Greetings, bloglings!
I've started planning this year's Writers' Workshop, one of my favorite subjects to teach! I always loved writing as a student, and I especially love it as a teacher. I love to read what my students write, because it's usually hilarious, and it is so exciting to see students transform from reluctant to fearless writers. They begin to develop their own unique voices, especially as third graders.
In Writers' Workshop, we focus on the process of writing. Our mantra is, "When I'm done, I've just begun!" I try not to offer too many corrections as that can cause young writers to shut down; instead, I strive to guide them through the process of learning from their own and their peers' mistakes.
One specific area that I plan to focus on a bit more this year is poetry. We read poetry daily, and we do a unit on it in April for Poetry Month, but I want to make sure that my students engage in writing poetry all year long.
Students need to be exposed to a variety of poetry beginning at the early elementary level in order to fully access its benefits and develop an appreciation for it. In addition to being a great vehicle for self-expression and connecting with others, poetry teaches students about language and speaking from the earliest nursery rhymes. I find that most students enter second grade with the misconception that all poetry has to rhyme, so we have fun exploring different forms with different rules, as well as free verse poetry.
I created these writing journals for my students to publish their work as we learn about different forms of poetry throughout the year. You can see the Table of Contents that lists the forms of poetry included in the journals on the product's page at my TPT store.
The journal includes a cover page, 19 pages with headings that include the type of poem, a brief description of its structure, a line for the student's title, unlined space for writing and illustrating, and an About the Poet page.
Here are some books for inspiring and celebrating poetry in your classroom throughout the year:
Julie Andrews' Treasury for all Seasons has become a staple in my classroom; we read from it on a daily basis! Every morning, one student is chosen to select a poem to be read aloud. It's a large collection of beautiful, seasonal and holiday-themed poetry divided by month, so it never gets old!
We study insects in science every other year, and Joyful Noise is an amazingly dynamic collection of insect-themed poems. The poetry in this collection is especially rhythmic and full of onomatopoeia. It's the perfect text for demonstrating that poetry is meant to be read aloud: All poems in the collection are for two readers, so students read the lines either alternately or simultaneously, making it a great tool for buddy reading and building fluency.
Here are some of my other favorites:
How do you teach and incorporate poetry in your classroom?
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