Content Objectives
Throughout the unit, students will read, question, think about, discuss, write and perform their own and others' poems that focus on animals. 17 At the completion of this unit, students will be able to identify structural elements of a poem, even if they don't understand the implication of what they all mean. In my fourth grade class students are given a project to create a house using a variety of polygons. After that unit I would expect students to be able to point out shapes in real buildings they see, but I wouldn't expect them to know that the triangles on the side of Notre Dame are flying buttresses. Specifically they will be able to provide a definition of a metaphor and how it differs from a simile and provide examples of each. The editing process should be evident in drafts of poems that show a consideration of diction. In final products attempts at using similes, metaphors, alliteration, and idioms will be evident.
Why Use Poetry?
The pressure in schools is to read more non-fiction and less literature with the thought being that non-fiction is more rigorous and useful to students in the long term. Literature is being pushed out and poetry seems to have become an afterthought. With the emphasis on rigor, it seems to me that poetry offers distinct advantages to students—particularly those in my school's population.
Over the last few years, students starting fourth grade have been reading at an average level of 2.4, equal to an average mid-year 2 nd grader. Few students start the year already reading chapter books on their own, which ideally begins in third grade. At that time it seems they lack the endurance to sit and read for longer than 15 minutes, or have the ability to follow a story that takes several days to finish. Given their low reading level, it has not been surprising that their writing is generally underdeveloped.
The use of poetry would be a more appealing prospect for a struggling reader. The prospect of asking a class to read an eight-line poem instead of an eight-page story at the fourth grade level is much more palatable to students who are struggling to read. Front-loading vocabulary for ELD students will provide better context and understanding, in particular with the repeated readings they will be doing. In addition, it is more manageable for the teacher to present and for the student to digest.
Students started by hearing and then reading Dr. Seuss and similar books as emerging readers. The rhythm of the language and the rhymes are attractive and expose students to the music of language and the beauty of effective word choice. 18 Students enjoy rhyme and I have used it at every grade I have taught to help students remember information in a more playful manner. For example, singing the multiples of six to the tune of "London Bridge." I know for myself, I grew out of Seuss by second grade, and did not really see or experience a poetry unit again until reading Shakespeare in high school. At this point, it just seemed hard and mysterious and not at all fun. When talking with adult friends, their reaction to hearing I was going to go to Yale to study poetry was not envy but bewilderment as to why I would choose to spend my summer doing that.
The unit will consist of poems being presented and discussed looking at the various poetic elements that the author chose to use. Students will lead and participate in discussions as to why those choices were made and the value that the choices add to the piece. They will be able to identify and understand the meaning of metaphors and similes. The unit will culminate in students performing in a poetry read-a-thon where parents and other classes are invited to hear students read some of their favorite poems by authors or choose to perform their own. They can include acting out the poem or presenting a piece of artwork or a photo they feel fits the poem. By going through the memorization and preparing to perform, students will be able to do a form of analysis as they make choices about tone and speed of the presentation.
Why Focus on Animals?
The reason I want to focus on animal poetry when the students are writing their own poems is because everyone has experiences relating to animals, regardless of background. Most children have pined for a pet of their own, been afraid of a dog, felt a cat's soft fur, or experienced death or serious illness for the first time through an animal. Children can relate to animals and don't require the classroom to create a first hand experience. I would like to see students stretch to explain emotions in a safe place that their peers can relate to and appreciate.
Research has been done on the idea of animals being a pedagogical support and motivator for learning. We should begin by recognizing that animals have lived alongside man for as long as history has recorded. This shows us that the relationship between man and animals, both wild and domesticated, is key to our mutual survival. Animals are very prevalent in children's literature as both characters and teachers. Consider E.B. White's book Charlotte's Web. The vibrant characters that make up the farm are all animals that are snuffling around in the barn, with Charlotte being the wisest and teaching about kindness and friendship through her actions. Only the young girl Fern is aware of the relationships that exist and what is really going on as she sits in the barn quietly observing the animals. Children are distinctly aware of animals and that an environment that seems empty due to lack of people is in fact breathing with life—as the habitat for birds, reptiles, fish and mammals. 19
This awareness of and attention to animals makes it possible for children to learn empathy from contact with animals. Gail Melson defined the idea of biophilia as, "a natural attraction children have to animals… a predisposition to attune to animals and other living things [that] is part of the the human evolutionary heritage." 20 Children with developmental disorders have been shown to respond to requests and engage in conversation when a live dog is present. 21 The ability of children to relax and feel a greater sense of calm speaks to the concept of animals as the fourth educator. 22 Following teachers, parents, and the environment, animals become a constant presence in a child life and a relationship develops. Pets are often viewed as members of a family. Children are able to recognize the relationship and related responsibility—how the animals depend upon the family to meet basic needs. Children are able to speak with unashamed affection for their pets and describe them as friends that are individuals—with real or imagined personalities. 23
The love and recognition of these animals' lives inevitably culminates in experiencing the death of that beloved pet. This glimpse into a harsh part of life doesn't get easier as you grow up, but it does help with learning empathy for others who have lost someone that is loved. The sense of respect and wanting to help and be with your family to support one another is practiced in a sense at this time. Below is an excerpt from a favorite.
