Unit 4: Poetry (10 days)

● In this unit, students will be given the tools to effectively and creatively create poetry.
After reviewing the many different types of poetry and looking at the ways it can be
presented students will craft a slam poem of their own and then present it to the class.
They will be able to gain the tools to be able to verbally create a legacy.
Standards and Reality Pedagogy:
● Colorado Common Core Standards for Ninth/Tenth Grade- Reading, Writing and
Communicating
○ Oral Expression and Listening
■ Prepared Graduates
● 2. Deliver effective oral presentations for varied audiences and
varied purposes.
■ Grade Level Expectations
● 2. Organize and develop credible presentations tailored to purpose
and audience.
■ Rationale and Reflective Pedagogy
● Students will be asked to think about how they wish to leave a
legacy on the world. To dig deeper into this I will use the
Cogenerative dialogues reflective pedagogy to ask students what
they are interested in and how they wish to leave a legacy.
Activities:
● Found Poems
○ Students will find anything with print on it (a package of food, a sign, an article, a
book, a piece of mail). They will look for works that can begin a poem. They will
then cut up the words and begin to rearrange them into a poem of their own. This
will be a starting activity in the poetry unit to get the students feet wet and allow
them some constricted creativity.
● Where I’m From Poems
○ As a class we will read the poem “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon. After
we finish reading, students will be asked to create their own “Where I’m From”
poem about themselves while mimicking the form of George Ella Lyon’s poem.
 After they complete the poem, they will reflect on the process of creating said
poem and the variations of what each student wrote about. This will show
students that poetry can be interpreted in many different ways.
● Wonder “What If”
○ This activity is made to allow students to start brainstorming what they want to
write about for their slam poems. They will be asked to think of something that
they know to be true and real in their own lives. They will then be asked, “what
if?” They will then have to let their imagination take them where they want with
it. This allows students to think outside the grander scheme of life, and take part
in a lot of personal reflection.
Texts:
● To This Day Slam Poem
● Touchscreen Slam Poem
● “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon
Formative Assessment:
● I Used to Think… Now I Think
○ By having students complete a “I used to think… Now I think” I am able to see
what prior knowledge of poetry students bring into the class. I feel like it is often
that students feel like they can’t write poetry, or it’s too hard. This strategy will
allow for them to have an open mind and actually see what growth they have
throughout the unit.
Summative Assessment:
● Student Created “What If” Slam Poems
○ For this unit the summative assessment with be a performance of a slam poem
that the student wrote. During the “What If” activity students will be asked to
brainstorm a “What If” moment in their life. They will then be asked to turn it
into a slam poem similar to the ones we have watched in class. By having students
verbally perform their poems I will be able to see what physical, vocal and written
skills they had learned from the unit.