Poetry:
Powerful Thoughts in Tiny Packages
In preparation to plan
this unit, I had to choose an essential question to guide my teaching. I ended
up choosing two: What does it mean to be a poet? And How can I tell the
difference between a poem and a story? Working together with my university
instructors and Mrs. Ambrosino, I chose nine goals to give the unit structure
as we work to answer the questions together. The name "Poetry: Powerful Thought in Tiny Packages" is a poetry unit written by Lucy Calkins from which my unit it loosely structured after.
Next I created an end of unit
task that would mark our growth as poets. Together our class will publish our
own poetry collection showcasing the poets we have become. In addition we will
be working on our own 6 word memoir video. It is a
project started by SMITH magazine and made famous by NPR. The students will
work to summarize their lives in 6 words, it is amazing to see the powerful
messages they can convey in just six words.
I think throughout this entire unit
you will be proud to see what amazing poets you have raised. If you have any
questions about the unit, or have a love of poetry and would like to get
involved, please let me know.
-Ms. Malaney
