Summary

As one of my students succinctly explained during a class discussion, the genre of poetry expresses feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions are important to the learning environment at Hidden Villa. Writing poems encourages students to reflect on experiences that may have nudged them towards greater self-confidence in nature or awakened their sense of discovery and wonder. Spending the time poetry requires to ponder the small details of the Hidden Villa setting also inspires students to care more deeply about the plants, animals and people they encountered.

Hidden Villa believes that acquiring new knowledge depends on students caring deeply about what they are studying. In writing poetry students are also developing a firm base of emotional connection to their learning experiences. Although it may not seem obvious, in writing poems about their field trip, students are also working towards understanding new information.

Teacher Background

Part I: Poetic Preparation Before the Field Trip

It is advisable to cover some of the basic poetry writing concepts before your Hidden Villa field trip. In this way students will be ready to keep their minds open for poetic images during their trip choose from the following lessons or do them all.

Lesson 1: Reading poetry expressively in pairs
Lesson 2: Describing a place with specific nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
Lesson 3: Looking for examples of figurative language in poems
Lesson 4: Describing photographs using figurative language
Lesson 5: Looking for examples of other poetic devices (sensory details, internal rhythm, physical space)

Part II: The Field Trip

Tell your students to purposefully keep their minds open to interesting poetic images or strong feelings. The emphasis should be on gathering ideas as students will have much more time and support in class to craft their ideas into poems than they have during the field trip.

Part III: Inspiring Poems

Here are some teaching lessons that you can use to help students shape their experiences into poems. I would encourage you to use these teaching lessons only as a starting point for the deeper work of writing and revising poems.

Lesson 1: Describing an object as a class and in small groups using figurative language
Lesson 2: Reading and writing poetry with imagined perspectives of plants and animals
Lesson 3: Writing poetry with the aid of photos of Hidden Villa
Lesson 4: Guided readings of poems with different forms and patterns

Part IV: Transforming Ideas into Poems through Revision

Using the poetry revision guide provided, model many times as a whole class lesson what to look of listen for while revising a poem. Bit by bit students will develop this skill themselves.

Part V: Venturing into New Subjects

Shared experiences at Hidden Villa provide students an incredible opportunity to learn the art of the poetic form. Once they have developed a basic set of skills and a budding poetic voice, extend the poetry unit into other subjects. Encourage students to write poems about other aspects of their lives. Remind them that poetry is a great vehicle to express ALL of life's emotions, not just the happy ones.

Teacher Background

Introduction

Writing poetry is challenging. So is teaching poetry writing. Often the teaching of poetry is deemed a task best left to a few inspirational masters in our schools, and to the innate talents of those students who are "destined" to be poets. I, for one, started with this attitude. However, under the mentoring of several inspirational teachers I have developed an entirely different perspective on the role of poetry in my classroom. Certainly there are those students who develop their poetic voice with greater agility and sincerity. However, I have often been surprised by who these writers turn out to be. I have had several students who struggle immensely with other genres of writing, but blossom as writers in our study of poetry. I have also been delighted to note that as we continue our study of poetry all students do indeed progress. Although writing poetry does rely heavily on an inner sense of the emotion of words, the genre also has a wide range of skills that can be developed in all students.

At times, it can feel frustrating to spend days on a poetry unit and only have a few short poems to show for it. This is the nature of poetry. A lot of time, effort, skill and inspiration are poured into writing one effective poem. Master poets can spend weeks, months or years crafting a single poem. We want our students to learn that poems are more than a few short lines arranged creatively on the page. As you head into your poetry unit it is helpful, then, to keep in mind that the process of writing a poem is a powerful learning experience within itself.

There are many entry points into the teaching of poetry. The following ideas are lessons that served my students well throughout our poetry study. We repeated several lessons multiple times throughout the year, as they remained powerful teaching tools each time we approached poetry from a different perspective or topic. Teaching poetry is a creative endeavor. If the teaching of poetry is new to you, I recommend that you start out with a few of the following lessons. Be creative - check out a few books on creative writing (aimed at children or adults) to get new ideas for writing exercises. I recommend PoemCrazy by Susan Wooldridge and any of Natalie Goldberg's books on writing.

