Beyond Acrostics & Haiku: Teaching Poetry

We are quickly approaching the month of April, which means that a lot of us are gearing up for our poetry unit. Me? I've actually already taught it! My poetry writing unit is my scope & sequence to be taught in January, and I'd love to share what worked for me... and what didn't.

Poetry is SO much more than rhyming verse, acrostics & haiku! I love teaching students the beauty and power of words and language, and I feel like forcing students to write certain types of poems can actually hinder the creative process. So instead of starting my unit teaching the different types of poetry, I focus on teaching students to write thoughtful, meaningful poems. Here are some of the things I do!

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Bright Ideas Round Up

This time of year always makes me nostalgic, so why not take a look back at all the Bright Ideas that have been shared in 2014!

I love how this link up showcases genius classroom ideas from so many amazing bloggers! Literally, thousands of "ideas only" posts have been shared over the course of the last 10 months. Let's take a peek at some of the Bright Ideas I've shared this year:

This post shows how I organize my guided reading groups and paperwork using a set of two-pocket folders. I love that I'm not constantly flipping through pages in a binder or lugging a huge binder to and from data meetings!

Going along with the guided reading theme, this post shows how my team and I have compiled our guided reading books into one central location. We actually ordered a TON of books this summer and will be needing another cart! Not sure where we're going to put it though! 

In this post, I took a break from classroom ideas to share a trick for tying shoes that I learned in college. It works wonders on my kindergarten son!

 Lastly, I shared this post during the back to school season that explains how to use visuals to establish classroom routines and expectations. I love how my students' faces are all over my classroom!

Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me this month! I hope that you've been able to use or have been inspired by the ideas I've shared. Grab your coffee and snuggly blanket and check out the other Bright Ideas Round Up Posts from my friends below. Have a super weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Fiction Frenzy!

We've been studying fiction this past week: the kinds of fiction and fiction story elements. We've also touched on the skill of retelling and will continue to practice and develop that next week. Retelling such an important comprehension skill!

I tried something different this year: I taught the kinds of fiction during my Read Aloud time, rather than taking time during my reading block. It was nice because we could do some learning in a causal, relaxed way. Here's the anchor chart we created:

My anchor charts aren't pretty works of art (a la Pinterest), but hey, they get the job done!

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These are the books I used to introduce each type of fiction:

Realistic Fiction: Up North at the Cabin. Not only is this book great for my Midwest friends, the word choice and envisioning are AMAZING!

Fantasy Fiction: Pumpkin Soup. If you follow my blog, you already know how I LOVE this book! Read all about it HERE!)

Mystery: Miss Nelson is Missing. No explanation needed :)

Science Fiction: Moo Cow Kaboom! This book is SO funny!

Historical Fiction: Encounter. Great connection with Columbus Day.

I taught the story elements during my Daily 5 minilessons. This week I introduced them, and we practiced identifying the elements orally. Next week I'm going to introduce the Writing station (no, I don't follow the Sisters' guide for setting up Daily 5), and the bunnies are going to be writing about story elements in their notebooks. Here's my Fiction Story Elements anchor chart:

After we learned about the fiction story elements, I introduced the comprehension skill, retelling. Retelling is so, so, SO important... it's the first question I always ask when doing running records! And it drives me nuts when the bunnies retell every.single.detail of the story! "and then..., and then..., and then...."One way we learn about retelling is with a Retelling Rope. Each student gets a "rope" (I just use yarn) with 7 knots. Each knot stands for a step in the retelling process:

knot 1: characters

knot 2: setting

knot 3: conflict or problem

knot 4: event 1

knot 5: event 2

knot 6: event 3

knot 7: solution

As they retell the story, students move their hand along the Retelling Rope. They keep the rope in their book box. It makes a great book mark too! Here's my anchor chart for retelling:

What tips and tricks do you use to teach retelling?

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Building Stamina

We're 8 days in and up to 10 minutes for Read to Self. Being that this is my fourth year using Daily 5/Cafe in my classroom (as well as K-6 school-wide), this is par for the course. I don't have to spend a ton of time going over expectations for Read to Self because they've done it the past two years, which is SO nice!

This year I did something different though. My class this year is very visual, more so than in years past. They also seem to be a competitive bunch... liking to be "challenged" to do something. My lesson on stamina was always a one-and-done, but with a group that needs frequent reminders and practice, I knew that wouldn't cut it. I was inspired by this and this to create these:

I wish I could do more than 15 minutes for Read to Self, but I only have 75 minutes for Daily 5. Once we have Word Work and Listening down pat, I plan on introducing a new way to do Writing. I am super pumped about that, but it will cut into my time even more. However, seeing and discussing these anchor charts on a daily basis is really motivating and keeping the bunnies focused. I'm going to keep riding this wave as long as I can!

Oh, and I'm TOTALLY changing my lesson plans and doing THIS tomorrow! I seriously love you bloggy world! What would I do without you guys???

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