Writing (and Reading) Poetry

Fourth graders recently finished a unit about information writing, which is one of three major genres taught at Seisen. (The other two are narrative writing and opinion writing.)

This week, both classes started a writing unit about poetry. We began, as we often do, by determining what we already know, which is in red. Those ideas lead to questions and information to find out, in green. We also added new information in brown.

The children's initial ideas about poetry included "rhyme", "repetition", and the "the way it sounds is rhythmic". 4A made connections between those ideas and the following quote by Paul B. Janeczko:

"You are trying to create a music with the words in your poem. It might be sweet music or it might be harsh music, but you must have your ears open when you write (and read) poetry."

Therefore, one way we will inquiry into poetry is by investigating how poets use words to create "music". We will add more!

To become better poetry writers, we will, of course, read lots of poems. Sometimes we record our thinking carefully on the text, as a whole class, with partners, and individually. It's a really productive way to analyse the writing, because it leads to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the poem.