Strategies
First I would like to look at the skill of phonics. This is normally promoted through phoneme awareness—sounding and blending of words. Here this skill is advanced through the pronunciation of the sounds of the letters in the alliteration part of the unit. I will give the student the opportunity to recite both with me and alone. Build alliterations into the morning message periodically as another form of exposure to print.
Make the alliterations into sentence strips to take home so the student can revisit them. Also the phonograms will help with the sounding and blending due to the building of words with the same ending sound. They can decode by analogy using the ending and adding the beginning letter. Also, blending of the poems will help. The students are going to do the acrostic poems for homework. The acrostics will be in the form of a phonogram.
The next skill to be enhanced is comprehension, which will be targeted through carefully crafted questions concerning the poem. This technique is called Text Talk. This was developed by the Beck Group at the University of Pittsburgh. These techniques are normally used for reading prose but I will be using them for poems. This approach can be made to work by re-voicing what a student has said into an answer. This will help give clarity to the answer. Another technique would be recapping information combining the student's comments but adding them up into a series of ideas. Marking is another way to restate a comment or idea. The ideas or comments should come completely from the text (poem). The main focus is to ask questions that make the students think, organize thoughts, and produce language. Questions should be open ended. Other strategies would be to use recall, inference and making a connection to the text (poem on chart paper). This is a scaled down version of an elaborately described process. But it should work. Understanding was one of the topics I talked about in my introduction. This is knowing what you say and saying what you know. Speaking of saying, let's look at the next strategy.
Fluency is one of the skills also reinforced. How do I get my students to read? By using the poems that will be written on chart paper. As a whole classroom, do an echo reading exercise with every poem. This will help with tone and reading smoothly. Choral reading as well should be done. This will help with timing and group work. This is when everyone reads at the same time as an "ensemble." Another way to help the students become fluent readers is modeling correct reading. In this case make sure the text that is being used is manageable for the student. The teacher should re-read the material again and again, so the students can get used to hearing the words. If the student does not know the word, they can listen to how it is pronounced.
Also important is the tracking of print from left to right. Encourage the student to discuss how the poem sounded when they read it. If you can, get each student to read individually for oral speaking. Oral practice is a critical component of fluency. Do some refraining: one student reads most of the poem and the rest of the class chimes in at a certain time, as with the Limerick poem. Also, do some antiphonal readings: divide the class in half and alternate the readings. This can be exciting because it could be done by gender, color of clothes or type of shoe. Possibly have a reader's theatre and let the students recite their favorite nursery rhymes. Writing the poem on chart paper will enhance a variety of skills. When it is written out it is speech put to paper. The letter formation will show the proper visual view. You can associate sound with letters. The student can track print using left to right progression. This will give the student the opportunity to differentiate between word, letter, spacing and sentence structure. The student will also get the opportunity to read common sight words. They can readily read the punctuation as well. So using poems on chart paper will just be a wonderful way to catch those teachable moments. You can use shared reading, when the entire class reads with the teacher's support, reinforced by choral reading and echo reading. This is basically what I will be doing. Also, what can be used during flexible grouping is guided reading of the poems. This is when the student reads on their own reading level, using manageable text.
Now when looking at vocabulary, you should discuss the new words that the students will learn from the alliterations. These words (vocabulary) will be scattered as I said throughout this part of the unit. A vocabulary oriented Poetry Word Wall will be used, drawing on the words that are in the unit. Also, the phonogram in the acrostic poems is a way of building on vocabulary. This is an excellent way to build word families. Have them write their word wall words or put them into the morning message. Also, look at the context the word is being used in. I know I get a better understanding of a word when I look at what is around it.
The next strategy is writing. All of the steps in the writing process should be used. A time for conferencing with the student should be set aside. One can also go around and comment on their work. The writing objective is to be able to work through the basic skills. For kindergarten students, skills will be as simple as making a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence and a period at the end. The writing should reflect the rubric made for the lessons and give the students an opportunity for free choice writing. Another writing opportunity is to describe a picture. Yet another one is let the student draw and you write what they tell you about their picture. The writing rubric will help with doing this.
Another strategy for extra help with this unit would be listening. Just reading other poems will be helpful. This can be done during transition times. It will help with vocabulary and comprehension. They will also learn how the characteristics of the persons and settings are described. Some of these techniques are: words that describe the characters, setting and events. The clues in the reader's voice will help describe the mood and personality of the characters. Descriptions that will tell what the picture is about. Words that rhyme are a good way to see if the student is listening. Learning to listen takes a conscious effort and a great deal of opportunity for this will be provided.
Also, activities involving speaking will help with reading and improve articulation. Speaking will also help with the students' image of themselves. I would suggest letting them stand when answering questions. This will give them an opportunity to speak in front of others. When the students speak, they should be speaking in rich, meaningful and engaging ways. The teacher should model good grammar in all situations. Having these strategies will make the objective easy to obtain.
A checklist should be included with this unit related to the illustration and the poem and all of the other components. This is an informal way of checking what the students are doing. This is intended to be used as the teacher circulates through the classroom. Before you use this checklist, explain each part of it at the beginning of the unit.
Reading Checklist
(table 05.01.13.01 available in print form)
The next strategy that I will use as an assessment, as well as a rubric, is the writing one. This rubric will be used for illustration related to the poem, just as the checklist was in relation to the reading. The writing requirements will be assessed also. This rubric should be used for all poem related writings and illustrations. The writing rubric will help with sticking to specific goals and helping the students meet the writing requirements.
Writing Rubric
(table 05.01.13.02 available in print form)
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