The House Dog's Grave
By: Robinson Jeffers
But your kind thought has laid me less than six feet Outside your window where firelight so often plays, And
where you sit to read- and I fear often grieving for me- Every night your lamplight lies on my place.
The poem's narrator is the dog that has died and the loyalty and selflessness he displayed throughout his life is evident still in his thoughts from the grave. In its entirety, the narrator continues to think of his humans and feel that although they continue to live; he feels badly for them because they do not truly appreciate life. The joy that a dog experiences from its owner walking in the room is evident to anyone that lives with one. How often do people feel that same level of joy at seeing our loved ones? Seeing a reflection of love that is displayed for people by animals can make one realize how blasé they have become in their own display of emotion. I think children have a similar view of adults when going to or at places like amusement parks. Children are glowing with excitement and parents are annoyed at having to park so far away. Animals and children seem to share the ability to not be bogged down in the annoyances of life that can dominate adults' thoughts and then emotions.
While I think poetry is often seen as a way to express emotion, leveraging cross curricular knowledge to create poems is another aspect of this unit. As a part of the science curriculum, students will be doing a research project in the third trimester on an animal of their choice. As they are deciding what animal to choose and then performing research, they can create a bank of words that describe an animal's movement of physical characteristics. In the course of the year, I plan to expose them to different types of poetry: cinquain, haiku, acrostic, couplet, shape, etc., and then when they come to this project, they can find a style that fits the message of their poem.
Bear in There
By Shel Silverstein
There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire—
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
The poem above is an excerpt of one that is appealing to children because of the situational absurdity; a polar bear in your refrigerator—ha! I would point out to my students that what makes it rich is the description of the animal, big hairy paws, the facts "face in the fish", and the verb choice, "munching" and "slurping." All of these are descriptors that are relevant to a polar bear that have been creatively put together.
Essential Questions
The question posed by our seminar leader, Langdon Hammer, and which for a bit stymied the educators in the room was, "how can poetry be defined?" After the discussion and realizing there are many answers to that question, and how you answer it is influenced by what you read. I think this is an important place to start because it makes students (and teachers) aware of the format and how there are very deliberate choices being made by the author in which established rules are either followed, broken, or both. When it becomes their turn to write, they will have their own definition of what poetry is, and that will then make it easier for them to create with confidence.
In fourth grade students are introduced to figurative language for the first time; inevitably someone will ask the question, "Why doesn't the author just SAY it is cold and stormy out?" While this is a question that students will continue to ask throughout their academic and reading lives, the essential question "What are poetic devices?" is the second area we will explore.
In tandem with exploring poetic devices, I want my students to understand the idea of imagery in poetry. Students will ask and answer "Why is imagery important to the understanding of a poem?" While a poem like "The Eagle" can be extremely short, a powerful image is often created that is a primary step towards appreciating the humor, horror or beauty of a poem.
The overall goal of this unit is for students to find joy in creating a poem of their own. I want the students to ask "How can I use my own life to create a poem that shows my thinking and feeling on an experience?" Finding their own voice and realizing it is both unique and can say something that is universally appealing because it is true is powerful. It can be cathartic and a way to share parts of our lives that seems too personal and difficult to talk about. When we write a poem, others choose to read it, so they have a vested interest in us already. Talking abut our problems doesn't give people an out—if I talk about it in front of you, you're going to hear it. By becoming the reader, we share a sort of responsibility to respond to that honesty and trust of sharing.
Teaching Strategies
This fall will commence my eleventh year of teaching all of which has been spent at Mt. Pleasant. I feel like I've had a unique experience and ability to learn about the community because I spent three years in kindergarten, two in second, and this will be my sixth year in fourth grade. As a result, I've been able to witness the development of students from their first day until they move on to middle school. While a few students would start kinder having been to pre-school and knowing letters and numbers, a similar number had never held a pencil or been away from their mothers. The growth these students would make in the year would be remarkable and most students left being able to read. Those who had started with no pre-school often blended with those who had.
As I moved up to the second and then fourth grades, a problem that has happened every year to a large number of students was a "summer slide." Students would leave a grade being on or slightly behind grade level, and would begin the fall six months behind where they had been. This seems to be a result of not reading in the summer and little exposure to academic language.
