All Together Now: Collaborations in Poetry Writing

Lesson Plans: Grades K-2

All Together Now: Collaborations in Poetry Writing

Tools

The Lesson

Introduction

When children hear, write, and recite poetry, they understand more deeply the qualities of verse — the importance of sound, compactness, internal integrity, imagination and line. Working collaboratively on poetry provides a safe structure for student creativity.

Using resources available through EDSITEment, make poetry exciting for your students as they listen to, write and recite poems that are sure to please.

Guiding Questions

What do we learn about the nature of poetry from hearing poems read aloud?
How can the work of well-known poets inform student poetry writing?
What has to be taken into consideration when performing a poem?

Learning Objectives

Create lines of poetry in response to poems read aloud.
Identify musical elements of literary language, such as rhymes or repeated sounds.
Recite short poems or excerpts.

Background

Preparation Instructions

Review each lesson in this unit and select archival materials you'd like to use in class. Bookmark these materials, along with other useful websites, if possible; download and print out selected documents and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
The poetry templates used in this lesson (Activity 2) are also available from EDSITEment in .pdf format. You may wish to download the templates and make copies for students to use in their individual or group work on poems; you could also copy the templates onto overhead film and display them for writing poetry as a whole class.
The collaborative writing of a class poem is a non-threatening approach for introducing students to poetry writing. Students contribute one sentence or less, yet feel the pride of accomplishing an entire poem.
Poetry can be an exciting classroom activity when poems remain the center of the learning. Focus on the poem itself, rather than generalizations about the nature of poetry. The activities to follow allow for many teachable moments of content about poetry (rhyme, meter, form). Only you can determine what is most appropriate for your class.
While conducting this unit, you will serve as a model for your students by reading poems with enthusiasm and understanding, contributing to the writing of poems, and remaining actively involved in the design of the class's poetry recitations. Your interest and personal touch will help engage and motivate students to appreciate and enjoy poetry.
This lesson plan offers a variety of activities and resources (including links to child-friendly poems available online and recommendations of useful books) to enable you to locate material appropriate for your class. Using a variety of poems will encourage students to form their own relationship with the genre of poetry. Given the great variety of poems and poetry-writing techniques offered, as well as the unpredictable nature of student responses, remain flexible, but focused as you present this lesson to students.
Poems appeal to the senses. Involving the senses as part of your teaching strategy will increase the likelihood of appealing to students with a variety of learning styles and abilities. When the students come in from the rain, read "Weather" by Eve Merriam. Use R.L. Stevenson's "Block City" after the students have been working with blocks.
Look for opportunities to create poetry assignments around curriculum content. For example, one "rule" for a collaborative poem could be, "Write a line with a vocabulary word from our reading lesson."

The following resources, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website The American Academy of Poets, provide background on teaching poetry to younger students (Note: Though these excerpts are directed to the intermediate grades, reading Koch's remarks will help you understand how to work with poetry in any classroom.):
Jim Trelease: Excerpts from "The Read-Aloud Handbook"
Kenneth Koch: Excerpts from "Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?"
Geared to the primary grades, Wishes, Lies, and Dreams, by Kenneth Koch (Harper Perennial Library, 2000; ISBN 0060955090), offers a much more complete investigation of class collaborations than is possible here, plus many assignment suggestions and examples of student work.

Activity 1. Listening to Poetry

Begin the unit by reading poems aloud to the class, one or more per day for a few days. This reading can be done during the traditional story time or whenever appropriate. When you read a poem for the first time, students should simply listen. If desired, use a motivator — a read aloud, a picture, an experience — to establish an anticipatory set. If you plan to pass out copies of a poem, wait until after the first reading and the brief discussion that follows.

Read each poem at least twice. In classes with strong volunteer readers, encourage students to read small sections of the piece to create a second reading (or third, if the poem is brief and a second reading by you is most appropriate). Different voices will bring something different to each reading.

After the first reading, ask students to tell what they noticed about the poem. What word or lines "jumped out" at them? All answers are correct; students are simply telling what happened to them as they listened to the poem. When appropriate, students can be asked to hypothesize why particular elements were memorable. Look for teachable moments here, but be brief and to the point.

