Poetry
Poetry is a link to our hearts and minds that leads us to connections with each other, the world and ourselves. Many students who have previously struggled as writers are surprised to discover that they are gifted poets. We will be exploring all kinds of poetry in this year-long unit.
Each morning we will begin the day by reading a poem on the smartboard or listening to a student read a selection of his or her choosing. In addition, a weekly poem will be published on the blog. Students are strongly encouraged to memorize these poems. Through reading, discussing and annotating poets such as E. E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and many others, we will discover various forms of poetry and experiment with these forms when writing our own poems. In addition, we will focus on figurative language, use it in our own work, and in the process develop our own personal styles. By the end of the year, we will have read and analyzed over a hundred poems. Students will also leave the fourth grade with a collection of their own work.
