Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 1: Seeing with Poets’ Eyes

Materials: Cleaned out or new poetry folders, Observation paper with space for words and picture, Objects to observe/write about, The poems “Pencil Sharpener” and “Ceiling” written on chart paper Connection Tell students we have been getting ready to be poets

by reading poetry, and today we are going to learn how poets see the world in fresh, different, and unusual ways. We are going to learn to see the world like poets.

Teaching Let’s pay attention to how Zoe Ryder White (poet) sees the world in a fresh new way. Display a pencil sharpener – what I see is a gray box, a machine that makes my pencil sharp (say this blandly). Then read the poem “Pencil Sharpener” and discuss how this poet sees something in our classroom in a whole new way. Then I see the pencil sharpener in a whole new way too, and that’s what poetry can do!

Active Engagement

We’re going to read another poem by Zoe, this one is about a ceiling. Have students look at the ceiling and try to see it in a fresh new way – t/t with partner. Then read Zoe’s poem “Ceiling”. Poets, what did you notice about how Zoe saw the ceiling? In poems, we see the world in ways we never imagined before. We look at the world closely and carefully – we look with our hearts and minds. We can think of regular old things in our classroom in a whole new way – like the ceiling as a sky that goes on and on.

Link Today is an exciting day because you will practice seeing the world with poets’ eyes! Tell students that they will use clipboards and observation paper, and they will practice look at something interesting and writing what they see. Stretch your imagination and look in ways that are brand new. Don’t just write “the pinecone is brown” – instead you might write “the pinecone is a tree for an elf” or a “wooden porcupine.” Each table had something different to look at, so when you have sketched/described what’s at your table, you can move to another table.

Mid-workshop TP: Intervene to address issues – are children jumping around from one way to see a leaf to a whole other way without taking time to look closely and write details? Have students slow down and focus on writing details/describing tiny parts of objects.

When conferring… Generate enthusiasm for unit – kids should be excited about looking at things with poets’ eyes.

Sharing Give a couple examples of things students wrote. Then have them share what they saw/wrote with their partner.

Did you know that poets look at the most ordinary things in the world in this new way? They don’t just look at special things – they look at regular old ordinary things too. That is the real magic of poetry. Have them practice this by looking at their shoes with a poets’ eyes.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 2: Listening for Line Breaks

Materials: Poetry paper, “Aquarium” by Valerie Worth written on chart paper – with and without line breaks, “Fireworks” written on chart paper without line breaks and individual word cards to rearrangeConnection I’m amazed by some of the fresh new ways you are

looking at the world. It seems to me that you are ready to think about really making poems. Tell students that one ingredient to poetry is what they did yesterday – you need to look at ordinary things with a poets’ eyes. Today I want to tell you that a second ingredient is music – poems have their own special music that comes from how the words of the poem are written on paper. Poets try to write their poems in such a way that readers will read our poems with music. One way to do this is divide our poems into lines that go down the paper.

Teaching Read students the poem “Aquarium” by Valerie Worth without line breaks. It’s kind of like blah, blah, blah. There’s not really much music here – the layout on the page tells me to read it just like I’m talking to you. Then read the poem again with line breaks. When Valerie divided the words into lines, she sort of “told me” to read the poem in a certain way. She is trying to make me read it so my voice moves like a fish swims. (Move my hand down the print, snaking my hand about as a fish would swerve through the water – the lines go back and forth, flicking this way and flicking that way.)

Active Engagement

Have students try reading the first half of the poem – the fast, flitty-fish part- to their partner, and then read the slow, snail part. After 2 min, stop them and read the poem to them in this way. Valerie Worth uses line breaks to turn her poem into music. Then read them the poem “Fireworks” without line breaks. Have partners read the poem a few times and talk about what it means/how the works could be laid out on the page to match the meaning. Then have one kid arrange the poem using the word cards in the pocket chart. How many of you imagined different ways the poem could go? Great!

Link Today poets, go back and look at the special objects from yesterday. You can continue seeing with a poets’

eyes and collecting notes. Or you can take the notes you wrote yesterday and start turning these into poems with line breaks. Any day you write poems, remember that we’re trying to turn words into music – and line breaks can help us do that.

Mid-Workshop TP: Share great work of one student. Then have students meet with their partners and talk about how your poem might go and also why it might go that way.

