Lena Archer

LESSON PLAN 1
Grade: 5
Lesson Title: Grade 5 English Language Arts Acrostic Poetry Lesson
Lesson Duration: 1 hour

Overview of lesson (150 words). Write a clear and concise paragraph that indicates what the lesson is, how it is
connected to the POS and what students will learn.

This lesson serves to build off of a Grade 5 English Language Arts Unit which includes exploring new ways to create
original texts by using structures found in texts to present idea’s based off of prior experiences for personal reflection.
The students will be engaging in an interactive read aloud lesson by reading the book “Poetree” by Caroline Pignat.
While reading the book, students will explore how the author used Acrostic Poems as a form of expressing idea’s and
experiences. Students will then work together to create a group Acrostic Poem and then independently to create their
own Acrostic Poem. The purpose of the Acrostic Poem is to get students to “use structures encountered in texts” which
in this case includes Acrostic Poetry, to “organize and present ideas in print” which relates to the program of studies SLO
2.4. The base word and related words should reflect students experiences and understandings which is also a
requirement for the SLO 2.4.

Alberta Program of Study: Goals and Objectives . Carefully select GLO and SLO that pertain to your lesson. Do not put in
10 SLO's just because you find a link. Choose selectively and think carefully about what is achievable for students to learn by the end
of the lesson/unit

GLO /GLE SLO/SLE

2. Students will listen, speak, read, 2.4 Create Original Text
write, view and represent to
comprehend and respond personally Generate ideas
and critically to oral, print and other
media texts.  use texts from listening, reading and viewing experiences
as models for producing own oral, print and other media
texts

Structure texts

 use structures encountered in texts to organize and

present ideas in own oral, print and other media texts
 use own experience as a starting point and source of
information for fictional oral, print and other media texts

Critical Questions
The unit inquiry question guides the unit...at the end of the lesson students must be able to respond to the unit question. The inquire question is a
broad question and is linked to curriculum outcomes

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Unit Inquiry Question: How can I use Acrostic Poetry to represent my own idea’s and experiences as a form of expression?

Lesson Guiding Questions

1. How does Acrostic Poetry tell a story or represent opinions?
2. How do you create an Acrostic Poem?
3. Why is Acrostic Poetry a helpful genre to convey opinions and experiences?

Learning Objectives
Students will…
1. Explore different Acrostic Poems while reading the book “Poetree” by Caroline Pignat.
2. Create an Acrostic Poem in a small group by listening and speaking with peers about
personal understandings about group decided related words and generate ideas to
create a group Acrostic Poem.
3. Individually create their own Acrostic Poem that reflects personal understandings using
prior experiences as a starting point.

Annotated Learning Resources List

These must be relevant and age appropriate and from a reliable source. If it is on online resource provide an active link.. If it a book, cite the book
and author.

Resource: Poetree by Caroline Pignat

Material and Equipment

List: Art supplies, manipulatives, smartboard, online white board etc…

- Large paper that sticks to the wall

- Markers
- Blank papers for each student
- Whiteboard
- Whiteboard markers

Lesson Procedures

Introduction (3-5 min.):

Description of Hook/Attention Grabber; Expectations for Learning and Behavior; Transition to Body. Indicate the timing for each section

Prereading – Interactive Read Aloud

 Today we will be reading the book called Poetree by Caroline Pignat. Just by looking at the front cover and based on your prior
knowledge and experiences, what do you think the book will be about? Discuss – 3-5 minutes

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This strategy was introduced in the textbook “50 Literacy Strategies” by Gail E. Tompkins (p. 53). Doing an Interactive Read Aloud
helps students to stay engaged throughout the reading and it grabs student’s attention. It helps students to make predictions by
comprehending and responding personally to the text which is part of the GLO this lesson is designed to cover.

Additionally, in Dymock and Nicholson’s article they mention that getting students to think about their prior knowledge and experiences
to understand the text will help with student comprehension (p. 167). This is why I chose to ask specific questions related to “activating
students background knowledge” (p. 167): Just by looking at the front cover and based on your prior knowledge and experiences,
what do you think the book will be about?
- This will also help the student in the class who has trouble with comprehension to engage with the text.

Body ( 50 min.): This is the largest part of your lesson. Write clearly and concisely. Image a substitute teacher picks up this
lesson; will they be able to carry it out based on your descriptions and instruction?

Writing must be descriptive and clearly organized. Specify activities/steps/scaffolding and transitions in lesson. Indicate timing of
each section. Identify teaching strategies, organization of class etc. How and when are you using formative assessment in your
lesson? Indicate differentiation and accommodation in the provided tables

Steps and Procedures Identify Teaching Strategies: ex. Direct instructions,

pair/share, jigsaw, whole group discussion etc. When will
Read the book “Poetree” by Caroline Pignat – you use these and why?
Interactive Read Aloud (10 minutes)
 On the first page discuss the type of Poetry that the
book is using – Acrostic Poetry
 Ask student’s: “Does anyone notice that the bolded FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS
letters in each line create a word? What word is it?
Does the poem relate to that word? What is GUIDED CHECK-IN QUESTIONS
happening on this page?”
 Throughout the reading stop on each page and  While students are working on their
reflect on how the words relate to the bolded letter assignments the teacher will circle
word. – This will help students to stay engaged and around and ask individual students
help increase reading comprehension by consistently questions to ensure they are
asking students questions and getting them to understanding the assignment:
explore the text. o Why did you choose that base
word?
I do (5 minutes)
o Why did you choose those
 Teacher says: “Now, just like the book, I am going to
create my own Acrostic Poem and I decided to
related words?