Should a student cite "checkerberry cheddar chew" from Jack Prelutsky's "Bleezer's Ice Cream" as memorable, you might point out the "ch" sound that begins each word. In some classrooms, it might be appropriate to add that poets call such patterns alliteration. The best terms to introduce are those that will make discussing poetry easier. Use these terms yourself when you talk about poetry. Keep enjoyment of the poem itself the top priority.

Before the second reading, if desired, ask the class to listen for something in particular, especially an element brought into the discussion by a student. For example, if someone had pointed to a funny line, ask the students to listen for other lines they think are funny.

After the second reading, ask the students what they notice or remember this time. If you asked the class to listen for something specific, find out what students noticed.

The following books contain poems ideal for reading aloud in class. The books listed in the Other Resources section also contain poems suitable for reading aloud.

Bennett, Jill. Noisy Poems. Oxford University Press, 1989. (ISBN 0192782193)
Alliteration-oriented poems kids enjoy. Noisy Poems can be a great tool when your kids study letters/sound/senses.
Korman, Bernice and Gordon Korman.The D- Poems of Jeremy Bloom: A Collection of Poems About School, Homework, and Life (Sort Of). Scholastic, 1992. (ISBN 0590448196)
Silverstein, Shel.Where the Sidewalk Ends. HarperCollins Children's Books, 1973. (ISBN 0060256672)

The following poems, available online through EDSITEment resource The Academy of American Poets, were written specifically for young people or have been traditional staples in the elementary classroom. Choose poems appropriate to your particular group.

"Be Glad Your Nose Is on Your Face" by Jack Prelutsky
Show a picture of some animals and their "noses." In insects, the sense of smell is located chiefly in the antennae. Most amphibians (the group that includes frogs, toads and salamanders) sense smell using an organ inside their mouths. Ask the students if anyone among them has ever banged his/her nose against something. Where else could our noses be located to avoid such accidents? As you read the poem, make sure to put humorous emphasis on the last line of each of the middle stanzas to demonstrate how each caps its verse. For example, show the class through your reading how unpleasant it would be to "be forced to smell your feet."
"Bleezer's Ice Cream" by Jack Prelutsky
This is a terrific poem to use when making ice cream in class. You may wish to ask students to bring in empty ice cream cartons from home to help create a list of flavors. Which of Bleezer's flavors are familiar? Which are probably not real? Recite the list of flavors as though they are all appealing. Read the poem again, reacting in your own way to the various flavors.
"Fifteen, Maybe Sixteen Things to Worry About" by Judith Viorst
Read Viorst's "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" (1972) aloud to establish an anticipatory set. What could make today a good day or a bad day? What would Alexander worry about? During one of the readings of the poem, students can count to see how many things to worry about there really are in the poem. Are there 15 worries or 16? Read each worry as if it really might happen.
"I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" by Emily Dickinson
Read as if you're telling a secret.
"Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll
Make sure you have a sense of what "happens" in the poem so that you have a clear notion of the meaning of every nonsense word. Use a few nonsense words as you direct the class to prepare for a read-aloud. Read the poem as if you're relating a tall tale of your own heroism — stand up and brandish your imaginary sword.
"The Land of Nod" by Robert Louis Stevenson
Let students talk about dreams. During the first or second reading, stop before the last word of the second line of each couplet. Can students guess the next word?
"Learning" by Judith Viorst
Is the "I" pleased or displeased about what s/he is learning?
"Mary's Lamb" by Sarah Josepha Hale
Let students recite what they know of the poem. This is the less familiar complete version. Stop after "To see a lamb at school." What do the students think will happen?
"Thinking in Bed" by Dennis Lee
Make sure your reading shows the "I" is giving serious thought to the problem of remembering who s/he is.

Other recommendations may be found at:

Selected Poems, on the EDSITEment resource The Academy of American Poets
Recommended Poems: Lists and Links: More Great Poems, also on The Academy of American Poets

Streaming audio/video recitations of the following poems are available on The Favorite Poem Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library

"The Sloth" by Theodore Roethke
Show the class a picture of a sloth.
"Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
This old chestnut has some difficult language, but it is read here by an 11-year-old baseball fan whose story is sure to interest sports-minded students.
"Block City" by R. L. Stevenson
If your students work with blocks, read this poem as they create.

