Class Journals: Poem Analysis and Foldables

Every other Friday we do a poem analysis. In years past I used to be a lot better about doing poems, and recently I am trying to get back into the habit. I have noticed some fabulous writing coming from these poems and prompts. Also one of the prompts asked the students to write a poem mimicking the style of the poem, and surprisingly a ton of the kids chose that one and READ aloud! They were great! Here are the slides from the smartboard. 

I try to keep a teacher copy of all the stuff I have the kids do so here is a copy of what for the most part their journal should look like (with instructions however instead of the actual writing components). I am thinking about asking on Monday to take a picture of a few of the student pieces. They really have been blowing me away recently with their in depth writing. They made the connection today too between implicit text, and how understanding that really helps with analyzing poetry. It was a great teaching moment.

I used these cute little buckets today as well. I bought the bucket the tape dispensers, and the highlighters all at the dollar store. You can see the little copies of the poem for the students to tape into their journal. I just had the projector going as soon as they walked in the room they could start putting them together. I am not sure yet if I am sold on glue over tape. They thought it was a nice novelty but I am not sure if it is quicker?

It was nice to have only what they needed instead of things like scissors and pens that can just become distracting. This is a trick I picked up from a conference breakout session at AMLE 2013.






I am also trying to do some folables where I remember, we are working on CCSS 8.RL.1 & 8.RI.1, inferencing and textual support, so while we have been reading a short story the students have been looking for quotes in this:

They have found it slightly juvenile so if I use something again I might want to remake it to look a little less generic and elementary. Otherwise it serves a purpose and is nice addition to looking for quotes. This is kept in their class journal as well. Next post I will show you the proficiency they are currently working on.