When conferencing… Try to move students away from rhyming poems by reminding them that poets try to say something important and true

Sharing Share how one student went through process of writing or revising their poemConnection Tell story of jumping rope to jump rope jingle poems

when I was little. I’m telling you this because I think poems are very close to music. Today I want to teach you how important it is for poets to read and reread and reread poems until they sound just right. We need to listen for the songs our poems are trying to sing.

Teaching Show students copy of “Things” by Eloise Greenfield – the first time I read it I was just getting the words straight and it sounded like this – read choppy. Then I read it again and paid attention to what the words are saying (“ain’t got it no more” – that part should sound sad). I also tried to take a breath after each line because Eloise put a break there for me. When I read the poem now, it’s like a song to me – read poem again in a rhythm, pausing for line breaks. When I write poems, I put words on the page, then I pause and reread them to hear the song in the words. Then I fix up the words so they sound better, write some more words, and reread again. Eloise might have had a draft that went like this… (tell imagined first draft), but then when she read it back, it might not have sounded right to her, so she crossed out the parts she didn’t like and tried new words. Reading poems and trying to make them sound just right are big parts of poetry.

Link Today during writing time you have lots of things you can do. You can look again at the special objects to see them with a poets’ eyes, or you can turn your notes into poems. But first, I want each of you to take a little time on the carpet to read over the poems

you’ve written out loud over and over and decide how you want those poems to sound. Then change your words so they sound right.

Active Engagement

Partners work together and just look at one partners poem first. Read that poem out loud and partners will need to talk about what the words are saying and how you can make your voice match the poem’s meaning. If something doesn’t sound just right, you might want to start thinking about changing the words or the line breaks. Just work with one partner’s poem for now. Then after you’re finished, you can switch

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 3: Hearing the Music in Poetry *Students should bring poems to carpet

Materials: “Things” by Eloise Greenfield, example of earlier draft of “Things”, Poetry paper, “Rope Rhyme” by Eloise Greenfield and “Poem” by Langston Hughes (not on chart paper)

Mid-Workshop TP: Stop students to read to them “Rope Rhyme” by Eloise Greenfield and “Poem” by Langston Hughes and have them listen to the different songs of the poems.

Sharing Share techniques (such as repetition) students have used without realizing to make their poems sound good. Have partners share poems to see if they used these techniques or what other techniques they used to make their poems sound good.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 4: Putting Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages

Materials: Chart “Strategies Poets Use” (p33), Tiny Topics Notepads, “Valentine for Ernest Mann” by Naomi NyeConnection Tell students how they have been doing things real

poets do (see things with fresh eyes, use line breaks, listen for the song in their writing) but poets do one more thing – they choose their own topics and write out of their lives. In real life, poets aren’t told “Here’s a shell – go write a poem about it.” Instead a poet needs to start thinking, “What matters to me?” Today I’m going to teach you how poets choose topics and get started writing.

Teaching Tell students that poets need to start with a topic that feels big to them, a topic that fills their heart, but

then focus on a part of it that is small, just like we did with small moment stories. Give students an example of something that is big – loving my dog – but then I need to zoom in on just one part of that and see it with a poets’ eyes to write a poem. Reenact zooming in on a small moment – my dog coming downstairs to sit by my feet. I can play that moment like a movie in my mind (tell details of that time). Now I’m ready to write a poem because I have a big topic, a big feeling, but I also have something small and detailed. Show student’s chart “Strategies Poets Use.”

Active Engagement

Work with students to develop a poem, starting with a big feeling like how we all love listening to stories. Have students get that big feeling in them. Then have them think of something small that goes with that big feeling, something like an object or a memory that holds that big feeling. Then use that small, zoomed in thing to elicit details to generate a poem (in the air, doesn’t need to be written down). Point out to students how we started with a big feeling but then zoomed in on something small to write a poem.

Link Tell students that when they are finished with the poems they are working on, they should try finding topics in their own lives. They will need to think of something that is big, but then zoom down until you have something small that you can see with poets’ eyes.

When conferencing… Work with students who are writing new poems. If they are unsure how to get started, have them write down the big idea first (“Mom” or “Skateboarding”) and then list things underneath that you could zoom in on. Then once the writer picks one, focus on the subject – have them help you picture it.

