Multidisciplinary Unit

Description of Concept
In this multidisciplinary unit, students will be reading the young adolescent novel Turtles All The
Way Down by John Green. In each discipline, students will learn about a variety of concepts as
they relate to the novel. In language arts, students will focus on the concept of poetry. In the
novel, the author incorporates poetry as a form of writing to allow readers to develop an
understanding of the feelings and ideas demonstrated by the characters in the novel. As students
read poetry in the novel they will have the opportunity to learn about this concept in the language
arts classroom with the application of texts that will allow students to explore the concept of
poetry.

Magazine Poetry
In this activity, students will utilize magazines as a way to compose poetry. Found poetry allows
students to understand how elements of poetry can shape writing to have meaning. Prior to this
activity, students have been actively learning about the various elements associated with poetry
and their impact on reading and writing poetry. In this activity, students will be instructed to use
magazines as a way to find powerful words. Students will arrange and rearrange these words into
meaningful poetry taking into account elements such as word choice, rhyme, and structure when
composing their poem.

Objectives for Magazine Poetry

- Students will be able to analyze the different elements of poetry.
- Students will be able to compose poetry applying skills related to this concept.

Standards for Magazine Poetry

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g.,
alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.5
Analyze how a drama's or poem's form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its
meaning

Text Description
Students will be using a variety of magazines to create found poetry. I will collect an assortment
of different magazines in order for students to have an array of words or phrases to implement in
their poetry. These are magazines that display a variety of information for the purpose of reading
for entertainment. The magazines include a range of words and images as a way to intrigue
readers in the content published in the written articles.

Purpose of Text
I decided to use this text because it allows students to engage hands-on with the concept of
poetry in a fun and yet interactive way. With this text, students have the ability to compose their
own poems based on the words they find with the magazines. Thus, students are developing a
deeper understanding for the elements tied to poetry and how they work together to create
poetry. Often times, students are disengaged when learning about and practicing poetry in the
classroom. Thus, I think implementing magazines, as a text in this activity will motivate students
to apply their skills related to this concept and to compose meaningful writing that is reflective of
their knowledge of poetry.

Text (Magazines) Example of Magazine Activity

Phase Description
Phase One: Activating and Prior to students engaging in this activity, the teacher can
Connecting implement the strategy of mapping as a way to help
students chart their understanding of the concept of
poetry. In particular, the teacher can provide the students
with a graphic organizer mapping out the different
elements associated with poetry. Thus, students can
utilize this as a resource when composing their poetry in
this activity.
Phase Two: Monitoring and To monitor the students’ understanding of this concept,
Checking the teacher can provide students with an example of
found poetry. With the application of think pair share,
the students can read the poem individually, discuss with
a peer their thoughts of the poem and analyze the various
elements of the poem and share with the class
demonstrating their knowledge and thoughts of the poem
and the concept of poetry.
Phase Three: Consolidating To consolidate the content students were provided in this
and Reconnecting unit, the students will engage in a found poetry
assignment in which the students will utilize the text of
magazines to compose poetry and to analyze the variety
of elements tied to this concept. As part of this
assignment, students will be asked to search through an
array of magazines to find meaningful words in which
students will then arrange and rearrange in the form of a
poem taking into consideration the elements of poetry

Phase Four: Extending and
Reflecting
students mapped out in phase one.
As a way for students to reflect on their found poems, I
would have the students upload this assignment to a class
blog page. Thus, students can view their classmates’
poems and write a reflection of their thoughts of the
poems creating by their peers. During this time, students
can also reflect on their own poems by writing a
reflection that depicts where they think their strengths
and weaknesses lie in understanding and writing poetry.

