Writing Unit Plan Grades F-2

Unit Five Exploring the World of Poetry

Unit Goals
Australian Curriculum Links:
Understand that texts can take many forms, can be very short (for example an exit sign) or quite long (for example an
information book or a film) and that stories and informative texts have different purposes (ACELA1430)
Participate in shared editing of students own texts for meaning, spelling, capital letters and full stops (ACELY1652)
Understand that the purposes texts serve shape their structure in predictable ways (ACELA1447)
Recognise that different types of punctuation, including full stops, question marks and exclamation marks, signal
sentences that make statements, ask questions, express emotion or give commands (ACELA1449)
Create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level
grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and
diagrams (ACELY1661)

Learning Intentions
The ability to writing to express and reflect on our life
and other things a skill necessary for school, everyday
life and future work.
Poets use poetry to express their feelings, insights
and thoughts.
Poets write poems to remember things and give gifts
to their family and friends.
Poets use other poets to support them as a writer.
Poets use their imagination
Poets select the most appropriate poetry tools to
express their ideas
Poets experiment with conventions to convey their

Success Criteria
Students will:
Read their poetry to an audience
Recite some known poems as a class or group
Explain the process they went through in the
development and publication of their poetry
Complete a personal reflection on what they have
learnt as a writer
What can they do now that they couldnt do before the
unit?
What did I do to become smarter and be a better
writer?
Where to next for me?

meaning.
Each childs Poetry Anthology will include:
Poets use the writing process to gather their ideas,
4 Personal Poems
plan, draft, revise, edit and publish their poems. They
4 Favourite Poems written by other writers.
write with the audience in mind.
1 Class Poem
Poets revise and rework their poems until they sound
1 Personal Reflection
and feel just right.
Poets are thoughtful about the way they will publish
their poems They take into account handwriting /word
processing, good use of white space and text features.
Poets use feedback from others (teacher and peers) to
gather ideas and improve their writing.
Poets understand writing poetry is a fun and easy to
do.
Assessment Strategies
Formative
Evaluative
Conferencing
Student work samples
Students Writers Notebooks
Rubrics
Exit Slips
Teacher Observations
Making writing public
Possible audiences
Publishing Options
Writing for self.
Poetry Anthology.
Writing for teacher.
Writing for classmates.
Writing for family.
Cluster Day Poem in my Pocket

Resources
Resources

Mentor Texts
A variety of poetry books/anthologies/internet

Week
1

What, Why and How to Teach.

Conferring Toolkit.
Marvellous Mini-Lessons K-2 : Lori Jamison Rog.

Teaching Sequence &

Learning Intention
What is a Poem?
Immersion in Poetry.
Why do Poets Write
Poetry?

Mini Lesson 1
I can list all the things I know
about poetry- chart
I can share my thoughts about
poetry with the class-students
respond to teacher read
poems

Mini Lesson 2
Students listen to a variety
of poetry and draw/write to
match how they feel about
the poems. Discuss what
they liked about each one.
Anchor charts- what can a
poem be? eg
long/short/rhyming/non
rhyming

Mini Lesson 3
Mini Lesson
Briefly introduce all the
Doors of Poetry Choose
two doors focus on and
make anchor charts.
EG- the heart door
listing things they love.
The Observation Doorlisting things they
observe around the
classroom, go on a walk
outside etc.
Suggestion for
independent writingstudents choose a door
to personalise in their
notebook

The Doors of Poetry.

Focus on the final three Doors

of Poetry- The Memory Door,
The I Wonder and Concerns

Creating a class free verse

poem using either the Heart
or Observation Door

Revisit previous lessons

class poem to discuss
characteristics of a free

about the World door.

Create class anchor charts
with students ideas.
Suggestion for independent
writing- students choose a
door to personalise in their
notebook

I can find ideas

everywhere to write
poems about.

Mini Lesson- I can go back to

the doors of poetry and
create an acrostic or couplet
based on my ideas which ever
one you want to teach.

Students write their idea on

a Post-It-Note with the
sentence starter- I Love
(Heart Door) or I can see
(Observation Door) and
place onto class poster.
Everyone reads individual
notes to create class poem.
Suggestion for independent
writing- Students create own
I love or I can see poem in
their Notebooks.
Looking back through our
notebook to find topics that
could be changed into
poems. I can go through my
notebook and turn some of
my entries into poems

verse poem.
Students turn and share
their own free verse
poem from their Writers
Notebook
Suggestion: Continue
previous poem or create
new free verse poem.

Teaching of simile
Show examples of
similes and create some
examples as an anchor
chart. Students create
own similes.

Choose one idea to write into

a couplet of acrostic
4

I can use different forms

of poetry to express my
thoughts, ideas and
wonderings.
I can create an
anthology of poetry.

Explore other poetry tools

such as imagery or
personification as needed.
I can read over all of my
poems and select the (number
as per grade level) that I will
include in my anthology.

I can use some poetry tools

for creating my poetry
image, similes, words, titles
and personification.
I can edit my poems for
capitalisation, ending
punctuation, dialogue and
spelling.

Drafting of poetry
pieces- look at examples
of how poetry can be
presented.
Complete a personal
reflection on their
learning
What can I do now that I
couldnt do before the

unit?
What did I do to become
smarter and grow as a
writer?
What do I have to work
on next as a writer