Collaborative Unit Plan

Title of Unit

Beyond Poetry and the Power of

Words!
Curriculum Area ELA and Writing
Developed By

Grade Level

3rd & 4th

Time Frame

3 to 4/60-minute Sessions

Evans, McGlothin and Bolden

Identify Desired Results (Stage 1)

Content Standards (Common Core, Gifted, and AASL)

ELACC3RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from non-literal language.
ELACC3RI4: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
b. Read on-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
ELACC3RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from non-literal language.
ELACC3W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
ELACC3W5: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing.
ELACC3SL1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners, building on others ideas and expressing their own clearly.

a.
b.
c.
d.

Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied the required material

Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions.
Ask questions to check for understanding of information presented, stay on topic, and link their comments to the remarks of others.
Explain their ideas and understanding in light of the discussion.

CC.3.L.3 Knowledge of Language: Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
CC.3.R.L.4 Craft and Structure: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language.
CC.1.W.6 Production and Distribution of Writing: With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing,
including in collaboration with peers.
HOTS Refines decisions, performances and products within the context of available knowledge and experience.
HOTS Asks probing, insightful, and relevant questions. Models thinking, energy, and passion in various formats to engage or to influence others.
ACS communicates orally with focus
CPS uses analogies, metaphors, and/or models to explain complex concepts.
ACS- Engages in peer discussions and cooperative learning while accepting challenging tasks and critical feedback from peers
ACS Makes connections across disciplines to generate original and complex ideas and products.
ACS Communicates orally with focus, energy, and passion in various formats in order to engage and influence the audience.
ACS Formulates and poses questions to engage others in meaningful discussion and reflection.
AASL Standard 1
1.1.1 Follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects and make the real world connection for using this process in own life.
AASL Standard 3
3.1.3 Use writing and speaking skills to communicate new understandings effectively.
AASL Standard 4
4.1.3 Respond to literature and creative expressions of ideas in various formats and genres.
4.1.8 Use creative and artistic formats to express personal learning.

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Understandings
Overarching Understanding
Students will understand:
That his/her oral and written communication skills can be
demonstrated/presented in an authentic setting.

Essential Questions
Overarching
How can I present my
knowledge to others in an
authentic setting?

Topical
What is the power of words?
Do all words have the same
impact?
What is figurative language?
How do words have
different meanings?
What should a person
consider when writing?

And demonstrate their increased knowledge of poetry and How can I use complex or
figurative language concepts.
figurative language in
poems?
Words are powerful and can make an impact on the world.
What presentation skills are
Related Misconceptions
most effective when reading What is personification?
poetry?
How can one use words to
Anything
images
or
written
text
posted
or
available

create powerful images?

through Google is free for me to use.
How can students support
Poetry always rhymes.
and challenge one another
The first draft is the final draft.
to become better writers?
Knowledge
Students will know

Skills
Students will be able to

Emotions greatly influence our lives.

To select appropriate words to use when writing and
speaking.
Memories, both positive and negative, are impacted by
emotions.
To demonstrate that words often have multiple meanings,
literal and figurative, which impact the emotional response
Words often have a big impact on our emotional status.
Emotions can help us to organize and to process (make sense) evoked in the recipient.
of the world.
To utilize effective public speaking skills to share his/her
original poetry with an authentic audience.
Words help us to express what we observe and how we
express that to others.
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Assessment Evidence (Stage 2)

Performance Task Description
To create a poetry presentation via digital, written, oral means that demonstrates understanding
Goal of figurative language & colorful words.
Role
Audience

A duo or individual 1960s performer at a Poetry Cafe

Classmates, Parents, Staff and student body

You are a person living in the 1960s, but you were given a vision of the future-21st century.
You are frustrated with the lack of civil rights for minority groups. There is a Poetry Cafe
established in Harlem New York to give people a platform to express their support of civil rights
for people in America. You are going to use your 21st century technology vision to create a 2Situation
minute digital poetry presentation, using music and images from the 1960s. You will present
this poetry creation to the Poetry Cafe audience in a very creative way. Do not forget your
Ethical Use of Information/Digital Citizenship lessons and rules.
Product/ iMovie, Slideshow, Podcast, Videocast, Vimeo video, Thinglink, Glogster, Animoto, PowToon,
Performance
and Comic Strips. See Performance Task Rubric below
Expectations
ELACC3SL1; CC.3.L.3; AASL Standard 3-3.1.3 Use writing and speaking skills to communicate new understandings effectively.