Sharing Share poem of student who took a big idea and focused in on something small, Have students make specific comments about what they liked about the poem

*Second ML: At the end of the dayConnection: Poets, I want to remind you that we aren’t poets for

just one hour during WW. We are poets all day long. Today you will be getting on the bus as a poet, going in your house as a poet, and going to sleep as a poet.

Read students the poem “Valentine for Ernest Mann” by Naomi Nye and tell students that today and every day from now on, let’s live in a way that lets us find poems

Teaching: Give students Tiny Topics Notepads and tell them they will use them to write down tiny details that could become seeds for poems – like shadows drifting across your ceiling at night. Write them down so that during WW we can turn them into poems.

Connection Mention tiny topics students had written down in their Tiny Topics Notepads that sound like great idea for a poem, Tell students that today they will learn to sift through their observations and notes and think, “Which of these could become a great poem?”

Teaching Remind students of the 3 ingredients of poetry we learned about – poets look at things in fresh new ways, poems have music that come from the way the words are chosen and put on paper, and poems start with a big, strong feeling – but then poets find something small that holds that feeling. (Give example – I love this classroom, but I wouldn’t put that big feeling on paper, I would find a small detail or moment that holds that feeling.) Review chart “Strategies Poets Use.” So today when you reread notes and ask, ‘Which of these ideas could make a good poem?’ you need to ask, ‘Do I have big strong feelings about this? Have I found a moment or detail or object that holds those feelings for me?’ Give made-up bad example (no strong feeling) and good example (detail holding big feeling) from kids’ notepads.

Active Engagement

Have students open to the first pages in their notepads and look at what they wrote. Does this give me a big, strong feeling? Thumbs up if it does. Have I found a small object or small moment that holds that feeling? Tell your partner what you wrote and talk over if it is a big feeling and if it is small enough to make a poem. (Have a few students share topics)

Link Tell students that today I know they will reread the topics they wrote in their notepads and that they need to… (read from the chart to remind students of what they need to do…give a few more examples of small details that hold big feelings).

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 5: Finding Ingredients for a Poem

Materials: Chart “Strategies Poets Use”, Tiny Topics Notepads

Mid-Workshop TP: Remind students that just as they are all writing teachers, they can also all be poetry teachers. If someone doesn’t

know how to get started on a poem, what might you, as good poetry teachers, say? Guide students to use the chart to respond.

Sharing Remind students of Naomi Nye’s words. Her secret was that “poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes, they are sleeping. They are the shadows drifting across the ceiling the moment before we wake up. What we have to do is live in a way that lets us find them.”

Remind students that to live in a way that lets them find poems, they should continue to use their Tiny Topics Notepads to record seeds for poems as they are walking to the bus, at home with their families, walking down the street, etc.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 6: Showing, Not Telling

Materials: 2 poems written by students that show, not tell

Connection Remind students that poems – like cakes – have ingredients. When we write a poem, we start by being sure we have a big topic that gives us strong feelings. Then we think, ‘Do I have a moment or an object or a detail that holds those feelings?’ Today I want to teach you that one way poets do this is by showing, not telling.

Teaching Remind students that we learned about showing, not telling, earlier in their year when we wrote small moments. Give examples (instead of saying, I was excited, I could say…) Poets do this too. Poets usually come right out and tell us the little details but leave it up to us to figure out the big feeling he/she is trying to show. The big feeling is usually there, but sometimes the reader has to say, ‘Oh! I get it now!’ Provide example of student who wrote poem that shows, not tells. Point out that the specific words they picked are what show us the big feeling.

Active Engagement

Read another poem by a student – tell them that the poem tells us the little details, but it is their job to figure out the big feeling the poet is having. Try to find places in the poem where that big feeling peeks through.

Link Today and every day when you write poems, I know that you will thing about big topics that fill you with strong feelings. But then you’ll remember that poets have a saying, “Show, don’t tell.” Instead of coming right out and telling us how you feel, you can show it by finding one time, one moment, and showing one bit of life.

When conferencing… Make sure students are writing poems, not stories. Remind them that poets use line breaks to play with the music in the poem and see small moments through poets’ eyes, in a fresh new way.

Sharing

Find examples of students who used precise words to write in a way that is exact and specific (instead of the “the ice cream goes down my hand”, “the ice cream dribbles down my hand.” Ask these students to write their amazing language on a post it (or index card) so we can put it up on an area labeled “Amazing Language Wall.” Have students reread their poems to their partners to see if they can find any other examples of amazing language.

