ImmersionILessonPlanFormat

Name: Ami Gabryszewski School: Needham Elementary School

Grade Level: 1st Grade Number of Students in Class: 26
Unit: Poetry Lesson Duration: 30-45minutes
Day, Date, and Time of Lesson: February 22, 2017 10:30am 11:15am

1. Objective(s):
At the end of this lesson students will be able to brainstorm at least ten large or small topics that
they can use to write about in a poem and then they will choose one of those topics and write a
poem that includes at least one large or small topic.

2. Colorado Academic Standards:

Content Area: Reading, Writing, and Communication
Standard 3: Writing and Composition
1. Exploring the writing process develops ideas for writing texts that carry meaning.
d. With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions and
suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed. (CCSS: W.1.5)

3. Learning Target(s):
I can brainstorm ten large or small topics in order to start writing a poem.
I can choose one topic from my list and write a poem about one small or large topic.

4. Assessment:
I will use check for understanding to see the understanding for both the content and the processes
of the activities.
I will walk the room having small conferences with students to make sure that they can each
articulate at least ten large or small topics to use for writing a poem. I will collect the poems that
students create to check and make sure that they have written about one small or large topic
throughout their poem.

5. Materials:
White board
Dry-erase markers
Paper
Pencil
Computer and projector
Reading from Shell Silverstein books

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 Poem templates to spark writing:

6. Essential Questions or Big Picture Statement:

Why is it important for writers to brainstorm ideas?
How does brainstorming large and small topics help us as writers to create a poem?

7. Technology Resources and Skills:

I will use the projector and the computer to display a variety of poems that stem from the
brainstorming we do as a class so that students can see what these topics look like when they are
transformed into writing.

8. Introductory / Anticipatory Set: (1-2 minutes)

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I will model reading a poem one that focuses on a small topic and one that focuses on a large
topic so the students can see what a small topic looks like in a poem and what a large topic looks
like in a poem and how they are different from each other. How were these two poems
different? Which poem had a small topic and which poem had a large topic? What makes them
large and small topics?

8. Step by step lesson plan:

Mini-Lesson 10 minutes

Connect:
(I will begin by having students meet me on the rug this is the common meeting space for
instruction in our classroom.)
Mrs. Beth tells me that you all have been working on creating your own poems. I am curious to
hear about some topics or ideas that you have included in your poems. (Have two or three
students share out what they like writing about in their poetry.) I know that sometimes I have a
difficult time creating or thinking of topics to talk about in my poems. So today I am going to
show you how brainstorming can really enhance our writing as poets. And we are going to
explore how we can fit large and small topics into our poems.

Teach:
Up on the white board I am going to create a graphic organizer of the types of ideas that I like
writing about most. (THIS IS MODELING) (I will create a spider web style graphic organizer
with my name in the middle and have my brainstorming ideas branching out.) Now some of
these topics will be large topics and some will be small topics I need your help to decide which
topics will be small and which will be large. Can someone tell me if I wrote friendship on the
board would that be a small or a large topic? Why? I would then label which ideas were small
and big on my graphic organizer. (Make sure students know that it takes more time and effort to
describe a larger topic life feelings, relationships, and experiences then it does to describe
concrete objects like flowers, tress, or sports.)

Active Engagement:
Alright class I want us to look at what some of these topics look like in a poem, when we read a
couple of these poems I want each of you to pay attention to the topic that these poems address.
When you hear a big topic discussed put your hand on your stomach. Then when we hear a small
topic in use put your hand on top of your head. Can you all give me a fist of 5, 1 meaning I
dont know what a large or small topics are and 5 meaning I am completely comfortable with
what large and small topics are, to show me how confident we are feeling with seeing what types
of topics are used in poems? (If you see many students at 3 or lower reteach some aspects, if
students are 3 and above move on with the lesson.)

