poem’s style challenging to identify.

Lesson 2: Finding the Theme of a Poem 1.0

Skills: Speaking, reading, writing, listening

This will be the introductory lesson on finding the theme of a poem. First students will turn and talk to share what they remember about finding the main idea of a nonfiction text. Sentence frames will be posted to guide the conversation. Then I will make a link between the main idea of a nonfiction text and the theme of a poem. I will present a short poem, and show students how we can look for keywords in the poem (supporting details) and use them to make an inference about the theme of the poem. Then students will work (in pairs if necessary to scaffold language) to read a poem, underline/highlight key words that they find, and fill in a word web with key words around the outside and their suggested theme in the middle.

Lesson 3: Investigating Figurative Language

Skills: Reading, speaking, listening, (writing – for note-takers only)

In this lesson students will be placed in groups of 3 (6 groups in all). Each group will be given a sheet with 6 similes and metaphors on it. In a group, they will discuss what they think each simile/metaphor means until they come to agreement as a group. The note-taker for each group will briefly record the group’s interpretation. Groups that finish early can take turns creating similes/metaphors for their group members to interpret. Once all groups are done, we will go around the room. Group 1 will share out their interpretation of simile/metaphor 1, Group 2 will share out on simile/metaphor 2, and so on. Other groups will have the opportunity to respond, and sentence frames will be posted to guide the discussion (e.g. “I agree because _____,” “I disagree because _____,” etc).

Lesson 4: Finding the Theme of a Poem 2.0

Skills: Reading, writing, speaking

This lesson will build upon the previous two weeks. Students will read and listen (online with headphones) to a poem with figurative language. Poems will be differentiated in difficulty. They will then need to interpret the figurative language in order to understand what the poem is talking about. Students in the beginning fluency stage will have the option to work with a partner, and students in the speech emergent stage will work in a small group with the teaching assistant. After they have interpreted the figurative language, they will need to name what they think the theme is and provide at least two pieces of supporting evidence to back up their inference. Students who read the same poem will share out together by reading their written response to each other.

Lesson 5: Reading Poetry Out Loud

Skills: Reading, speaking, listening

This will be a culminating lesson, and one component of a summative assessment on a poem students chose from a curated set. In this lesson, students will already have a plan for how they would like to read their chosen poem. They will share their plan with a partner, who will give them one glow (compliment) and one grow (idea for how to make it better). Then, in staggered groups over the course of two academic periods (maximum of 4 students recording at one time), students will use their Chromebooks to record themselves reading their poem with fluency and expression on Flipgrid. They can record themselves reading as many times as they want until they feel satisfied with their recording, then they will submit it for their teacher to review. Students who run out of time to record during their designated time slot can have the option to complete their recording at home. Students who finish should read quietly (with the option of headphones) to minimize the total noise in the room.