Connection We’ve been learning that although poets begin with strong feelings, they don’t just pile those feelings all over the page – “I love my cat. I love her so, so much”. Many of you have tried to show those big feelings with details, and sometimes this makes your poem feel very talky – more like regular writing, not like a poem. One way to turn regular writing into poetry is to give your writing the voice of poetry. Today I’ll teach you the voices of poetry.

Teaching If you write like this – “Flowers. I love flowers. The flowers by my bed are blue and yellow” – your writing sounds regular. 1. One way to bring out the voice of poetry is to speak directly to the subject. Give example “Flowers, flowers by my bed, open up like I said…” 2. Some poems are story poems. To write a poem in this voice, imagine you’ve just run into the room and someone is there, and you breathlessly tell the story of what just happened. “At Daniel’s house, Out the window, By the tree, I saw three birds…” 3. Some poems sound like the poet is speaking right to you and saying something that is the deepest, truest sound of his or her heart. “When I walk in the door, I have love for where I am…”

Active Engagement

Have students try these 3 voices of poetry using the sun as the subject. Have them pretend they are in bed, about to wake up, they feel the warm sun. Give bad example – “Some mornings are sunny.” “ Today I woke up and saw the sun.” Then have them come up with examples using a poetry voice: 1. Talking to the sun, 2. You just got to the breakfast table and you blurt out the story of how the sun woke you up. Start “All night, I lay in bed sleeping…” 3. Now get a feeling in your heart about waking up and feeling the sun. Start, “I wake up, I feel…”

Link Writers if your poems feel too regular, you can try on the voices of poetry. You can write to your subject, you can use a storyteller voice, you can try to write straight from the heart.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 7: Hearing the Voices of Poetry

Materials: Either examples of students’ poetry in all 3 voices, or examples in UoS

When conferencing… Ask students, “What are you working on today as a poet?” and if they respond vaguely, remind them that their job in conferences is to tell me specifically what they are working on. If they can’t articulate it, use the chart to guide them.

Sharing Have one partner share one poem (read it 2 times) and have the other partner say what he/she felt – then switch roles.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 8: Searching for Honest, Precise Words

Materials: Poem “My Mom” on chart paper, Pointer/blank chart paper

Connection Yesterday you did some great work to make your poems sound like poems. Poems do feel very close to stories, but always, when you write a poem, you want to take extra special care of one thing – your words. Poets spend a long time searching for the exact word to match what they want to say. Share poem “My Mom” and model process of circling the word “wrapped” because it’s not exactly right, then listing other ways to say it – bundled, held, nestled. Sometimes we find words in our poems that aren’t exactly true, so we try them again. Today I’ll show you how to do that.

Teaching Tell story of friend calling me from the beach because she found some shells that she thought looked amazing, and she told me they were “little and small and purple and nice.” I replied “I can’t picture them! Help me picture them.” So she said, “They’re tiny purple mussel shells, open, but still connected, and they look like, like, like a million tiny purple butterflies flying in the sand.” When she said that, all of a sudden I could see it! She searched for exactly the right words to tell me about the shells. Today we’re going to learn how to search for the exact words that match what we’re seeing.

Active Engagement

Have students practice searching for honest, precise words about the pointer – we use it every day and it helps us read. I’ll hold it, and will you tell your partner the exact true thing you really see me doing with the pointer? That’s what poets do, just like my friend on the beach. Create a list of ways to describe the pointer. Have partners reread the list and find the descriptions they like – maybe put 2 together.

Link Revise chart “Strategies Poets Use” and remind them that we have lots of strategies to use now as we are writing poems.

Sharing Find a line in one student’s poem that could be written with more honest precise words. Write the line on chart paper and circle 2 words that could be written more exact. Have students work to find alternatives to the 2 words and write them underneath the originals. Discuss how changing these words really gives us new images of the poem each way it is written.

Connection Remind students that patterns are something we have learned about in math. Tell them that today I will teach them the power of patterns in poetry.

Teaching Give examples of things in real life that have “a pattern, an order” (days of the week, morning to night, windows and doors on a building, beads on a necklace). Read “Go Wind” and point out pattern in beginning of first and third stanzas.