After a few days, begin the poetry writing and recitation activities that follow; continue to introduce poems to the class throughout the year.

Activity 2. Writing Poetry

Writing sessions should be based on a model poem, read aloud to the class as in Activity 1. (Note: Poetry templates included in this lesson are also available on EDSITEment in .pdf format; download the Adobe Acrobat Reader) The model should suggest a starting "rule" (or rules) for individual lines of poetry, which will be composed by each member of the class. The class can add to the rule, as desired. For example, if the model poem dictates that each line must contain a color followed by the word "as" and a comparison, the class might add that the color should refer to something in the classroom. The result might be something like this:

Our reading couch is as green as a Sour Apple Jolly Rancher.

Assignments can also be completed independently by able individuals. In such cases, the assignment "Write a poetry line that includes a color followed by the word 'as' and a comparison" might become instead: "Write a poem in which almost every line includes a color followed by the word 'as' and a comparison. Locate the poem in a familiar place."

Collect the individual lines from students, put them in order — randomly or intentionally — and read the poem aloud as a whole. Discourage students from changing other students' lines, but allow authors to change their own lines, if desired. The poem can be revised with additions and/or order changes. For example, ask the students to suggest one more line to serve as an ending. Whenever practical, include student work in the poetry recitation activities in Activity 3.

For classes in which students cannot write their own lines, consider "buddying up" with an older class. Students can dictate lines or poems that their buddies can write down.

Where students are writing independently, maintain folders of their work for use in a class poetry reading and/or anthology.

The following poems, available on the EDSITEment resource The American Academy of Poets unless otherwise noted, are suitable to use as writing models. Assignment ideas are included.

"Catch a Little Rhyme" by Eve Merriam
Base your assignment on the "I ... but" format of the model. One possibility, used by Koch, is "I used to be ..., but now I ..." Where students are able, they can be challenged to use rhyming words at the end of each part of the sentence (e.g., "I used to be a talker, but now I play soccer").
"Dora Diller" by Jack Prelutsky
Use the poem as a template in which students fill in the blanks. Lines can be assigned to individual students, or independent students can complete the entire "puzzle" on their own.

Template:
"My stomach's full of _________!" (an object, word to rhyme with the last word in line 3)
Lamented ___________. (a name)
Her mother sighed, "____________. (rhymes with line 1)
You ate __________!" (rhymes with the name)

Example:
"My stomach's full of elephants!"
Lamented Kathy Strunk.
Her mother sighed, "You have no sense.
You ate your father's trunk!"
"Lullaby" by Eve Merriam
Using the line "Purple as a king's cape" as a model, ask each student to contribute one line that begins with a color followed by a comparison starting with "as." Encourage students to let the comparison be unexpected. (Introduce the term simile if appropriate.) Once all the lines have been compiled, ask for suggestions for a beginning and ending either from the lines provided or by creating additional lines. Give the poem a title and read it aloud to the class.
"Table Manners" by Gelett Burgess
Students' lines can suggest silly (or serious) rule-breaking the Goops might do if they were going along with the class on an upcoming activity. Each line can begin with "The Goops they..." The poem could even be set in the lunchroom. The poem doesn't have to rhyme, but placing a pair of rhyming lines last can create a sense of finality.

Template:
The Goops they _____,
And the Goops they _____;
They __________-- (rhymes with line 1)
Oh, they _____! (rhymes with line 2)
The Goops _____,
And _____. (rhymes with "you")
And that is why I'm glad that I
Am not a Goop--are you?

Example:
"The Goops at the Museum"
The Goops they touch the artwork,
And the Goops they chew their gum;
They go completely berserk
Oh, they scream and run!
The Goops take off their shoes
And leap like kangaroos.
And that is why I'm glad that I
Am not a Goop--are you?
"What Will You Be?" by Dennis Lee
Each student can create a line based on the form:

When I grow up, I'm going to be a ______,
And ____________________________.

Lines can be realistic:

When I grow up, I'm going to be a doctor
And save lives every day.