Slam Poetry (video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAa2wy1iDoM

Slam Poetry
In this activity, students will view a slam poetry video that focuses on the topic of bullying. As a
class, the students will analyze the various elements demonstrated by the poetry in the video. To
help students identify these specific elements the teacher will provide the students with the
transcript of the slam poetry. In analyzing this particular piece of poetry the teacher will
progressively pause the video and the class will work in groups to examine specific features such
as figurative language, diction, intonation, rhyme schemes, and repetition of sounds. The
students will annotate the transcript as a way to develop an understanding for how these elements
impact the poem and its overall meaning.

Objective for Slam Poetry

Students will be able to identify the different elements of slam poetry and analyze their effect on
the meaning.
Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of slam poetry by composing their own
poem.

Standards for Slam Poetry

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and
connotative meanings; analyze the impact of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g.,
alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a poem or section of a story or drama.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.5
Analyze how a drama's or poem's form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its
meaning

Text Description
This is a video of slam poetry that focuses on the topic of bullying. With the implementation of
this video, I will provide students with a transcript of the poetry and students will analyze the
different elements and determine their impact on the meaning of the poetry.
Purpose of Text
I chose to apply this text in the unit because it is developmentally appropriate to the lives of
young adolescents. This piece of text moves beyond simply having students read a poem and
analyze its meaning. Rather students are engaging with the poem by identifying the parts that
make up the slam poetry. This text allows students to understand that poetry can take on different
forms and meanings. This video will support students when creating their own slam poetry. The
students can refer to this text as a resource to guide them when implementing the various
elements necessary to create poetry.

Phase
Phase One: Activating and
Connecting
Phase Two: Monitoring and
Checking
Phase Three: Consolidating
and Reconnecting
Description
In regards to this text, I would activate students’ prior
knowledge of slam poetry with a graphic organizer,
specifically a KWL chart. This would require students to
brainstorm what they know about slam poetry, create a
list of questions regarding what they would like to know
about this concept, and by the end of the unit the students
will record what they have learned about slam poetry as a
way to have the content come full circle in their learning.
When engaging in this activity, students can actively
discuss in groups their prior knowledge on slam poetry
and share with their peers as a way to promote
collaborative discussions centered on this concept.
Prior to viewing the video, I will provide students with a
transcript of the slam poetry. I will implement the
strategy of text annotation in which students will actively
take notes on the transcript of the slam poetry as they
view the video. Thus, students can identify the various
elements of slam poetry and understand specifically how
they affect the poem’s meaning. I can use this strategy as
a way to monitor the students’ progress with
understanding the various elements the students have
learned about throughout this unit. This will be
conducted as a whole class activity in which I will
progressively pause the video and the students will
discuss the various elements depicted in the slam poetry.
This will support the students’ learning as they will
utilize each other to compare information and to actively
discuss the elements associated with poetry.
To consolidate the information the students have
gathered from the slam poetry I will have the students
compare and contrast a piece of slam poetry to another
piece of poetry and discuss how meaning is affected by
structure and how word choice plays a role in the tone of
the poems. Students will work in pairs and complete a
Venn diagram that specifically analyzes the differences
and similarities in the two poems. This will help to

Phase Four: Extending and
Reflecting
support the students’ understanding of slam poetry and
how it compares to other types of poetry.
To extend the students’ learning, I will have them
compose their own slam poetry. The students will apply
the content they have gathered throughout this unit on the
elements of poetry and use the information collected
from their annotations of the text (video) to successfully
create their own slam poetry. As part of completing this
assignment, students can volunteer to perform their
poetry in front of their peers. Students will also be
expected to share their poetry on the class blog. The
students will read the various poems written by their
peers and reflect on the elements used when writing their
poem.

Assessment:
As an assessment students will create a poetry collection. Students will be creating a poetry
collection in which they will be required to create one found poem and one slam poem. Students
will then be asked to research two other different types of poetry (i.e., limerick, haiku, sonnet,
etc.) to add to their collection. After completing their poetry collection students post the
collection to their blog page along with a self-evaluation in which I will ask the students a
variety of questions aided the students in their reflection of their work. As a requirement,
students will be expected to present at least one of their poems in their collection to the class.