Poetry Using Love That Dog

Poetry Using Love That Dog

Every year I do my poetry unit I base it off the book Love That Dog. This book is amazing! It is all written in poems by a boy. He starts off by saying that he doesn't like poetry, then as his teachers shares poems, he starts to write them. He is still embarrassed about it and the teacher asks to type his poems and post them on yellow paper in the classroom. He then starts loving poetry, and at the end writes a final poem, using all of the poem styles he learned in class about his dog that passed away. Every year I cry with my students as I read this book out loud to them.

This is how I use the book to guide my poetry unit.

In the back of the book, it has all of the poems the teacher used in her class. I teach one of those poems to my students each day in order. I start with The Red Wheelbarrow and we analyze the poem and discuss why the poet chose to use certain words, format of stanzas, and why they chose to place the words the way they did. Then the students write their own poem(s) based on the format of the poem taught. The students can choose any topic they want to write about, sports, summer, memories, fictional stories, etc. I had the students start with ...

so much depends

upon

_______

and they continue writing in the same type of stanzas. Here is an example from one of my students. It is amazing what students can come up with in 15 minutes or so!

After giving students time to write their poems, I always have the students come to the rug and give every student the opportunity to share. The students can choose to pass if they want. I pick 2 or 3 poems that I love (or poems that I feel the students could benefit from having shared) and type them up and post them on yellow paper. Just like in the book. 

Then on day 2 I share the second poem to share in the back of the book, Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening and we analyze the poem and check the rhyming pattern. Then students write a poem based on the format of this poem. Once again we share the poems, and I choose a couple to type and post.

I do this with all of the poems in the back of the book. Once we do this with the last poem, that is when I introduce the students to the book Love That Dog. We all sit down and the rug and I read the book in one sitting. I relate the book to students in my class, how my students started out not liking poetry, and then how over time they started to enjoy it, and how the teacher posted their poems on yellow paper in the class. The students love how every poem brought up in the book they know, and remember. Then we all cry at the end of the story. Such a great unit! It really helps instill a love of poetry in my students!

This is what my poetry wall looks like towards the end of my unit.

Hope you enjoy this poetry unit! I absolutely love doing it with my class!

Word Clouds

How to Use Word Clouds in the Classroom  

I was sitting in my weekly tech meetings I attend and one teacher got up and shared how she used a website that creates word clouds. Last year I used word clouds to create my end-of-year gift for my students. I would put their name, and then write a lot of adjectives and silly phrases to describe them. Then I printed them on cardstock and put them in a frame I got from the dollar store. My students absolutely loved them! In fact, just yesterday my student from last year came to me and asked how I made them because she wanted to make them for her friends. 

The website to make these types of word clouds is wordle.net. You just need to make sure you install the new version of Java on your computer. This website lets you change the layout, color, font, and even lets you choose which words are bigger than others. 

Another great way to use this website is to do co-worker gifts! Here is an example! (Of course, I would add more words, or phrases if I was going to give it to someone).

This year I wanted to use them to help integrate technology and art into our core. So I decided to make State Word Clouds. The students had so much fun making them, and they turned out great! I found this website called www.tagul.com. With this website you can turn your normal word cloud into any shape you want! PLUS, the students can use this on their chromebooks, or iPads. It doesn't need Java to run! All you need to is click on shapes and then you can click to add your own image. You can pick any image from the internet (as long as it is filled in, and not just an outline), and you can create a word cloud in that shape! I had each student write a report on the state they chose using my State Float and Report product. Then they created this word cloud by using important words and details from their report and copy and pasted them into this website. The students can then change the color and font how they choose! You could do this with so many different subjects and activities at school. Please share how you use word clouds in your class! Enjoy!