While student teaching, I created a 5-week poetry unit for a third grade class. For three weeks during this unit, I divided students into three groups, visiting a different poetry center each week, from exploring the Shel Silverstein website to reading poetry aloud to one another to creating concrete poems.

2. Students will be able to write a concrete poem using a graphic organizer.

3. Students will be able to navigate the Shel Silverstein website effectively.

6. Writing Center

7. Students will be working on their Writing Shape Poems worksheet independently.

8. When they finish, students should raise their hands so that I may give them further instructions. I will show them an example of a shape poem that I wrote, pointing out that the writing should go around the shape and that they do not need to rhyme or write in complete sentences. I will also answer any questions at this time and give them each their own shape poem template.

9. Students will be working on their final draft of their shape poem until the end of the class period.

10. Website Center

11. Students will begin by reading two Shel Silverstein poems from the book at their computer. They may then move on to exploring the Shel Silverstein website independently, using the Shel Silverstein Website instructions in their folder. Students will spend the entire class time exploring the website, playing games and listening to poems online.

12. Reading Center

13. Students will be reading poems aloud in pairs, which I will assign. Students will first independently read through their Reading Poetry Aloud guide, and then they will choose a poem from their Poetry packet to read silently.

14. When students have followed all of the instructions on the guide, they can then read their poems aloud to each other.

16. I will be sure to start at the reading center to get this group going first. Then, I will move to the website center to make sure that all students are able to navigate the website effectively. I will then move to the writing center to answer any questions and check students’ progress. What’s Next? We will wrap up our poetry unit next week by filling in the L of our KWL chart and watching the video I will create of the past three weeks’ worth of work. If there’s time, I will let students come up and read either the poem they wrote or a poem they liked from their poetry packet.