Learning Poetry With the Snowbird: Part 2

Learning Resource Type

Learning Activity

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

3

Overview

In this activity, students will engage in a shared reading of the poem, "The Snowbird's Song," annotating the text to identify phrases, rhythm, rhyme, and areas to apply a meaningful expression.

This activity results from the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Phase

During/Explore/Explain
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

ELA21.3.3

Apply oral literacy skills by participating in a variety of oral language activities.

UP:ELA21.3.3

Vocabulary

  • Oral language activities
  • Oral literacy skills

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Oral literacy skills include speaking, listening, and comprehending.
  • Oral language activities are those activities in which speakin, listening, and understanding are required.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Apply oral literacy skills when participating in various oral language activities, such as plays, dramas, choral readings, oral reports.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • They can learn, practice, and apply oral literacy skills by participating in a variety of oral language activities.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

ELA21.3.11

Read and reread grade-appropriate poetry, practicing phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression.

UP:ELA21.3.11

Vocabulary

  • Reread
  • Grade-appropriate poetry
  • Phrasing
  • Rhythm
  • Rhyme
  • Meaningful expression

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The features of poetry include phrasing, rhythm, and rhyme.
  • Words rhyme if their vowel and ending sounds are the same (example: ham, Sam).
  • Rhythm is a steady beat made by stressed syllables in spoken words.
  • A phrase is a group of words.
  • Strategies to show meaningful expression, including making appropriate changes in voice, pitch, and expression while reading poetry orally.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Read and reread grade-appropriate poetry.
  • Practice rhyming, stressing syllables that create rhythm, grouping together words in phrases, and meaningful expression when reading poetry.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Poetry is a genre of text that uses distinctive style and rhythm to aid in the expression of feelings.
  • They can reread poetry to practice their use of phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression.

Learning Objectives

Students will apply oral literacy skills by participating in choral reading.

Students will read and reread grade-appropriate poetry, practicing phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression.

Activity Details

  1. The teacher will display the poem, The Snowbird's Song from ReadWorks.org, for all students to see. (After logging in, click the button in the top right corner for "Projector View.")
  2. Each student will need a copy of the poem to annotate. This can be done on paper or digitally (review the Advanced Preparation section for details). 
  3. The teacher should say, "We will be annotating the text for elements of the poem that will help us read the poem fluently and with the meaningful expression: phrases, rhythm, and rhyme." The teacher and students should read the first stanza of the poem (choral reading or the students can repeat each line after the teacher).
  4. The teacher and students should read the stanza again, this time while clapping in a steady beat to show the rhythm of the stressed syllables in the poem. Then, the teacher should direct students to highlight the rhyming words at the end the of line.
  5. Finally, the teacher should click on the word merrily and read the definition. Explain that this word means happy, so our tone of voice should sound happy and upbeat when reading this stanza. The teacher and students should reread the first stanza again, with a focus on incorporating appropriate meaningful expression and rhythm.
  6. The teacher will repeat the process with the next three stanzas. The teacher can point out phrasing in stanza two with the phrases "Ere Emily heard him," and "so loud was his song;" Explain to students that the poet let us know these were to be read as a phrase (a group of words) by adding punctuation in the line of poetry. The phrases can be underlined or highlighted in a different color than the rhyming words.

Assessment Strategies

The teacher should review students' annotations to ensure students were able to correctly identify the rhymes and phrases. The teacher should watch and listen to students read the poem aloud to ensure students are using appropriate phrasing, rhythm, and meaningful expression.

Background / Preparation

  • ReadWorks is a website that provides K-12 teachers with free literacy resources (About ReadWorks). ReadWorks has literary and informational texts on a variety of subjects and reading skills. You may narrow your search using grade level or Lexile level, making this website a wonderful tool for differentiation. 
  • Before implementing this activity, you will need to sign up for an Educator Account on ReadWorks. Use the Find Content tab to search for the informational article that will be used during this activity, The Snowbird's Song.
  • If you wish for students to complete this activity online, create a class from the Class Admin tab, this will provide you with a Class Code to give to students. Each student will need access to a digital device, such as a tablet or laptop. The first time students enter the website they will need to enter the Class Code that is listed on your Class Admin page. If you utilize Google Classroom, you can import your Google Classroom rosters into ReadWorks. You can also assign ReadWorks articles directly to your Google Classroom platform. 
  • The teacher can also print the poem for each student to annotate directly on the text.

Learning Activity (Before)

Learning Poetry With the Snowbird: Part 1

Total Duration

16 to 30 Minutes

Learning Activity (During)

Learning Poetry With the Snowbird: Part 2

Learning Activity (After)

Learning Poetry With the Snowbird: Part 3
The Snowbird's Song from ReadWorks
https://www.readworks.org/article/The-Snowbirds-Song/cd30140f-fa23-4c42-8e65-39…

Approved Date

Owner (Author)

habradley
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