Lesson Plan #2

Standards State
Poetry: 6-12 Correlation Reading
Literary 1A, 2A, 2C
Develop and apply skills and strategies to
comprehend, analyze, and evaluate
fiction, poetry, and drama from a variety
of cultures and times.
Grade 5
Read, infer, and draw conclusions to:
a. Explain how poets use sound and
visual elements in poetry

National
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7
Analyze how visual and multimedia
elements contribute to the meaning, tone,
or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel,
multimedia presentation of fiction,
folktale, myth, poem).

Instructional Goals/Student Objectives Students can create an image to form

unique interpretations, clarify thinking,
draw conclusions, and enhance
understanding of a poem.

Students can analyze the sound and

visual elements in a poem to create a
meaningful mental image.

Materials Needed Paper

Description of Lesson
Individual Clipboards
Pencils
Smart Board
Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing
Up Latino In The United States book
Reading Response Journals
The lesson focuses on the imagery in the
poem Nothing but Drums, by Oscar
Hijuelos, found in Cool Salsa: Bilingual
Poems on Growing Up Latino in the
United States. Students will carefully
listen to the poem twice as a whole class.
They will then be given time to draw
 their mental images and share with
other students. We will discuss the
words they chose to focus on in the
poem to create meaning in their visual
images. We will also discuss how the
author used structure to create the
imagery of the beating of the drum. We
will discuss how the meaning of our
mental images were different and the
same and why.
Instructional Plan 1. I will begin by instructing the
students as a whole class sitting
on the front carpet. I will engage
them by showing them an image
of a Congo drum. We will talk
about what it is and I will let them
know this will be mentioned in
the poem we will be analyzing
today. I will also assess their
prior knowledge of poetry by
asking them how we create
mental images to understand a
poem?
2. I will provide the students with
any background knowledge
needed for the poem in Cool
Salsa. I will prep them for any
vocabulary such as the Spanish
word descarga.
3. I will then read the poem out loud
and have my students close their
eyes to begin creating mental
images.
4. I will then read the poem again
and immediately have my
students draw an image on their
clipboards.
5. I will have them turn and talk
with a partner about what image
they drew and why.
6. I will also have them write down
one key descriptive word or
phrase from the poem they used
to create their image.
7. We will come back together as a

Student Assessment (before, during,
after)
whole group to discuss any
findings we found in our mental
image drawings of the poem.
8. I will put the poem on the Smart
Board and we will underline the
key words and phrases they used
to form images or sounds in their
minds, such as then a-boat-
down-the-river-with-its-oars-
dropping-heavily-into-the-water-
drums.
9. I will ask my students how the
author used this visual and sound
element to help us draw a mental
image conclusion?
10. To follow the discussion, I will
assess my students
understanding by asking them to
write down a phrase from the
poem in their reading response
journals and draw a response
image for it to create meaning. I
will also have them answer the
question: How did the author use
the sound element of drums
throughout the poem?
Before: Students responses to my
question of how do we create mental
images to understand poetry?
During: I will listen to students
discussions with each other and as a
whole group to assess whether or not
they have understood how the visual
elements of the poem help them
understand it and form images.
After: I will assess their reading
response journals by collecting them
afterwards.