Third grade students used picture book characters as inspiration for their poetry writing in celebration of National Poetry Month. I selected picture books with strong characters and randomly assigned them to small groups of students. Using a template, the students read the book and decided who would be the subject of their poem.
We emphasized using text evidence for their writing. If you are going to say the character “sees” something, be sure that you can point to the evidence. This template could also be used as book report.
The second library visit was used to finish up with those groups who hadn’t filled in all the lines or who needed some help editing.
Recording the Poems and Uploading to YouTube
The third library visit I video taped the groups reading their poems and I used Windows Movie Maker to create a movie, which I uploaded to YouTube. Shared the links with the teachers so that the students could view the finished product.
One more class needs to be taped and now that the craziness of state testing is over, I might get to it!
Class watching their video of poems on YouTube.
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