Or, lines can be fantastical:

When I grow up, I'm going to be a jet plane
And fly to Hawaii whenever I want.
"What a Day" by Shel Silverstein. (Where the Sidewalk Ends. Harper Collins Children's Books, 1974. ISBN 060256672.)
Students can each supply a line rhyming with a specific opening line and beginning with "My." When put together, the lines create a poem ending with "What a ______." Brainstorm with the class words that rhyme with the word chosen for the blank.

Example:
What a Night
What a night,
Oh what a night
My left hand forgot my right
My bike lost its front headlight.
My bedroom was a hideous sight.
And now my crayons will not write.
I'm seven years old
And feeling fright!
Oh what a night, Oh what a night.

Students working independently can use the following template:
What a _____, (such as "night" or "trip" or ______)
Oh what a ____. (same as first line)
My _________,
And now my _____ will not _____.
I'm ____ years old
And ____ing _____,
Oh what a _____, Oh what a _____.
"Messy Room" by Shel Silverstein. (A Light in the Attic. Harper Collins Children's Books, 1981. ISBN 0060256737.)
Does the classroom need a clean-up? Use "Messy Room" as a model for a piece that describes a particular place — a location the students have visited or that they have seen in a picture. Begin with "Whosever ______ (classroom, meadow, forest, farm...) this is should be _______!" Students each contribute a line beginning with the same word. End with "I knew ___________."
"Whatif?" by Shel Silverstein. (A Light in the Attic. HarperCollins Children's Books, 1981. ISBN 0060256737.)
Students can write their own lines beginning with "Whatif." Frame the student lines with Silverstein's:

OPENING
Last night, while I lay thinking here,
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif...

CLOSING
Everything seems swell, and then
The nighttime Whatifs strike again!

Or, the class can create its own beginning and ending.
"Weather" by Eve Merriam
Write a line of poetry with a sound and an animal or object in it. Give the poem a title.
"Hope Is a Tattered Flag" by Carl Sandburg, on The Favorite Poem Project, a link from the EDSITEment resource Internet Public Library
Decide on an abstract term everyone in the class will use to begin his/her line. Each line demonstrates the term, rather than defining it. Give the poem a title.

Some additional ideas:

If the class is having trouble generating lines (either to write or dictate to the teacher), individual students can provide as little as one word to help move forward the writing process. For instance, once the rules are established, a student can suggest an appropriate word around which other students can suggest a line. A single student can also suggest a rhyming word to complete a line.
Change rules as desired to encourage creativity. For example, "Write a line in which you use the color yellow" can become "Draw something that makes you think of the color yellow." As you circulate around the room, ask for and write down the students' descriptions of their pictures. These comments may be combined to create an illustrated class poem.
As a class, brainstorm a list of students' favorite words (like mine, "mélange") — for use when composing — to display in your classroom writing center. Start by thinking up categories, such as food, sounds, animal sounds, nonsense words and so on. The list should be hung up and added to whenever. Words should be copied onto large strips and placed in the writing center with blank strips for students to add new words. Students can also maintain special pages in their writing notebooks for favorite words. After the list has lengthened, randomly place a few of the words in envelopes. Write on-the-spot collaborative poems using the words.
Place an assortment of interesting objects on a table. Have students observe them, write down words associated with them, and put together lines of poetry based on the objects.
Ask students to bring in photos of their family members for the eventual purpose of writing poems about them. Read aloud poems from Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection of Family Poems by Mary Ann Hoberman (Puffin, 1993; ISBN 0140548491). Students should make notes in their journals about their photos. Help your students draw out details by posing questions such as "What is in your dad's hand?"
Try writing "looking out the window" poems, prompted by sights observed out the classroom window.
Have you ever been surprised to notice the moon in the middle of the day? Get inspired to write moon poems by reading Moon Journals: Writing, Art and Inquiry Through Focused Nature Study by Joni Chancer and Gina Rester-Zodrow (Heinemann, 1997; ISBN 0435072218).

Activity 3. Choral Readings for Poems

As your students continue to hear and write poetry throughout the year, give them opportunities to participate in recitations by the whole class, small groups or individuals. "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices," by Paul Fleischman, written for students age 9 to 12, serves as a terrific model for choral reading of poems.

The following poems, all available on EDSITEment-reviewed websites, work well as group recitations. Make sure the title and author are always recognized as part of a recitation.