Active Engagement

Read the poem again and tell students they will tell their partners another pattern they notice. So writers, I hope if you start a new poem today or any day, you might think, should this poem have a pattern? How should it go? Let’s try thinking like that. Let’s say you want to tell about how your baby brother keeps interrupting you. You start to play or talk, then he gets in the way. It keeps happening. Tell your partner how your poem could be patterned.

Link The easiest way to write with patterns is to line things up, to keep rows the same. See if any of you can do this today, and if you write in a pattern come and show me.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 9: Patterning on the Page

Materials: “Go Wind” by Lilian Moore on chart paper

Mid-Workshop TP: Stop to read example of a patterned poem.

Sharing Poems need to be read, reread, and reread. I’m going to end our workshop today by reading and rereading 2 poems. Listen to the patterns in these poems, and remember that poems, like weeks, days and nights, and windows on a building, have patterns.

*Read 2 kids’ poems with patterns

Look now at your own poetry folder. Reread your poems and divide them into 2 piles: poems with patterns and poems that don’t yet have patterns. Then, tomorrow, consider revisiting the pile of poems that don’t yet have patterns.

Connection Remind students how Zoe saw the ceiling and the pencil sharpener in fresh, new ways in her 2 poems we read earlier, and then we did the same thing with our special objects. Tell them today I will show them a way to see feelings with fresh eyes too.

Teaching Sometimes poets don’t just say exactly how we feel; instead we say our feeling is like something else in the world. We compare our feelings to something else. Read aloud the poem “Inside My Heart” and explain how she didn’t just say “Oh my heart is so full!” – she compares her feelings to things in the world that remind you of that feeling. Dancing birds and wrestling puppies and laughing babies are all happy things in the world.

Active Engagement

Have students close their eyes and think of a time when they felt sad – if you were going to write about your heart then, what kinds of things might you imagine to be living inside there? Tell your partner, “Inside my heart lives…” Repeat for a time they felt proud and a time they felt angry. Make sure they are using specific comparisons (I felt like a bird in the blue sky, not just I felt like a bird)

Link So poets when you are writing today, remember that poets try to write not only what we see but also what we feel in fresh new ways. One way to do this is to write about the things in the world that remind us of that feeling, like Zoe did with the birthday party in her heart. Thumbs up if this is something you will try today.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 10: Using Comparisons to Convey Feelings

Materials: Poem “Inside My Heart” written on chart paper

Sharing Share poem of student who tried to do this

Connection Remind students how Zoe wrote in ways that compared her feelings to other things in the world. Today I’m going to show you that poets compare whatever we’re writing about (not just feelings) to something else. We need to reach for ways to help readers picture and experience whatever we see and experience.

Teaching Show students chart of ordinary language and poetic language. Point out how I took ordinary language and rewrote it in a fresh way by comparing (ideas aren’t really popcorn, the classroom isn’t really asleep – it’s a comparison)

Active Engagement

Have students work with partners to fill in the rest of the chart on the Poetic Language side. Fill in ideas provided by partners.

Link Whenever you write poetry, if you want readers to really feel and see and hear what you are saying, one thing you can use is comparisons. Thumbs up if you will try this today in your writing.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 11: Contrasting Ordinary and Poetic Language

Materials: Chart “Ordinary and Poetic Language” (p91)

When conferencing…Work with students have difficulty with the concept of metaphors. Instead of saying the carpet is blue, we could say it’s like an ocean. Since we all meet here and talk, its like a sea of talk. What about your pencil? What can you compare it to? My pencil is like…

Sharing Share a poem of a student who used comparisons in the poem

Connection Remind students how when they wrote Small Moments, they took a small moment and stretched it out across pages (give example). Today I want to teach you that if you compare in your poem, it’s really smart to stretch that comparing out across many lines.

Teaching Display chart from previous day and decide to write a poem about how the classroom is sleeping in the morning. Display first version of the poem (comparison is not stretched out). Point out how the comparison is only one line of the poem – it’s only in the second line, it’s not anywhere else. I don’t really talk much about it. Think aloud how a sleeping classroom is like a sleeping person – I am thinking of all the things I do in the sleeping classroom that are similar to what I’d do if the classroom were a sleeping person (when people are sleeping we tiptoe quietly and say, “shush”). Read students the new version of the poem. Point out how this version of the poem has the comparison in more than one line – I stretch it out across many lines.