HOTS Refines decisions, performances and products within the context of available knowledge and experience.
ISTE-S 1. Creativity and innovation Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop
Standards innovative products and processes using technology.
ISTE-S 2. Communication and collaboration Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work
collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Other Evidence

Collaborative Unit Plan

Information Literacy Skills: An Ethical Use of Information and Digital Citizenship Lesson will be offered for each
lesson to reiterate and reinforce the importance of using royalty-free images and music for the poetry creations.
The Teacher and Student resources will be shared to ensure that the classroom teacher is aware of what students
are allowed to use for their digital poetry creations and performances. RESOURCE LINKS BELOWhttp://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/a-must-have-poster-on-copyright.html
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/search/label/copyright%20resources
http://www.2learn.ca/ydp/digcitizen.aspx
Learning Plan (Stage 3)
Where are your students headed? Where Please see the pre-assessment document attached to this Unit Plan.
have they been? How will you make sure The classroom teacher used her observations, feedback and benchmark
the students know where they are going? assessments to determine that students needed an in-depth lesson
regarding writing and figurative language.

Collaborative Unit Plan

How will you hook students at the

beginning of the unit?

Share with students the following to introduce the unit: We are going to begin
a new unit on poetry and the power of words. We have different backgrounds
with language and how words are used. Some of us are more comfortable with
words than others, and this is fine! The main things that we will be doing
during this unit are:
1. To determine what poets are saying or expressing in their poems.
2. To develop skills to help us to express ourselves in more creative ways.
3. To develop effective writing skills.
4. To learn more about the power of words and how they can be used to
evoke emotions.
Now, please take a few minutes to brainstorm what you already know about
poetry. You may speak with a neighbor, but you must write at least three
things that you believe is true about poetry at this point!
Often we can see the same thing and express it in very different ways. If we
were all to go outside and look at the clouds, for instance, none of us would
describe them in the same way. Today, were going to go out and see what we
see in the sky! Then well come back in and attempt to use words to convey
what weve seen and experienced. Next, we will determine as a group how we
will share our work during this unit so that everyone is comfortable.
1.

Go outside and observe the clouds. Students should take paper and
clipboards to record their observations.
2. Students will then write about what theyve seen. The teacher may want
to first read It Looked Like Spilt Milk by Charles G. Shaw. Students can
then complete a web with The Cloud Looked Like with answers based
on what the students observe while out looking at the clouds.
3. The teacher should then model how to turn ideas in a free-form poem
using the ideas gained while observing the clouds.
4. Students should then have time to write a poem, that is 3-8 lines in
length. Once students have had time to write their poems, they should
be encouraged to share their work during Poets Chair time.

What events will help students

The Performance Task Assessment and each Poetry lesson. Also, see the
experience and explore the big idea and Hook section above.
questions in the unit? How will you
equip them with needed skills and
knowledge?
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How will you cause students to reflect

See the Peer editing rubric and the Self-evaluative rubric
and rethink? How will you guide them in
rehearsing, revising, and refining their
work?
How will you help students to exhibit and Students and teacher will use the two self-evaluative rubric scoring
self-evaluate their growing skills,
documents attached to this Unit plan. Students are given the
knowledge, and understanding
opportunity to peer edit, self-edit and receive feedback from their
throughout the unit?
teacher.
How will you tailor and otherwise
Using the Unit/lesson pre-assessment, providing a choice board and
personalize the learning plan to optimize allowing students to be creative with the final performance-based
the engagement and effectiveness of ALL assessment task.
students, without compromising the
In addition, the lesson is equipped with a modification chart for the
goals of the unit?
following students in the class: See next section
How will you organize and sequence the
learning activities to optimize the
engagement and achievement of ALL
students?

