Are You A Poetry Detective?

April is one of my favorite months because it's Poetry Month! I love working on poetry with my students - both writing them and reading them.

Today I want to share an idea with you that can be used for a center or independent work. It's a great way to expose kids to lots of poems and help them to be active readers!

First, I used the color copier (shhhhh!!! Don't tell!) and made copies of several poems from books in our library and in my class. I put them in sheet protectors and on a metal ring. If you choose to do this as a center, you could definitely have a tub of poetry books available for kids to choose from.

Each group of students perused the poems and looked for things they noticed. Before they went off on their own, we brainstormed ideas of things to look for - figurative language, rhyming, imagery and other techniques that poets use. As they read the poems, they recorded what they noticed and found on this graphic organizer.

After they had a good amount of time to read and record their thinking, we gathered together and created a Poetry Mentor Text anchor chart. We read 2-3 poems together and recorded what we noticed as a class. (You could also make the anchor chart first, and then send them off to read and notice on their own!)

I know many people have been spending a good amount of time assessing for the end of the year, but if you have time this week this is a great way to celebrate Poetry Month! You can grab your copy of this FREE Poetry Detectives graphic organizer by heading over to my TPT store.

I hope your students enjoy reading and analyzing poetry as much as mine did!!

 

Turkey Talk ELA Center Freebie

Today I have a freebie for you from my Thanksgiving ELA centers. In this center, students identify the point of view and practice their editing skills. I have also included a blackline version for those of you who can't print in full color. Click on any of the pictures or {here} to download. Enjoy!

Mentor Text & Interactive Notebook Pages: The Perfect Combination!

Hi everybody! I'm April from Performing in Fifth, and I'm so excited to bring you a freebie for your 5th grade Reading block! I began using interactive notebooks during Reading, Writing, and Math in my classroom a couple of years ago. Interactive notebooks are a great way to allow students to be creative in the classroom, while taking notes that they can use all year! 

One of the issues I had when I first started using interactive notebooks during Reading time was that my notebook pages weren't necessarily filled with concrete examples. I had cute pages for theme, character traits, plot, and more, but none of the pages had examples from actual books. I love using novels in my classroom, but I needed something quick and easy to go with my interactive notebook mini-lessons.

After using Mentor Text in my classroom to model writing, it dawned on me that I could pair this same text with my interactive notebook pages to give great examples of the standard in a short, understandable story. Then, I could transfer this learning to different chapter books at differentiated levels for each student. Below is a free download of the mentor text mini-lesson for Common Core Standard RI.5.3. 

Do you use Mentor Text in your classroom?