Reading poetry with your students is an enriching, formative experience throughout the school year. In many other countries students are required, from an early age, to memorize and recite poems of cultural significance. Many educators around the world depend on the power of poetry to teach their children.

Classroom Relevance

The shared Hidden Villa field trip offers a wealth of powerful, emotional experiences and beautiful images that inspire poetry in students. Because I participated in the field trip with my students, as a teacher I am much more able to support my students in their development as poets. This sense of sharing also helps create a strong feeling of community around our poetry unit.

Lesson Plans

Part I: Poetic Preparation Before the Field Trip

Lesson 1: Reading poetry expressively in pairs

A. Before: Select and compile in a packet a variety of poems that demonstrate the aspect(s) of poetry you want to focus on during the lesson. (I prefer to start my poetry unit with "free-form" poems that do not follow a strict pattern or style.)

Model: Give an interactive demonstration on how to recite a poem with expression. Then think aloud what exactly interested you about this poem.

Support: In pairs, students read through the packet of poems out loud and discuss what they think about each. Together they choose their favorite 2-3 poems and prepare an explanation for their choices. They choose one of these favorite poems and practice reading it together, for a class recital.

Share: Students read their favorite poems out loud to the class and share what, exactly, they liked about it. Guide your students to reflect on the patterns they noticed in the poems. If your students don't realize it on their own, explain that poetry is a genre that facilitates the expression of feelings. Record all their ideas on a chart. You can add to the list as you progress through the unit.

B. Before: Your students are likely to mention the use of descriptive language in poems. Explain that in poems it is important to describe places, people, actions and feelings precisely and in an interesting way. Review the definitions of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; write them on a class chart.

Model: Read aloud a poem from the packet and pick out at least one noun, verb, adjective, and adverb you found interesting, unique or beautiful. Explain why you chose each and list them beneath the corresponding definition.

Support: In pairs, students look back through their poem packets and generate their own lists of descriptive language. They should justify to each other why they chose each word.

Share: Have students pick their favorite word from their lists to share and add to the class chart.

Lesson 2: Describing a place with specific nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs

Before: Gather a few pictures of a place your students would be familiar with, such as a local park or even your school's own play yard.
 

Model: Hold up the picture and ask students what things they see. Guide them to be specific: not flower - marigold, not ball - basketball. Make a chart with the headings: nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Record students' responses then ask them to describe each noun with an interesting adjective. Ask them to describe each verb with an interesting adverb. Remind students that because it is a still photo, they need to use their imagination and past experience to think of verbs. Next, model how to use these words to write interesting descriptions of the picture.
 

Support: Students copy the class list in their notebooks and work in pairs to continue each list. Then they write interesting descriptions together.  

Independent: If you want your students to practice further, you could put up another photo; or take students outside to independently assemble their own lists and descriptions for local places. 

 Lesson 3: Looking for examples of figurative language in poems

A. Repeat Lesson 1 with a different packet of poems. You may want to specifically select poems that include a wide range of figurative language.
 

B. Before: Point out the use of comparison and poetic imagery, if your students did not mention these in their lists of observations. Introduce or review the definition of metaphor, simile and personification.
 

Model: On your class chart, write a definition of each type of figurative language. Find an example of each (in the packet of poems) and write it beneath the definition. Have the class think aloud what they believe the poetic image means and why it works in the poem.
 

Support: In pairs, students return to their poem packets to look for examples of metaphors, similes and the use of personification.
 

Share: Students share the examples they found. Guide a class conversation about the successful use of figurative language in each poem (when it is used,
why, how, etc.).

Lesson 4: Describing photographs using figurative language

Before: Gather together different posters, calendar pictures, Internet images or photographs of different habitats. In the 4th grade I use examples from each of the 4 regions of California. This idea could be adapted to the social studies focus of 3rd or 5th grade as well.
 

Model: Review the definition of the figurative language styles your class is studying. Choose a picture and model your thinking as you propose an example of each type of figurative language for the picture. Write these examples on your class chart beneath each definition. Then, hold up another picture and guide your class in coming up with ideas for each type of poetic image. (Emphasize that the use of metaphors, similes and personification needs to add to the meaning of what is being described. For example, if you say the rose is "as red as blood." you need to have a reason why you want the reader to think of blood. How does blood fit in with way you feel about the rose?)
 