Modifications/Differentiated Instruction techniques:

Non-Verbal-Celebrate and reinforce creative efforts for the artistic piece of the
assignment. Pairing students for peer editing and feedback.
Underachieving- Encourage students to set a goal on the rubric and to achieve
that level, even if it is in the meets expectation category. Student topic
choice.
Overachieving-Challenge students to create a longer poem than the meets
expectation requirements listed on the rubric. Pair students for peer editing
and leadership. Allow students to research further and provide additional
creative details.

From: Wiggins, Grant and J. Mc Tighe. (1998). Understanding by Design, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
ISBN # 0-87120-313-8 (ppk)

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Pre and Post Assessment

Name ____________________________ Poetry and the Power of Words
Today youll put on your thinking caps to begin thinking about words and how words can be effective tools to help us to describe
what weve experienced and to help others to experience the same emotion. Happy thinking!

Title: ________________________________
The runners flew past in unison.
Each lifting right leg then left The race was on!
Above us the sky worea brilliant,
sparkling blue sheen.
There was no room for clouds on such a day.
The multitudeencouragedthe runners
from both sides of the road.
A salad of applause,hoots and hollers.
It was a wonderful day for a race The most temperate of afternoons.
Energy exchangedbetween spectator and runner,
adding electricity to an already charged atmosphere,
Indeed it was a wonderful day for a race*
*from mywordwizard.com

What would be an appropriate title for this poem? Write it in above. Why is this a good title?

Often in poems, poets attempt to compare things to make a point or to help readers imagine what is happening or being seen. List
as many things as you can that are being compared in this poem:

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Pre and Post Assessment

Word choice is essential when writing. The most effective writers are able to use words to make phrases to create powerful
emotion/images. Circle at least three words in the poem that are powerful or effective words and pick your favorite. Word:
_____________________________ Write WHY you think this particular word has power!

On the back make a drawing of what you think the poet saw on the day being described.

What is personification? _________________________________________________

What is a similie? ______________________________________________________

Haiku is a form of __________________________ poetry.

A stanza is _______________________________________________________.
An example of a poem containing alliteration may have this as a line:

Collaborative Unit Plan

Pre and Post Assessment

True/False: Poetry can be used to express ideas or facts in other subjects such as Social Studies, Science, or even Math,
because
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________.
True/False: Language stays the same from time to time because if it didnt, we wouldnt understand the meaning of words.
True/False: The only way for a word to be real is for it to appear in the dictionary.
My favorite poet or poem is ________________________________________________________________________.

One thing I really hope to learn in this unit is:

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Performance Task Assessment (Self/Teacher Evaluative Tool)

Skills:
Personification Usage

Does Not meet

Meets

Student did not use Personification exemplified

personification correctly
throughout the poem.
in the poem and may not
grasp the concept.
Descriptive words/
Student did not use
Student used some
imagery
adjectives to help the adjectives throughout the
reader to visualize the poem, but could have aided
subject.
imagery with additional
words.
Length
Poem was less than 8 Poem is 8-10 lines long and
lines long or did not maintains a consistent topic
represent one subject.
throughout.
Title
Poem lacks a title or
Poem has an appropriate
title is confusing based
title.
on poem content.
Peer- and self-editing Student did not peerDraft did require some
effort
edit OR it was not a
adult support, but peer
serious effort. Many
editing was evident
errors remain at teacher
throughout.
conference prior to
publication.

Exceeds
Poem has multiple examples of
personification. It is evident student has a
full grasp of concept.
Student used above-grade level or frequent
adjectives to increase imagery throughout.

Poem is more than 10 lines long and sticks

with the original subject. Is cohesively
written.
Poem has a title that is unexpected or may
be symbolic representing higher order
thinking.
Draft was top-notch and substantial peer
and/or self-editing was evident. Student
took time to correct misspelled words OR
searched for above grade level words.

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