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Link:
Now as we move into individual poem brainstorming and writing I want you to remember to
always brainstorm large and small ideas for topics before we begin writing and to always stick
with the topic you choose in your writing. We are going to move into our own individual work
time. During this time your job is going to be to use this sheet of paper to create a brainstorming
list of at least ten small and/or large topics. After you have that list you are going to choose one
or two topics to write a poem about.
Do we all understand what our job is? Can I have two students share what our task is going to
be when we get back to our desks? (Call on two different students to share what they interpreted
the assignment to be, clarify any confusion if need be.) (CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING OF
CONTENT)

Independent Work and Conferring Time: (15-20 minutes)

During this time I will walk around the room while students are brainstorming and writing
poems. I will provide support for students who need it and give out extra challenges to students
who finish early and need it. If students dont finish at the end of the lesson there will be time in
the morning during their morning work for them to finish up. (This will be the area for
assessment.)

Sharing: (5 minutes)
At the very end of the lesson I will have students meet me back on the rug area so that they can
share out some of their large and small ideas and read a poem that they wrote if they want to and
if they finished. I will reinforce the lesson by ending our discussion with saying that, Anytime
we are writing it is always important to brainstorm a variety of large and small topics and then
choose one or two to incorporate into our writing. Is there any last questions or comments that
anyone has about topics or poems?

9. Differentiation:
For students that need some more help I will walk around the room and do small conferences
with these students to help them brainstorm many ideas. I will then prompt them to draw pictures
of their ideas if they are having a hard time writing them. If they are struggling to be able to
write a poem with one of these ideas then I will provide a variety of poem templates for them to
follow so they can get the basic structure of a poem.

For students who may need an extra challenge I will have them write a poem with more than one
stanza and one that includes more than one topic from their brainstorming list. If they still need
more of a challenge then I will give them a rhyme scheme to follow within a poem.

Go over the extra templates with students before laying them out for students to use.

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Post Lesson Reflection:

1. A description of how the lesson went. What went well? What didnt?

The lesson went well with a few exceptions, of course. This was the first lesson that I have
taught solo in a classroom. In the beginning of the lesson I had a really engaged classroom and
they were really excited about poetry because I started by reading two poems from Shell
Silverstein, this is a poet they really love. They really understood the difference between small
and big ideas in poetry. As we moved deeper into instruction I began to lose the attention and
focus of some students. The point where I was giving instruction on the individual work time
was the part of the lesson that didnt go well. I had only half the classs attention and the other
students were talking and there was a lot of confusion on which steps to do first and what to do
when you finished. Then during the individual work time some students were working on the
brainstorming and writing of their poems and other students were chatting with friends and had a
difficult time getting focused on the task at hand. I had the students create these graphic
organizers in their writing journals with a corresponding poem and some students had a lot of
confusion on what to do for the graphic organizer so I think a handout wouldve been beneficial
along with clearer instructions and expectations for individual work time. If I was clearer and
modeled more to show students what their job was it couldve eliminated a lot of the confusion
that happened during the individual work time.

2. How would you change the lesson if you were to teach this lesson again?

If I were to teach this lesson again I would change the lesson to incorporate more modeling for
the students, I believe that modeling would also help the students understand the activity and
expectations better. I would model for the students how to transfer a brainstormed idea into an
actual poem. I would also like to change the way I introduce the topic of big and small ideas in
poetry. I would cut out different ideas, big and small, and then put them around the rug and have
the students sort them to big and small ideas and then have them explain the way they sorted
them and what they think a big and small idea means in writing and brainstorming. I would also
explain their task for individual work time more clearly so that students work on writing the

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entire time and have less confusion about what steps to do first. Ultimately I would also want to
slow down my speech and make sure the students really understand what I am teaching to them.

3. What you learned about your students through this experience.

Through this experience I learned that the students that I am working with really love poetry. I
didnt have to really push them to write because they really love expressing their thoughts in the
form of poems. I also learned that the students do the best work when there is modeling that
clearly shows the expectations of the assignment. The students that I am working with really love
to work with mainpulatives and hands on activities. So these factors that I learned about the
students in my placement classroom have helped me write and edit lesson plans. I have also
learned that no matter how much planning goes into a lesson they always turn out differently
than intended.

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