Active Engagement

Decide to write a poem about comparing our line to a train. Show students first version where the comparison is not stretched out. Have students think of ways that us walking down the hall is like a train. Have students turn and talk with a partner to discuss and write new version of the poem.

Link Have students read over poems from yesterday and see if they have done some comparing. If they have, they should work with a partner and figure out a way to stretch out the comparison, just like we did with the sleeping classroom and the line like a train.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 12: Stretching Out a Comparison (Sustaining a Metaphor)

Materials: Poem about the sleeping classroom (first and new versions) and poem about the line like a train (first version) UoS p99

Sharing Share poem of student who stretched out their comparisons across several lines.

Connection Inform students that we are getting close to our poetry writing celebration, so it is time to start thinking about revising and finding the poems that deserve to be published. Have students work in silence for 10 minutes reading over all the poems they have written and find the ones that deserve to be revised. They should find at least 4-5 poems that have promise and deserve to be revised.

Teaching Reconvene students and tell them I want to talk to them about the poems in their reject pile. Tell story about finding treasures in trash (garbage dump, garage sale…). Today when you write, remember that if you look hard, you can find little treasures in writing that is mostly trash. Read poem that I decided wasn’t very good, but find one line in it that I like – circle that line and then write it at the top of a new page – this might be something I can make a new poem out of.

Active Engagement

Help one student look through his/her trash pile. Read aloud a couple poems they have in the trash pile and ask students to listen for when they hear a line that deserves to be salvaged/saved to be a new poem. This line should then be written on a new paper so that he/she can grow a new poem.

Link Today, before you begin to revise the poems you love, some of you may want to pick through your trash pile. Expect to find some treasures.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 13: Finding Treasures in Discarded Drafts

Materials: Poem I decided wasn’t very good

When conferencing…Meet with students who haven’t yet written many strong poems. Have them reread a good line out loud in a way that gives them goose bumps. Work with other students on conventions of poetry – capitalizing first letters of lines, titles, etc.

Sharing Have students bring to the carpet one poem they thought they wanted to throw away but then decided to hold on to. Tell them to be ready to share with the class their reason for saving it.

Connection Tell students that you took home their poetry folders last night to read through their poetry, and I realized there are lots of kinds of poems (looking closely poems, funny poems, and story poems). Some were drafts of poems that could go in the category of not-yet poems. Many (but not all) of your not-yet poems could also be called stories. Today I want to show you how you can take stories that aren’t yet poems and revise them into story poems.

Teaching Show example of poem that really seems more like a story – it has line breaks so it looks like a poem but it doesn’t feel strong enough (like watered down lemonade instead of lemon juice, which is strong). Then read revised draft that’s now a story poem.

Active Engagement

Have partners find 3 differences between original and revised drafts and record responses on chart titled “Turning Stories Into Poems” (examples of chart could include: take out the extra words, take out parts of the story that aren’t the main thing, decide if you want sentences with periods or not, add words to show not tell)

Link Today some of you may want to go through the poems you want to revise. If you find some got sorted into the piles that aren’t yet poems, you can use our chart to help you revise, turning these into poems. Remember that you’re goal is to make lemon juice…not weak lemonade.

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 14: Contrasting Poems with Stories

Materials: Chart “Turning Stories Into Poems”, original and revised versions of circus poem

Sharing Student who revised poem to make it more poem-like

Connection Tell students story of having guests over to your house without much notice and realized that you need to make your house look really good, really quickly. Tell them that today they will learn to do the same thing with the poems they will publish.

Teaching When I want to clean up my poem, I go through each part of it, looking slowly and carefully. Read a few lines of a students’ poem with a few spelling errors. Show students how I get out my pen and check for spelling patterns/blends I know and fix them. Give students a copy of the editing checklist.

Active Engagement

Have students use the checklist to work with their partner to help edit the next few lines of the students’ poem that I read and have them fix a couple other spelling mistakes.

Link As you go off to edit, remember to use your whole editing checklist to get your poem cleaned up and ready for company!

Unit 7, Mini-Lesson 15: Revising and Editing Poetry

Materials: Editing checklist, Lines of a students’ poem with some spelling errors

Sharing Have students practice reading their poems out loud thinking about the music of the poem. Have them read their poems out loud to their partners several times until they sound just right.