My Students Are Poets and They Know It

MY STUDENTS ARE POETS...AND THEY KNOW IT!

Teaching the joy of reading and art of writing poetry through grammar, pop culture, and other American poets. (Grades 4-12)

Dr. Shields will share robust, engaging activities, tools, and strategies to cultivate the art of reading and writing poetry, as well as meet the individualized needs and interests of our students, such as using pop culture and music. Participants will receive hands-on training (writing several poems themselves!), as well as ready-to-use classroom presentations and lessons to begin implementation in their own language arts classrooms. Many student samples will be provided as well.

Dr. Melissa Shields, NBCT

mshieldsecboe@gmail.com

@mjshields

2019 Presentation PPT

2019 Handout

Research Rap Song Rubric and Student Samples
Using Song Lyrics to Teach Poetry Conventions (Word Doc)

Author Inspired Poetry

"Mother to Son" (Langston Hughes)

(8th Grade Student)

"Abuelito Who" (Sandra Cisneros)
- Abuelito Who Poetry Assignment and Template

"Where I'm From" (George Ella Lyon)
- Poem and Templates

Fresh Prince Helped Me Teach Grammar Activity - "Just the Two of Us" Remake

Captured Talk Poetry

What People Say Poetry
Sestinas
- A sestina is a form of poetry that has 39 lines. It follows a pattern of repeating 6 words throughout the 6 stanzas of the poem. To write a sestina, start by brainstorming ideas and studying the structure of the poem. Then, use sensory detail and imagery to make the poem come to life.

Personal Poetry Rubric (Word Doc)

My Annual Student Poetry Anthologies 1997-2007

My Fave Poetry Sites and Tools

Poetry 180 provides a poem for each of the 180 days that students are in school. It provides the poem as well as information about the author and copyright permission. A great way to study poetry.
Five Poetry Writing Exercises - great for beginners, and they are a lot of fun too.
60 Second Recapi s a GREAT resource for ELA classrooms. It's kind of like CliffsNotes on speed. The idea behind 60 Second Recap is it provides videos to explain important aspects of the books and poetry. Each 60 second video clip provides some or all of the following: overview, context, plot, characters, theme, motif, symbolism, and conclusion.
Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.
Poetry Creator App (iTunes)
More Poetry Activities (PDF)

ELA Portfolio Tools