Poetry Cubes

Author: Kristie Korth

Grade: Any grade

 

Integrated Disciplines: Language Arts

 

NE Standards: 4.1.1 By the end of fourth grade, students will draw on a variety of strategies to read and understand unfamiliar words and phrases.  4.1.2 By the end of fourth grade, students will acquire and use correctly the advanced reading vocabulary.  4.1.3 By the end of fourth grade, students will identify the basic facts and essential ideas in what they have read or viewed.  4.1.5 By the end of fourth grade, students will identify characteristics of different types of text.  4.3.2 By the end of fourth grade, students will make oral presentations that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience, purpose, and information to be conveyed.

 

Objectives: Students will use context clues while reading unfamiliar words or phrases to figure them out.  Students will be able to summarize the poem, sharing the general meaning of the poem.  Students will cooperate in a group to read and develop a way of presenting a poem to the class.  Students will give oral presentations using eye contact, proper pace, volume, and clear enunciation.  Students will use fluency and expression while reading poetry.

 

Materials: *Poems that deal with the subject matter (holiday, theme, season…)

*2 milk cartons with the bottoms cut out.  Cut the bottoms off so that they fit together to form a cube.  Cover them with colorful paper or contact paper.

 

PROCEDURES

Anticipatory Set: Start with talking to students about poetry.  Read poetry to them.  Ask them if they enjoy poetry.  Talk about how songs are just poems put to music.  Get them interested in poetry.  This is a great way to introduce a holiday, season, them, etc.

 

Vocabulary: In poems, there are probably many words that the students will not fully understand.  Choose poems that are at their grade level.  If there are words that appear to be difficult, help the students figure out what the word means by using context clues.

 

Activities:

  1. Each group will be given a cube with poems written on all sides.  (All pertaining to a subject)
  2. One person in the group will roll the dice to see which poem their group will be working on.
  3. They can then do one of two things to present their poem to the class.  Choral read the poem or act the poem out in front of the class.
  4. After they have been given time to practice, each group will then present their poem.
  5. When all presentations are over, the students will then engage in different activities over the next couple of days to help them memorize their poem.

*Further Activity Suggestions

  1. Have the poem on sentence strips and orally recite the poem over and over, covering up different words after each time until the whole poem is covered.
  2. Put poems on sentence strips for the students to put in order.
  3. Write the poem in their best handwriting.  Illustrate.

 

Provision for special needs: For students that have a hard time memorizing, shorter poems such as Haikus could be memorized.  Another way to do it is to pair the people who are having trouble, with someone who can help them and is doing well with poetry.

 

Closure: The illustrated poetry could be laminated and put up in hallways, made into bookmarks, or placemats, as well as many other things.  Ask the student what they would like to do with them.

 

Assessment: Students used context clues while reading unfamiliar words or phrases to figure them out.  Students were able to summarize the poem, sharing the general meaning of the poem.  Students cooperated in a group where they read and developed a way of presenting a poem to the class.  Students gave oral presentations using eye contact, proper pace, volume, and clear enunciation.  Students used fluency and expression while reading poetry.  The students were graded on their product, as well as how much preparation they put into it.  It was obvious who prepared for the presentation.  The teacher was able to get an idea of who is working on it and who is not by observing them during their activities for memorizing.

 

References: http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang50.txt

 

Reflection: