Samantha Vaznis Day 3: Monday, March 28th, 2016

Lesson Title: Imagery: guided poetry using our senses

Grade: Three
Alignment with Maine Standards:
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and
nuances in word meanings.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using
effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.3.4
With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the
development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose.
Todays learning objectives:
I can: use my five senses to describe my object in front of me
I can: experiment with my eight rooms by rearranging them to create a
poem of my liking about my object.
I can: define what a simile is
Students Prior knowledge and experiences with Poetry:
Yesterday students were introduced to their first poetry tool "simile." Today
the students will be introduced to their second poetry tool "imagery." Today
we will do an activity that gets students to think about their five senses using
the physical objects they brought with them today. They will be creating what
is called an eight room poem.
Instructional Strategies:
1. Teacher modeling- doing the activity with the whole class
2. Student examples in class
3. Hands raised to see who needs more thinking time
4. Small group at my back table for extra help

Materials:
1 Individual student objects
2 Eight Room poem template (for all students)
3 Eight Room question prompts (for me)
4 Lined paper for students at their desk and clipboards for at the rug

Procedures:
1. Mini lesson on the rug- ask students to bring their special objects over to
the rug with them. Tell students that today we will be doing an activity
together that will help them to begin to think like poets. Tell students that I
will be walking them through their writing by having them look at their image
and then write specific descriptions about it. Tell students that I will also be
doing this activity with them and writing my own thoughts up on chart paper
for the whole class to see. Explain that when we complete the group activity
they will be asked to go back to their seats and use what they have written
to create a poem. (10 minutes)
2. Point to todays learning targets and read them out loud. Call on students
to recall what a simile is. Next, pass out eight room template for students
with clipboards. (5 minutes)
3. Read question prompts and do activity together on the rug. Make sure to
explain the idea behind the room poems. Tell students that writing poetry is
like venturing into unexplained rooms. (15-20 minutes)
4. Have students go back to their own seat and create a poem out of their
descriptive thoughts. (20-25 minutes) (WE DID NOT GET TO STEPS 4 &
5, WE ENDED UP WRITING OUR POEMS THE NEXT MORNING.)
5. Collect poems from students to signify the end of the lesson, tell students
to get out their silent reading books to next read.
Assessment:
Formative assessment: As students are working with me on the rug, I will be
asking for a show of hands to see who needs more time before I move on to
my next question prompt. Between prompts I will also be randomly asking
volunteers to read what they wrote about from one of their rooms. When I
collect the poems from students at the end of writing workshop I will provide
feedback and note who needs more time, who is all done, and who still needs
help.
( I CONTINUED TO USE MY DOCUMENTATION SHEET TO ASSESS MY
STUDENTS.)
Knowledge of students: accommodations/modifications: I will be calling Ahlam,
Katherine, Aliyah and Neveah to my back table for extra help. Last week on
Thursday when we worked on similes I found that these were the four
students who had struggled with getting started and needed extra
scaffolding from me. Nathan is usually my one-on-one client when I am not
student teaching and requires a BHP with him at all times. However today I
am unsure if there will be a BHP able to work with him, due to a lack of
coverage. Katherine and Ahlam will leave to go for extra writing help down to
see Ms. Majors from 1:45-2:30 PM.

Other adults in the room: N.Rs Behavioral health professional (?) Elizabeth
Matthews (USM supervisor) (HIS BHP NEVER SHOWED UP)

Lesson Reflection Notes:

Today the class was extremely well behaved. I think part of the reason why
they were so well behaved is because they had something in front of them to do as I
was going through the mini lesson. They were required to listen to the questions
being asked of them, then they would have to study their object and write down
what comes to their mind. I also did this activity with my students and had my
eight rooms posted up on the board in front of them. My object that I brought with
me, was an Easter egg and I would fill out each room with the class as we were
going through the questions/rooms together. I thought this modeling worked
extremely well for the class because it showed them exactly what I wanted them
to be doing also.
I found that my estimated time for doing this whole class activity was very
off. I put down in my mini lesson that It would take us about 10-15 minutes to
complete, but due to the many questions and comments that students had, it took
us the entire time. When I looked up at the clock I saw we had about seven minutes
remaining and instructed students to instead move onto reading and told them that
they would create their poems the next day. This actually worked out perfectly
because earlier in the day, I was told that we would have no morning special
tomorrow due to MEA testing for the upper grades.
My plan is to have double writing time tomorrow. My students will be able to
work on their poems during normal special time (10:50-11:30AM) and then we will
still have writing workshop later in the afternoon, so that I can continue with my
normal lesson plans. I think it was fine that the eight room activity took so long,
because when they sit down tomorrow to put together their poems I know that they
will have good, clear information in front of them. I just looked over the students
work and they really did a nice job analyzing their objects and translating their
thoughts to words. I am very excited to see what poems they create tomorrow!
It is also important to note that tomorrow morning I still plan to call a small
group to my back table for further instruction and with help getting started. These
students will be the same students that needed extra scaffolding and materials from
yesterdays lesson.