Shape Poetry

Grade: 5 Time: 40 minutes Standard: W.5.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are
appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 13 above.)

Objective: Students will write a shape poem by using descriptive language, including similes and metaphors about a particular topic. Materials: Poster board with sample shape poem White board and markers

Lesson Sequence: 1. Lesson Introduction/Anticipatory Set Today, boys and girls we are going to write poetry. Does anyone remember what kind of poetry Ms. Biondo taught you about last week? Yes, Brown Bag Poetry. If you remember we used our senses to come up with words to describe the object. We are going to use describing words again to write more poetry. 2. State Objective and Purpose Today, the type of poetry we are going to write is Shape Poetry. This type of poetry is good to use in order to visually show others what you are describing. 3. Teach and Model Shape poetry is rich in description. If there was no picture or title you should be able to guess what the author was writing about. When writing shape poems the words do not have to rhyme. To save time I already made a shape poem of my own about ice cream. Have ice cream poem drawn on poster board, show to students. In order to write this poem I had to brain storm. The first thing I did was think of something to compare ice cream to. I thought about how ice cream cones are sometimes piled really high with ice cream and that made me think of mountains since they are tall. That is how I got the idea for my simile. Then I made myself a list of words that I thought went with ice cream and I choose my favorite ones. Some of my words are concrete but most of them are descriptive words. Then I drew my picture and wrote my words around it. 4. Guided Practice Lets write a shape poem together now. Can anyone think of a concrete object that we can write a poem on? Think about objects related to spring or holidays or events in

springtime. I will write all your ideas on the board and then we will pick one. Try to think of things that are easy to draw. Write students ideas on the board and then vote on ideas. I will have some ideas for poems written down and describing words. Okay so we decided to write a poem about ________________, lets make a list of some describing words and some concrete words. Write students ideas on the board. Now we need to think of something we can compare __________to. Does anyone have any ideas? Write students ideas on board. Pick one of the figurative language ideas. Now we are ready to write our poem, so I will draw a picture of ________on the board. Draw picture. I am going to write the simile/metaphor first and then choose some of the words you all came up with and write them around the figure just to save time. 5. Independent Practice/Assessment Boys and girls, now you are going to write your own shape poem. The poem should be about something related to spring like objects you see outside, activities you may do, or a holiday in spring time. Your poem should have one simile or metaphor in it and you need to have at least 8 describing words. Be creative and have fun when making your poem. 6. Closure What type of language do you use in a shape poem? What is the purpose of a shape poem? 7. How will you know the lesson has been successful? You will be able to determine if the lesson has been successful if students are able to create their own shape poem using describing words and one form of figurative language.