"Mother Doesn't Want a Dog" by Judith Viorst, on Academy of American Poets
The group can recite in unison the first two lines of each stanza; individuals can be assigned the remaining lines.
"Since Hannah Moved Away" by Judith Viorst, on Academy of American Poets
The class can recite in unison the refrain "Since Hannah moved away."
"Some Things Don't Make Any Sense at All" by Judith Viorst, on Academy of American Poets
The class can recite in unison "My mother says" and "Why?" Individuals can be assigned what remains of each line.
"What Will You Be?" by Dennis Lee, on Academy of American Poets
The class can recite in unison the two pairs of lines beginning with "They never stop," as well as "I'll Play the whole darn day and drive them Wild." Assign the remaining lines to individuals.

Other poems that work well for group recitation include:

"Invitation" by Shel Silverstein. (Where the Sidewalk Ends. HarperCollins Children's Books, 1973. ISBN 0060256672.)
A great way to begin a public performance or a class poetry reading.
"Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" by Shel Silverstein. (Where the Sidewalk Ends. HarperCollins Children's Books, 1974. ISBN 060256672.)
The class can recite in unison the first two lines, as well as "OK, I'll take the garbage out!" and "And always take the garbage out!" Individuals can be assigned the remaining lines. It probably won't take much encouragement to get the kids to express appropriate disgust.
"Sick" by Shel Silverstein. (Where the Sidewalk Ends. HarperCollins Children's Books, 1974. ISBN 060256672.)
Though this poem is longer than some, even non-readers can tackle a choral reading of "Sick." Assign a malady to each student. For example, one student's entire part might be: "I'm sure that my left leg is broke." Encourage each student to demonstrate the malady as the line is recited. (A little exaggerated limping will do the trick. For added humor, have the student's "injury" show up in the right leg.) To avoid confusion, students can be placed in the order in which the lines are assigned. Have the whole class recite the punch line, "G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Once the class has experience with recitation, put together a class poetry reading for an audience. Use a mix of student-written poems along with professional work. To maintain variety, employ a range of recitation strategies, with individual, small- and large-group recitations, and some occasional dramatic renderings in which students act out the text or strike poses to demonstrate specific sections.

Extending The Lesson

Have students create individual poetry anthologies including original work, favorite published poems and illustrations. Consider having technically savvy students build a Web page for their poetry using an HTML editor.
Invite a local poet into your classroom to share with the students and to listen to their work. Poet-in-the-classroom programs are widespread.
Look for ways to use poetry throughout the curriculum. For example, if you cover ecology and the problem of waste disposal, Shel Silverstein's "Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" might be a good starting point for discussion.
Once your students are experienced poets, consider a field trip to a local art museum. Give students the opportunity to react to art with poetry. If students choose a work of art that inspires them, take some time later to discuss what inspires people to write poetry (or to create art for that matter). What inspired the students about each particular work? How did that inspiration lead to a poem?
Link poetry, art and research with student-created "wonder books." In their wonder books, students make drawings of and list observations concerning things that they wonder about. They then conduct research and use non-fiction/fiction/poetry to report on their findings.

Selected EDSITEment Websites

Other Resources:
Recommended reading from Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Page, a link from Internet Public Library

Bryan, Ashley. ABC of African-American Poetry. Atheneum, 1997. (ISBN 0689812094)
Foster, John. Another First Poetry Book. Oxford, 1988. (ISBN 019917119X)
Foster, John. Another Fourth Poetry Book. Oxford, 1989. (ISBN 0199171254)
Foster, John. Another Second Poetry Book. Oxford, 1988. (ISBN 0199162298)
Worth, Valerie. All the Small Poems and Fourteen More. Illustrated by Natalie Babbitt. Farrar, 1994. (ISBN 0374302111)

The Basics

Time Required

3-4 class periods

Subject Areas

Literature and Language Arts > Genre > Poetry

Skills

Critical analysis
Critical thinking
Discussion
Gathering, classifying and interpreting written, oral and visual information
Oral presentation skills
Poetry analysis
Poetry writing
Representing ideas and information orally, graphically and in writing
Role-playing/Performance

Resources

Activity Worksheets

All Together Now: Poetry Templates

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