Lesson 1 – Who Am I Physically?
Goal/Objectives – Students will create an acrostic poem about who they are physically. (An acrostic poem is a poem that uses the letters of a word to begin each line vertically. Off of each vertical letter, another word or phrase is written that begins with the same letter)
Time – 2 class periods
Materials Needed – The movie “Little Giants”, Paper, Pen/Pencil,
Process –
The class will view a film clip from the movie “Little Giants” (The team lines up with foam coming out of the sides of their mouths. Even though they are physically smaller, they look intimidating)
We will go over what an acrostic poem is. (An acrostic poem is a poem that uses the letters of a word to begin each line vertically. Off of each vertical letter, another word or phrase is written that begins with the same letter) I will show acrostic poem examples.
The class will create a list of descriptive words about themselves, using their name as the vertical root of the poem.
After each student has his/her acrostic poem created, the class will get into groups of 5 and share poems within the group. Together, they will read, edit, and revise one another’s poems.
After the groups have finished revising, each student can rewrite his/her poem. At this point, every student should have been given the chance to P.O.W.E.R. his/her poem.
When the final poems are completed, students may volunteer to read them in front of the entire class.
Assessment – The students will be assessed by how well they P.A.C.E. themselves. P.A.C.E. stands for Product, Analytical Process, Contribution, and Engagement. A 4 point rubric works well for this purpose, covering each characteristic of P.A.C.E.
Enrichment – Poetry is an area where students may take it upon themselves to excel by their own standards. Because this is creative writing, any child can freely write whatever they would like. To expand student’s horizons, I would allow for students to explore other forms of poetry other than what I introduce in class, if they are willing to share what they have discovered with the other students. By having an advanced student tell the class what he/she has discovered, everyone can benefit from one’s enrichment assignment.