Let's Write Poetry

Subject Area: English/language arts

Grade Level(s): 7-8

Duration of Activity:

This lesson should take approximately five to ten days to complete. However, you can modify it in several ways to fit your desired time frame.

Description of Activity:

This lesson is designed to actively involve students in the process of writing poetry by examining and practicing several types of poetry patterns. This lesson will use conventional means as well as technology to incorporate figurative language and creativity into the student's writing. Students will create PowerPoint presentations using original poetry.

Objectives:

• Students will develop an understanding of a variety of poetry patterns and the role figurative language often plays in poetry.
• Students will be able to construct original poems using the various patterns and figurative language taught in this lesson.

Materials/Equipment:

• Student access to computers with Microsoft Word (or equivalent word processing software), PowerPoint software, and Internet access
• A digital camera and the appropriate software to view the pictures and incorporate them into documents
• Poetry material to enhance what is suggested in this plan
• A projector or some means of viewing the presentations with the class (optional but preferred)
• Handout 1: PowerPoint Instructions
• Handout 2: Grading Rubric for Poetry Writing Assignment
• Handout 3: Grading Rubric for PowerPoint Presentation

Prerequisites (skills or background needed):

• The teacher will need to tutor students on the use of the digital camera and Internet.

  NOTE: It is understood with this lesson plan that the teacher will have his/her own material regarding specific poetry patterns and figurative language devices. This plan simply offers a suggestion on how to teach them with the support of technology.

• The teacher will need to review the Handout 1: PowerPoint Instructions. The handout is suggested as a tool for that purpose and as a guide for the students.

Procedure

Teacher Component:

1. Give the students the following poetry patterns and guide them to an understanding and the production of an original poem with each. Use the following sites as helpful resources.
1. Rhyming couplets
1. Creative Writing - Help for Creative Writers -- Creative Writing Advice
   http://fictionwriting.about.com/?once=true&
2. MSN Encarta - Couplet
   http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761575514/Couplet.html
3. RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus
   http://www.rhymezone.com/
2. Haiku

1. Art of Haiku Poetry
   http://www.insite.com.br/rodrigo/poet/haiku.html
2. Haiku
   http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiku.htm
3. Cinquain
1. Teacher Guided Activities: Cinquain Poetry
   http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/
   classrooms/amy/algebra/5-6/activities/
   poetry/cinquain.html
2. Creative Writing - Help for Creative Writers -- Creative Writing Advice
   http://fictionwriting.about.com/?once=true&
2. Teach the following figurative language devices to your students and guide them in using each in original poetry. Use the following sites as helpful resources.
1. Onomatopoeia
1. Creative Writing - Help for Creative Writers -- Creative Writing Advice
   http://fictionwriting.about.com/?once=true&
2. Creative Writing - Help for Creative Writers -- Creative Writing Advice
   http://fictionwriting.about.com/?once=true&
2. Personification / hyperbole / simile / metaphor
1. Personification
   http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00000562.shtml
2. CliffsNotes::Literary Terms & Poetry Glossary
   http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-109025.html
3. Figurative Language
   http://www.frostfriends.org/figurative.html
4. MSN Encarta - Speech, Figure of
   http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761577842/Speech_Figure_of.html
3. Teacher Resource Notes on Poetry
• A rhyming couplet consists of two lines of poetry that go together. The last word of each line rhymes.
• A haiku is a short verse form invented in Japan centuries ago. Traditional haiku poetry deals with some image of nature. The purpose of haiku is to suggest a mood or picture to the reader. A haiku consists of three unrhymed lines in the following pattern.
1. 5 syllables
2. 7 syllables
3. 5 syllables
• There are two popular forms of cinquains.

  Type 1

  1. One word for the subject of the poem
  2. Two words that describe the subject
  3. Three verbs that describe some action of the subject or what it does
  4. Four words that express an emotional response of the subject or toward the subject

  Type 2

1. 2 syllables
2. 4 syllables
3. 6 syllables
4. 8 syllables
5. 2 syllables
• Onomatopoeia is the use of words or a word that carries the sound of the thing described. In other words, it causes the reader to hear the sound represented.

  Examples of onomatopoeia:

1. I heard the crack of the bat as he hit the ball.
2. I hear the screech of chalk on the board.
• Personification is the giving of human qualities to non-human or abstract things.

  Example of personification:

1. The wind whispered to me from the darkness.
2. Guilt tapped upon my shoulder with the spindly finger of dread.
• A hyperbole is an intentional overstatement or exaggeration. A hyperbole says more than is true. It stretches the truth so far that it is not expected to be taken literally. It is used to make an important point.

  Examples of hyperbole:

1. I have told you a million times.
2. I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.
• A simile is a figurative language device that makes its points by comparing two things that aren't normally associated with each other using the words like or as.

  Examples of simile:

1. That girl is as sharp as a tack.
2. She sings like a canary.
• A metaphor is a simile without the words like or as. A metaphor is used to make the meaning more intense.

  Examples of metaphor:

1. Loneliness is an empty room.
2. That old man is a sly fox.

Student Activities:

1. Students will write five original poems on the topics of their choice (or teacher's choice) demonstrating the correct use of each poetry pattern.
2. Students should demonstrate the correct use and understanding of figurative language devices by creatively using them in their poems. The individual teacher should determine the required extent of this use.
3. Students will take a picture with the digital camera to illustrate or creatively depict the message or theme of each poem.
4. Students will work in small groups to create a PowerPoint presentation of selected poetry and pictures. The teacher will determine the number of poems to be included in the presentation. Students should use Handout 1:PowerPoint Instructions as a guide.

Accommodations:

• Students may work in small groups or be assigned a peer tutor if necessary
• If it is not feasible for all students to use the digital camera, students may bring a picture from home. The teacher can scan or take a picture of it with the digital camera.

Extension Activities:

• Use construction paper, ribbon, colored string, and any other material you wish to construct a "poetry" booklet of your poems and pictures
• To extend this lesson to the advanced level, take the students through the editing process to the point of publishing the best poems into a professionally printed book that can be shared with students in other schools.

Integration:

• This lesson integrates language arts, technology, and art.

Assessments:

1. Teacher observation and interaction with the students will be used throughout the lesson to assess student understanding of the lesson objectives. The Handout 2: Grading Rubric for Poetry Writing Assignment and the Handout 3: Grading Rubric for PowerPoint Presentation are suggested as assessment tools.

URL's

The following sites are suggested as resources for use in teaching this lesson:

• PoetryTeachers.com
  http://www.poetryteachers.com/
• ProTeacher: Poetry
  http://www.proteacher.com/070042.shtml
• Teachers
  http://teams.lacoe.edu/teachers/index.asp
• Wordsmyth: The Educational Dictionary-Thesaurus
  http://www.wordsmyth.net/

Curriculum Frameworks

Mississippi:

Seventh Grade & Eighth Grade

3. Complete projects and tasks in an organized and coherent manner.
8. Read and use print and non-print media to experience the rhythm, energy, and pictorial qualities of language.
10. Read, analyze, and respond in written and oral language or other art forms to increasingly challenging literature and other resources.

National Educational Technology Standards (NETS):

8. Select and use appropriate tools and technology resources to accomplish a variety of tasks and solve problems.

TerraNova:

35 Word Meaning 11-21/22
Demonstrate an understanding of word meanings and relationships.

Link and Feedback to Author(s):

Steven Hodgin, Booneville Middle School, Booneville, MS
steven_hodgin@hotmail.com or kudzu39@hotmail.com