Support: In pairs, students use metaphors, similes and personification to describe different pictures.
 

Individual: Students could continue writing from pictures as a particular class activity or a homework assignment.
 

Share: Allow time for students to share their poetic images.

Lesson 5: Looking for examples of other poetic devices (sensory details, internal rhythm, physical space)

Throughout our poetry study, I encourage students to read poetry selections, repeating the above lesson several times, each time focusing on a different poetic tool. If it is your students’ first exposure to figurative language, for example, you might want to break down your introduction into three separate days or expand into focusing on poets' use of sensory details, internal rhythm or physical space on the page.

Part II: The Field Trip

Tell your students to purposefully keep their minds open to interesting poetic images or strong feelings. The emphasis should be on gathering ideas as students will have much more time and support in class to craft their ideas into poems than they have during the field trip.

Part III: Inspiring Poems

A. Before: Bring in an object that all of your students probably learned about at Hidden Villa (e.g. a bay laurel leaf, feather, piece of wood, river rock, etc.).
 

Model: As a class, have the students make a quick web about all their information and experiences relating to this object. Thinking of the object as the subject of a poem, guide your students to offer metaphors, similes, personifications, and strong descriptions of the object or of memories the object invokes. (Come prepared with a few of your own descriptions, so that you can model this step.) Record the suggestions on chart paper and, thinking aloud, choose a few of the images and descriptions. Weave them together into a rough draft of a poem.
 

Support: Individually or in pairs, students write their own poem rough drafts using the ideas from the class web as inspiration.
 

Share: Come together and share what students came up with.
 

B. Support: Divide the class into small groups and give each group a different object that represents part of the Hidden Villa field trip. Have each group go through the same steps you modeled for the class.

1. Make a web of information or related experiences.
2. Brainstorm poetic descriptions.
3. Brainstorm poetic images (figurative language).
4. Weave ideas into a rough draft poem.

Individual: After groups have had sufficient time to work together, have students work alone on their own poem rough drafts.

Lesson 2: Reading and writing poetry with imagined perspectives of plants and animals

A. In this lesson, students are encouraged to explore the imagined perspective of animals and plants. Read selections from Byrd Baylor's book Desert Voices, as exemplary models of this type of poem. Guide students in noticing patterns in her poems from animals' perspectives. For a longer lesson, first analyze this style of poetry as a class, then hand out copies of different poems and have pairs of students study them. Students can recite their assigned poem to the class and discuss how Byrd Baylor got the listener to think and feel within the animal's character. (If you don't have access to this book, find other poems that use the perspective of animals or plants - for example, my student Cindy's poem "The Tree").
 

B. Before: Instruct each student to choose a special animal or plant that s/he remembered from the Hidden Villa field trip and to write a poem from the being's perspective. Students work in pairs, with one student playing the part of the animal/plant and the other working through as guide and scribe.
 

Model: With a student volunteer, demonstrate to the class how to guide a partner through a "visualization." You could give the students a script:

* Close your eyes and imagine that you have become the ___________.
* Where are you? What does that place look like to you?
* What are you doing? How are you doing it?
* What are you thinking about?
* How do you feel about...?

Demonstrate how to ask follow-up questions and write down your partner's most important ideas or words on chart paper. Guide your student volunteer - and the class- to use the main ideas and images you jotted down to write a rough draft of a poem.
 

Support: In pairs, students choose their animal or plant and take turns being the guide. (I recommend setting up pair beforehand, as this is a challenging lesson, which requires students to take risks and stay on task.) Students help each other or work individually to use their recorded images to create a poem rough draft.  

Share: Choose a few students, who seemed particularly successful, to share their poems with the class; or have students share their poems with each other in small groups.

Lesson 3: Writing poetry with the aid of photos of Hidden Villa

As you progress further into the poetry unit you might find that students' initial inspiration begins to diminish. To rekindle creativity, this is the time to bring out photographs from the field trip (if you do not have any, you may find a few under Download Materials). Put several at each table and let students choose where they want to sit and write. My students are always excited to see photos and enjoy the freedom of choice. I have found that using these pictures offers students different perspectives on their Hidden Villa experiences and can inspire poems they otherwise would not have written.