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choose the word Swim as my base word because I o Why is ___________ (insert
love to swim in the water.” base word) important to you?
 Teacher writes the word Swim on the board
vertically.
 Teacher says: “The book we read wrote sentences,
but we are just going to write 1-2 words that relates
to the base word I chose: swim.”
 Teacher writes on the board:

Splash
Work hard
Important skill
Movement
 Teacher says: “I chose the word splash for the
letter S because I like to splash in the water when
I am swimming. Some people don’t like to splash
in the water, so they might write a different word
that relates to swimming. I wrote work hard for
the letter w because I think people have to work
hard to become good at swimming. I think that
swimming is an important skill to know because if
someone fell off a boat and did not know how to
swim, they could get hurt. I think swimming
requires a lot of movement in the water because
of my experience in competitive swimming.”
 Teacher asks students: “Notice that everything I
wrote had to do with my own experiences?
Someone else who wrote an Acrostic Poem with
the base word Swim would have very different
words than I do because they might think about
Swimming differently than me based on their
own experiences”

We Do (10 Minutes)
 Teacher hands out large papers that are able to stick
on the wall to each table group. (2 minutes)
 Teacher says: “In your table group, create one
Acrostic Poem for the base word “Fun”. Share your
own experiences and come up with three words that
relate to the word fun and write them on your sheet
of paper just like I did on the board.” 5 minutes
 Share with the class: Each table group shares the
three words that they chose for the word Fun (3
minutes)

I chose to get students to share what they had wrote

with the class because, according to Knipper, “when
different examples of students work are provided,

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content understanding can be enhanced…” (Writing
to learn across the curriculum: Tools for
comprehension in content area classes, 2006 p. 463)
 Teacher says: “Does everyone see how there are
many different ideas related to the word fun based
on different experiences?”

They do (25 minutes)

 Teacher says: “Now it is time for you all to create
your own Acrostic Poems.”
 Teacher hands out blank white sheets of paper
 Teacher explains: “Write one base word on the paper
in a vertical line. The base word must have at least 5
letters. Write one-two related words for each letter.
Your related words should demonstrate your own
experience with the base word.”
 Teacher writes on the board the structure of an
Acrostic Poem so that students are reminded while
creating their own Acrostic Poem.

Consolidating and Closure:

Ask how everyone is doing with their work and if anyone has any last minute questions or comments (5
minutes)

Reflective Notes: You will only fill out this section after your deliver your lesson.

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Rubric
Students will have more class time to complete the assignment and to take it home if they wish to
continue working on it. After an appropriate amount of time has been given based on consistent
formative assessments, the assignment will be handed in, so the teacher may use a summative
assessment to ensure the students met the intended learning outcomes. The rubric will have been
introduced to the class prior to submission so students understand the criteria.

PERFORMANCE TASK RUBRIC

Pre-submission Assignment requirements Got it: Not yet:

Legibility: Poem must be clear and legible. If I can’t read it, I can’t grade it! Comments: Comments:

Spelling: Your base word and related words should have minimal spelling errors. Comments: Comments:

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GLO/SLO Beginning Developing Exemplary Score
1 2 4

SLO 2.4: use Structure/ The base word is not 5 The base word is The base word is 5
structures Format letters long and the almost 5 letters long letters long and the
encountered in Acrostic Poem is not and the Acrostic Acrostic Poem is
texts to organize organized in the proper Poem is not organized in the
and present ideas format to present ideas. organized to present proper format to
in own oral, print idea’s well. present idea’s well.
and other media
texts

SLO 2.4: Personalization The related words do The related words The related words
not connect to the base reflect a basic reflect meaningful
use texts from word. Due to this, the experience with the individual
listening, reading related words don’t base word and experience with the
and viewing reflect individual demonstrates some base word and a
experiences as experience with the understanding of high understanding
models for base word or Acrostic Poetry. of the base word.
producing own understanding of
oral, print and other Acrostic Poetry.
media texts

use own
experience as a
starting point and
source of
information for
fictional oral, print
and other media
texts

Rationale

I started out the lesson with an Interactive Read Aloud strategy that was introduced in the textbook

“50 Literacy Strategies” by Gail E. Tompkins (p. 53). Doing an Interactive Read Aloud helps students to stay

engaged throughout the reading and it grabs student’s attention. Additionally, in Dymock and Nicholson’s

article they mention that getting students to think about their prior knowledge and experiences to understand

the text will help with student comprehension (2010 p. 167). This is why I chose to ask specific questions

related to “activating students background knowledge” (p. 167): Just by looking at the front cover and based

on your prior knowledge and experiences, what do you think the book will be about?

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 Lena Archer
Before I asked students to create their own individual Acrostic Poem’s, I chose to ask students to share

their group Acrostic Poems with the class because, according to Knipper, “when different examples of

student’s work are provided, content understanding can be enhanced…” (2006 p. 463). I also decided to

include this because it correlates with my teaching philosophy to incorporate student collaboration as often as

possible.

In terms of student differentiation, there is one particular student in the class who is significantly

behind in her reading comprehension ability so written instructions might not be affective for her. This is why I

would ask the classroom EA (if possible) to work with her during the activity. According to Speare-Swerling,

this student might have Specific Reading Comprehension difficulties (SRCD) meaning that she has poor reading

comprehension although average word reading skills (2016). This lesson is specifically designed to encourage

reading comprehension so the lesson itself should contribute to aiding her understanding of Acrostic Poetry.