Over the last few years, students starting fourth grade have been reading on average in the middle of second grade. Few students start the year already reading chapter books on their own. At that time they lack the endurance it seems to sit and read for longer than 15 minutes or the ability to follow a story that takes several days to finish. Given their low reading level, it has not been surprising that their writing is generally underdeveloped. I have always struggled with helping students make meaningful growth in their writing over the course of the year.
Daily Infusing Poetry—Gradual Immersion
After some of the reading and research I've done, I think that framing the year around poetry could be the bridge towards creating stronger readers and writers. It seems that starting the year with a daily read aloud of a poem, where students are just listening and enjoying the sound and story of a poem, not considering the point of it. Careful selection of poems that are fun or contain a riddle to solve would allow the students to enjoy the music in a poem as well as increasing the breadth of exposure to different authors and types.
Over the course of the year, students would have different projects related to poetry. Our year is broken into trimesters, so the first trimester could involve reading poems as a class. One starting project is where they could create a class anthology of favorite poems and the students would present these to the class. The focus on a poem that the student likes and then needs to write and perform would allow them to really think about different types of punctuation in poetry and how to read a comma differently than a period. This focus could help with reading fluency in longer texts as students will sometimes read without stopping at any punctuation, and then not understand what they've read. Students would create and add to their own dictionary and thesaurus. Because each word in poetry is important, when a child is unsure or likes a particular word, they will be more inclined to suss out the meaning and record it for future reference.
One of the most difficult things in writing for any age is editing your own work. Students resist doing revisions thinking that when they are done, they're done! A bridge to starting editing is to take an existing poem, omit words and phrases and have students come up with substitutions. Demonstrating as a whole class the process of crossing out and changing words would provide a forum for discussing when and why changes make sense in writing: eliminating unnecessary or choosing more powerful words, being specific, and adding alliteration or rhyme. Rewriting a poem is less painful, in terms of the amount to review, than an entire story to redraft; it would encourage experimentation with word choice and order.
In the second trimester, as a class we could work on honing their ears and involving their senses in creating poetry. As a class, we could create word boards on flip charts related to different topics. Students would try to find descriptive words or similes to capture an observation they have made or something they have imagined. We would take these notes and phrases and create whole class poems on different topics—eventually creating a second class anthology. The idea of playing with words and finding pleasure in finding the "right' word would be the objective of this trimester.
The editing process would continue to evolve and develop. Students would work in groups to redraft whole class poems that had been created. The newly-written poem would be performed by the group to show the value in redrafting and how there isn't always a right answer with writing, but better words and phrases that can be developed.
The last trimester would evolve into students creating their own poetry. Flip charts that the class had created would be posted for referencing. Different types of poems would be introduced and students would have a project that would involve writing, revising, and presenting a collection of their own work.
In the third trimester, students study animal habitats and conduct a research report on the animal of their choice. Part of their poetry project could be to create a poem that incorporates some of what they have learned about their animal into a poem that highlights the animal's appearance, style of movement, or life cycle.
Classroom Discussion
When I first read "Hair" by Sandra Cisneros with my ELD students and asked them what they thought of it, there was a series of blank looks that stared back at me. In talking with other educators, this seems to be a common occurrence. The temptation is to let the students in on what is actually happening. Often teachers feel pressed for time and just want them to gain the understanding of the theme or image, but in doing this, we take away the process of discovery.
In my classroom, discussions at their best seem to happen in math. Students are confident in their answers. They can prove and get confirmation that they are correct or if they have thought of a unique way to solve a problem, even a more hesitant student will speak up. As the teacher, I can pose a problem, and let the students lead in demonstrating different methods of solving or viewing the problem. And on the occasion when I make a mistake (purposeful or not), they all will literally leap up to let me know.
When the subject changes to literature, students always seem to become or timid and unsure of themselves. They will agree with whomever they all acknowledge as the smart kids and discussion tends to end once those students have spoken, because in their view that is the right and only answer. Often in texts that are read at the elementary level, there isn't much ambiguity so the idea that there is a right answer is affirmed as being correct.
Poetry could become a useful bridge toward having respectful and fruitful discussions about literature that are student led. I would like to use the Fishbowl/Socratic discussion method. In this model, half of the students are in a circle in the center of the room having an active discussion. The rest of the class sits outside the circle observing and taking notes on how their partner is participating—by asking or answering questions or making observations.
Interactive Notebooks
Students will regularly receive poems that they will paste into an interactive notebook. They will have crayons or colored pencils to highlight different types of figurative language and make notes on the text they are reading. The connections they make and the ability to revisit and reference a large number of poems and differing styles will be something we will use over the course of the year.
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