Lesson 4: Guided readings of poems with different forms and patterns

Different poetic styles can help to structure the development of students' poetic voice. As you get deeper into the poetry unit, expose students to a variety of different forms and let them notice and discover patterns for themselves. If you want to teach a particular form, choose a representative selection of poems in this style and guide students through reading them, as in Part I. Have your students choose their favorite poems, practice reading them, and notice the patterns the poet used. This facilitates students "owning" the poetic form and helps them later on in molding their poetic voice to form.

Part IV: Transforming Ideas into Poems through Revision

Using the poetry revision guide below, model many times as a whole class lesson what to look of listen for while revising a poem. Bit by bit students will develop this skill themselves. You could start by using one student poem as an example for the class - recording revision ideas on chart paper, having the student present his/her revision process to the class and inviting class input. Keep the guide posted in your class, or make photocopies for students to keep in their writer's notebooks.

Before: I give my students an initial working definition: Poems are streamlined images that convey feelings (of course, some poems also convey history, carry on traditions, and relate stories, but I do not address these purposes until after my students have developed as strong relationship to the genre). I often tell my students that this is the one writing form in which they will not have to constantly think about writing complete sentences. Many students start with good ideas, but surround them with excess words and explanations. Before working on expanding poetic image, teach students how to eliminate unnecessary words.
 

Model: Start by using one student poem as an example for the class - recording revision ideas on chart paper, having the student present his/her revision process to the class and inviting class input. Keep the guide posted in your class, or make photocopies for students to keep in their writer's notebooks.

STEP 1
Does the poem have a good core? Is it based on a strong feeling, unique image, special experience or important value?
Students sometimes get confused about what is a poem and what is not. Some believe that if they follow a certain poetic form of arrange their words on a page in a poetic way that they have a poem. Step 1 questions address this misconception.

STEP 2
How many filler words or weak phrases can I take out?
Most of the words in a poem should relate directly to the poem's "core." Some common weak words are phrases that can usually be eliminated are: because, that, was, and, were, there.

STEP 3
Are the essential words of my poem interesting, powerful or beautiful? Could I use a more descriptive synonym or poetic image?

You can involve the class in this step of poem revision. Find an image that could use a bit more description (e.g. "the green plant"). Elicit ideas to enhance this image (in think-pair-share). The poet may or may not decide to use the suggestions, but the exercise will most certainly inspire creativity in the poet and in other students. (I discourage my students from using the thesaurus while writing poetry. Poems should come from the child's own words, heart, and ideas. However, if a student is really stuck and super motivated to find a better synonym, I will let her get out the thesaurus on the condition that she truly understands the word before she uses it.)

STEP 4

Does my poem include everything I want to say about this topic? Should I add more supporting images or ideas?
Good poems include just enough images and ideas to successfully convey the poet's feelings and thoughts. Sometimes this can be done in a few well-chosen words. There are also many poets who use many more words to express themselves. A poem is not determined by length - short or long. Remind students to be thorough, while staying on topic.

Here is an example of the revision process for one student's poem. Sometimes we talked through her ideas together and sometimes she worked independently, using the revision guide.  This was Cindy's first poem draft:

The trees have strings
tied around them and
there are signs that
tell us that these
trees will be cut down
next week.
I think about these trees
and all the birds
that will loose
their homes.
I think about the tree
and how much it will hurt.

Part V: Venturing into New Subjects

Shared experiences at Hidden Villa provide students an incredible opportunity to learn the art of the poetic form. Once they have developed a basic set of skills and a budding poetic voice, extend the poetry unit into other subjects. Encourage students to write poems about other aspects of their lives. Remind them that poetry is a great vehicle to express ALL of life's emotions, not just the happy ones.

Here are some examples from my experience: A few weeks after our Hidden Villa field trip, there was a huge rainstorm, complete with thunder, lightning, and power outage. Instead of striving ahead with our daily schedule, we gave ourselves over to the storm and used the excitement to inspire rainy day poems. Later in the year, during our "Social Justice Allies" literature study, my students really connected to the Holocaust stories we read. At the conclusion of the unit, students wrote poems from the point of view of characters chosen from the stories.

Download Materials

Lesson Materials

Sample Student Poems