Search form

Writer's Workshop: Poetry Scavenger Hunt - Grade 6

Lesson Objective: 

While practicing the elements of poetry, students will be asked to extract information from a poem that is read aloud and then read individually as live text.  Students will then be asked to compare and contrast the difference in information recognition between listening and reading to the same given piece of material.

Students should be able to reflect on the activity and explain the difference that they experienced in trying to pull information from a poem when it is heard verses read.

The objective of this activity is not to find each element, but rather to recognize a difference in their ability to find each element when experiencing the poem in different forms.

Common Core Standard:  

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.7

Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.

Materials:

Starter:

Do: Begin by asking the students whether they believe it is easier to recognize and connect with information when the source they are studying is read aloud or written.  Encourage discussion as to why they believe their answer is correct. 

Explain to the students that they will be doing a poetry scavenger hunt, where they will interact with a poem in two different ways and will be asked to find as many elements of poetry as they can.

(If they need a refresher on the elements of poetry, use the included worksheet. Read each element and then ask for examples of what that element is. Provoke thought, do not give the answers).

Main:

Choose a poem that has at least two of the elements of poetry.  For the purpose of this activity, there should be examples of each element dispersed throughout the poem. The elements to consider incorporating are:

  • rhyme

  • repetition

  • imagery

  • metaphor

  • personification 

The included worksheet has each of the aforementioned elements included, but also has blank spaces so that the teacher may include any other elements of their choice.  

Explain to the students that they will listen to a poem as it is read aloud in the classroom.  As the poem is read aloud, the students should make note of any of the elements of poetry that they hear, on the attached worksheet.

The teacher may read through the poem more than once if they choose.

Please note, the number of elements recognized is not important, rather the critical thinking and reflection that comes at the end of the activity is the most important piece.

Once you've read the poem and allowed the students have had a chance to note the elements that they heard, have them pass their worksheet in. This is to prevent them from copying what they have already written during the next portion of the activity.

Have the students take a 5-minute brain break to help clear their minds of the information that they have already written down. A gross motor activity will be a bigger distraction from the poem that they just heard as opposed to something cognitive.

Next, bring the students back to their desks. This time, pass out the same poem that was read earlier in the activity. Pass out a second copy of the worksheet to each student.

Ask the students to read through the poem. Like before, note any elements of poetry that they find within the poem on their worksheet.

Once the students are finished, pass the first worksheet back out to each of the students.

Reflection:

Ask the students to compare the worksheet that they completed when the poem was read aloud to the worksheet that they completed when they read the written words of the poem themselves.

Ask the students to compare and contrast their experience listening for information when the poem was delivered aloud by the teacher and looking for the same information when the poem was read individually at their desk. Was their original belief consistent with what they experienced during the activity.? They should use worksheet number two to complete this portion of the activity.

After students have written their answers, collaborate as a class on what the students experienced.

 

Written by Lacy Smith

Education World Contributor

Copyright© 2021 Education World