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Teacher
Hannah Leong
Acrostic Poems
Grade 1st
I. Objectives
How does this lesson connect to the unit plan?
Students will learn about acrostic poetry and later on will be able to compare acrostics to the other types of poetry that we will study
in the unit (rhyming, sensory, shape)
Learners will be able to:
Explain what an acrostic poem is
Comprehend the meanings of and use new descriptive vocabulary when writing poetry
Write to create acrostic poems as a class and on their own
Describe themselves by writing an acrostic poem of their name
cognitiveR U Ap An E C*
physical
development
socioemotional
U
An
C
C
X
X
X
R/K
Common Core standards (or GLCEs if not available in Common Core) addressed:
- Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.4).
-With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1 (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.10).
-Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes) (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2).
-Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feelings clearly (CCSS.ELALITERACY.SL.1.4).
(Note: Write as many as needed. Indicate taxonomy levels and connections to applicable national or state standards. If an objective applies to particular learners
write the name(s) of the learner(s) to whom it applies.)
*remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create
Recall information from poetry introductory lesson What does a poem look like? What are poems
about?
Pre-assessment (for learning):
What do you think an acrostic poem is? Have you ever seen a poem that looks like this/
Outline assessment
activities
(applicable to this lesson)
Informal assessment discussion questions What do you notice? What does this word mean?
Formative (as learning):
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Materials-what materials
(books, handouts, etc) do
you need for this lesson
and are they ready to
use?
-write poems
-draw pictures to match poem
-read poems aloud
Components
5
min.
Motivation
(opening/
introduction/
engagement)
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Acrostic!
Good Job!
Read the poem.
Say: Now lets listen to an acrostic poem in
Spanish. Listen carefully for a part of the poem that
you like and be ready to share with me what the
poem is about when were done.
Play the recording.
Ask: What did you hear? What are some parts that
you liked?
Development
(the largest
component or
main body of
the lesson)
20
min.
Students listen.
Students respond: It was about spring. It talks about
the flowers, butterflies, and trees during springtime.
Yes!
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10
min.
5-8
min.
Closure
(conclusion,
culmination,
wrap-up)
Students write!
*Bairon uses tape recorder to speak his poem and
then a teacher assists him in writing it out.
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Lesson Reflection
Todays lesson went more smoothly than yesterdays. The students seemed much more engaged because we did several
activities and because they had a chance to write acrostic poems themselves. Students seemed to like the acrostic poem
examples I shared in English and the pictures that went along with them. They seemed to enjoy listening to Primavera
in Spanish. A critical learning moment occurred when I wrote primavera and spring vertically on the board. I asked
probing questions about the differences between Spanish and English words. I explained that different words must be
used to write an acrostic poem about spring in English than in Spanish because the lines will start with different letters.
Writing an acrostic poem together as a class was a meaningful activity. Students brainstormed with me about words they
can use to describe the fall season. I wrote the words on a poster page and students seemed enthusiastic about having
their ideas written on the poster. Although I hadnt planned it ahead of time, I began calling students up to circle the
words on our brainstorm poster that began with the letters in the word fall. I think this was a good switch because it
helped me keep all the students engaged. Although I couldnt call everyone up to the poster to circle words, this
opportunity motivated all the students to be looking for those specific words and to raise their hands high in the air. They
were also very excited that there was a picture of Snoopy on the fall acrostic template we filled out together. I saw
evidence of learning as they were able to point out which words started with the letters f, a, and l. The students were also
able to tell me which parts of the poem were full sentences and which were not, so this was good evidence of
background knowledge.
I think it was helpful to show students an example acrostic of my name because it allowed them to see what they were
working towards in writing their own name acrostics. It also helped me to be more relatable to my students because they
learned some new information about me (e.g. loves to read). One struggle we had as we went over the vocabulary lists
was that the vocabulary lists just have so many words on them! Mrs. Anderson has used these lists in past years, so I
knew the first graders were capable of using them well in their poetry writing. I felt that it was a necessary exercise to go
over these words, but at such a rapid pace, Im not sure how many of the new adjectives the students really understand.
At first, I was reading the words aloud to the students, but I quickly realized it would be more helpful for me to point out
each word as I read it and showed it on the ELMO. For each letter, I instructed students to raise their hands if they have
that particular letter in their name. This ensured that students paid attention when it was their turn to choose adjectives
that describe themselves from the list. I made sure to answer students questions about the meanings of specific words as
we went along. I think the students did remarkably well with such an information overload! It helped that I had students
stand up and take a brain break when we got half way through the alphabet. Also, if none of the students in the class had
a p in their name, for example, I would explain that although those are good descriptive words to know, no one has that
letter in their name so we will skip over those words for today.
There were two areas where students showed misunderstanding. When we began the vocabulary lists, I asked students to
highlight the letters in their name with their yellow crayon. I showed Isaacs page on the ELMO as an example and
highlighted the letters I, S, and A (and I think Isaiah appreciated being used as the example too!) When I walked around
the room to check students progress after this demonstration, I found that many of the students had also highlighted I, S,
and A on their pages although they dont have those letters in their own names. They seemed to get the hang of it after
we went through a few more letters though. The other area of misunderstanding was that some of the lower level readers
like Michael, Gavin, and Abby, kept writing the entire word on their acrostic template and missing the fact that the first
letter of the word was already written for them (e.g. Abby is Aamazing). A couple times during the students writing
time, I reminded the entire class not to write the entire word out and found that the majority of the students were able to
follow this instruction. Students often needed help sounding out all the new adjectives on the vocabulary list, but I think
they developed a good basic knowledge of acrostic poems. We ran out of time to have students fill out the acrostic
rubrics and revise their poems. However, I think the extra time we spent on writing was necessary, and the students were
still well engaged as they worked on writing their poems. I will have students fill out the acrostic rubrics and revise their
work on the poetry work day I have planned. The acrostic rubrics may be even more meaningful for students learning at
that time because it will require students to review and draw from their past knowledge of acrostic poems more.
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Resources:
Delia, A. (2010, July 9). Acrstico de primavera. In Acrsticos y poemas da de la primavera.
Retrieved November 4, 2015, from
http://www.taringa.net/post/arte/6898800/Acrosticos-y-Poemas-Dia-de-la-Primavera.html
Hummon, D. (1999). Lemur. In Animal Acrostics (p. 11). Nevada City, NV: Dawn Publications.
Warner, . (n.d.). Learning about poetry. In Mrs. Warner's fourth grade classroom. Retrieved November 4, 2015, from
http://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/poetry.html
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