Day 1 Bubble Kick Off

 

I am back in the classroom working with a colleague to teach a week long poetry unit to the first grade class at the school where I teach.  Our plan is to provide many mentor poems that show poetic language, repetition, sound words, and revision including line breaks and varied fonts.  We did an activity the first day with bubble which was a big hit. It has been a relief to work with another teacher and have time each day after our lessons to discuss what is working and change up our lessons based on student needs and interest.  A luxury many teachers do not have. See my reflection here:

Monday
Day 1 Kick Off 4/29/19
Poetic Language

Day one was hectic as expected.  We started the lesson with management protocols including names with color coded name tags, positive behavior rewards, outlining writing partners & sharing circles, and expectations for the day/week.  We projected/listened to poems of “real” authors, both professional and “first grade” as well. See here.  We also listened to audio tracks of authors reading these poems.  For example, the first poem was about introducing himself. Hear here.  I (Lindsay) also showed pictures of two authors when their poems were being read.  After, we introduced an activity in which students and teachers played with bubbles and noticed/recorded poetic language to describe the bubbles.

Of course, bubbles were a big hit. Rachel and Lindsay were pleasantly surprised at how the students did not need much prodding to brainstorm interesting and mature words. See list here.  Despite having a planned poem with poetic language in mind for the guided/shared writing, I strayed from the plan and modeled a poem on the spot using student words brainstormed on the anchor chart. See here.  I was grateful however that I had planned a poem ahead of time and can absolutely see the value of this important advice.  I had decided to go with the theme that overall, bubbles are FUN and started with a line that reflected that: “A bubble is… fun”.  I highlighted repetition at the beginning and end while complimenting the students’ use of words that sound unique and interesting while composing.  We went on to brainstorm possible topics and made time for independent writing in journals we had prepared solely for these lessons. Students were put into heterogeneous partner groups for support and inspiration.  A student who tends to struggle with reading and writing came up with:

abcdefg
such lovely spelling
you help me learn
on and on
every year
By -A

This poem did not necessarily use poetic language but I found it striking, meaningful, and unique.  Rachel and I were also sure to include time for student sharing in small groups despite going over the time we had planned on.  We asked the classroom teacher about extending the lesson to one hour for the following days and reflected that including more than one poem written by a first grader or young person would benefit how accessible poetry writing could be. Topics varied and of course, time management is always an issue. The delight on their faces when the bubbles came out and their begging for more time to write was a true delight!

Now day two was another matter…