Hey everyone!! It's nice to be back and posting after a short absence! Things have been hectic this year, not to mention stressful. I just haven't had the drive or motivation to do much after school hours. I feel like I'm getting my mojo back though...maybe it's the excitement of summer coming or perhaps it's because our state test has come and gone. Either way...I'm here and ready to share a fantastic product with you all.
First, thanks to
Melissa from Jungle Learners for connecting teachers and organizing another fabulous and fun Stop, Swap, and Roll party!
I feel so fortunate to have been partnered up with
Carla over at Comprehension Connection for this swap party! She is the reading queen and teaching reading is one of my most favorite times of the day!
Carla has so many great products in her store to enhance literacy. I'm really excited to tell you about how I used one of her newest products. It's called
Building Poetry Pros. I choose this product because it went right along with what we were doing in our literacy time...studying poetry!
As you can see, it covers all of the figurative language devices that students need to practice for not only reading poetry, but writing it, too. It's a product after my own heart! Why? I love resources that allow flexibility. There isn't just one way to use it. That's the beauty of graphic organizers!
When I create products I like to give you a variety of ways to use the materials and when I purchase products I like to have that choice, too. This product does just that!
I decided that my students would practice figurative language using picture books rather than poetry at first. (We had already read and written some poetry prior to this lesson.) My plan was to start with similes, metaphors, alliteration, and hyperbole. So, I gathered some mentor text and printed out the organizers I would be using for the week. (I included a list of books at the end of this post.)
The other part of this product that I love, besides the organizers, are the task cards and the anchor chart posters. The posters are clear and easy for my 3rd graders to understand. They have been up on my chart stand now for about a week and I've referred to them each time we met for a whole group lesson. I also like to use them to review the previous day's lesson, too. As we have been reading poems I've been using the tasks cards as a guide for me, using the questions during my whole group lessons and conferencing.
Here's how my lesson was structured. I started by choosing several mentor texts as models. I had the pages marked ahead of time that had similies (or whichever devices we were learning about). I did not read every book aloud from start to finish. I only read the page or part of the passage that had the example of figurative language. After spending time as a whole group discussing and practicing, I sent the kids off in partners with a book to read and a graphic organizer. The partners read together first then went back and used sticky notes to record the similies (or what ever device we were working onthat day). I was able to listen in to each group as they read and discussed what they found.
After they finished their reading and recording, they took their similes to the graphic organizer. As you can see, they had to write the similie and tell what it looks like. They had the choice to draw the image in their mind or write about it. The organizers were put into their reader's notebooks as they finished.
The next day I had the kids write similie poetry. It is a very simple format. Four line verses and each line starts with "I am as ______ as a ______." Each student wrote two stanzas. They could use similies they found in their books, ones they have heard, or try to make up their own.
We worked in a similar fashion for alliteration and hyperbole. (John Henry by Julius Lester was my mentor text for hyperbole. Tall tales are perfect for that!) The only difference was when I sent them off to work, each pair was given a copy of the poem
"Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" by Shel Silverstein. This poem is full of exaggerations and alliterations. Instead of using sticky notes they marked the text with colored pencils.
After marking the text, they again took their examples to the graphic organizers. They did a really nice job showing me what they visiulaized!
Again they had the choice of drawing or writing about their visualizations.
Our work is not done yet. Next week we will continue in the same way with metaphors and personification.
If you like what you see then please enter the Rafflecopter drawing for a chance to WIN
Building Poetry Pros. You can also download a free mini lesson
HERE and try it out with your class.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now hop on over to
Carla's blog, Comprehension Connection to see her review of my product,
Text Features Pack: Posters and Activities for Informational Text which is on sale until Monday, April 27th.
Check out the books I used in my classroom this week.
Teaching similies? Grab these books:
Check out these books for personification:
Stop by
Jungle Learners to see other grade levels and swaps! There are lots of raffles going on, too!
