In this unit, students will be introduced to poetry.  Students will learn about the different types of poetry characteristics through the use of poetry books, prezi presentations, music, and spoken word.

This lesson employs direct instruction and small-group discussion to help students learn new vocabulary skills while reading Patricia Polacco?s Pink and Say.

This resource, which downloads directly, is a lesson plan to use with the book "Across the Wide Dark Sea" by Jean Van Leeuwen. "Across the Wide Dark Sea" is a realistic text about a boy and his family's nine-week journey and survival during the first winter at Plymouth. This text poetically narrates a young boy's account of risking the ocean ot find freedom in a new land.

In this lesson, students overcome their fears by using a traditional poem to teach students about alliteration. After reading the book, A My Name Is... by Alice Lyne, students use a variety of print and online resources to brainstorm their own alliterative word lists. They then create a poetry link that uses the traditional poem they have read together as a framework for their own poems.

Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919), also known as L. Frank Baum, was an American author, best known for his children’s books. Baum is the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. He wrote 14 novels in the Oz series. In this excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends arrive at the Emerald City. As students read, they take notes on how the Great Oz is described to Dorothy and her friends.

This lesson allows students to reflect upon and personally relate to a teacher read-aloud of a narrative story that focuses on acceptable behaviors and ways to prevent bullying in class and at school.

This lesson supports the use of a text set (paired fiction and nonfiction texts on a similar topic) to increase student interest in and understanding of content area material and to develop critical writing skills. The more familiar format of narrative fiction introduces the topic and generates confidence in exploring the less familiar genre of nonfiction. Students then demonstrate what they have learned about the topic and about genre by writing an original piece that blends together narrative and expository elements.

In this lesson, students identify elements of fiction, analyze a fiction book, locating elements of plot within that book, and communicate elements of plot in their book, in visual and written form, by producing a mini-book.

Students examine books, selected from the American Library Association Challenged/Banned Books list, and write persuasive pieces expressing their views about what should be done with the books at their school.

In this lesson, students explore adjectives through a read-aloud and develop a working definition of the term. They list as many adjectives as they can, then combine them with "to be" verbs to create simple sentences. Next, they are introduced to character traits by putting the adjectives from their list in the context of a character from a shared reading. They then use an online chart to equate the character traits with specific actions the character takes. Finally, students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives supported with details from the reading. Students read each other's lists of adjectives and try to identify who is being described.

This resource, Character Perspective Charting, is an instructional method designed to reflect the actual complexity of many stories and is a practical instructional alternative to story mapping. This strategy delineates the multiple points of view, goals, and intentions of different characters within the same story. By engaging in Character Perspective Charting, students can better understand, interpret, and appreciate the stories they read.

A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. In this lesson, students select a topic for a personal narrative and then do the prewriting in comic-strip format to reinforce the plot structure. Finally, they write their own original narratives based on the comic strip prewriting activity, keeping the elements of narrative writing in mind. This lesson uses a version of "The Three Little Pigs" fairy tale to demonstrate the literary element; however, any picture book with a strong plot would work for this lesson.

Experiencing the language of great poets provides a rich learning context for students, giving them access to the best examples of how words can be arranged in unique ways. By studying the works of renowned poets across cultures and histories, students extract knowledge about figurative language and poetic devices from masters of the craft. In this lesson, students learn about personification by reading and discussing poems that feature this writing device. Then they use the poems as a guide to brainstorm lists of nouns and verbs that they randomly arrange to create personification in their own poems.

In this lesson, The Jolly Postman is used as an authentic example to discuss letter writing as a genre. Students explore letters to the storybook characters delivered by The Jolly Postman. They then learn how to categorize their own examples of mail. The Jolly Postman uses well-known storybook characters, from fairy tales and nursery rhymes, as recipients of letters. This children's storybook is therefore ideal for using as a review of these genres of literature and as a means of helping children begin to explore rhyme and a variety of writing styles. Several pieces of literature appropriate for use with this lesson are suggested.

This activity for gifted learners follows close reading of Bats: Creatures of the Night by Joyce Milton and the poem “A Bat is Born” by Randall Jarrell.  At the end of the reading of Bats: Creatures of the Night and “A Bat is Born,” all students will complete a Venn diagram that is differentiated based on readiness, using the two texts.  This activity should be assigned to students who not only demonstrate a solid understanding of the book and poem, but also show a keen ability to make connections between the big ideas presented texts.  Students will analyze the non-fiction and poetry pieces, with a special focus on the commonalities between bats & humans and the commonalities between the texts, as well.  This will culminate in the creation of a triple Venn diagram.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This activity for gifted learners might serve as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit.  This research project should be assigned to students who demonstrate solid understanding of poetry (figurative language, structure, meaning) and are ready for a challenge as they work individually, or with a partner, to close read “Something Told the Wild Geese” by Rachel Field and then investigate…What is the “something”?  Using the information they discover in their research, they will create a complementary poem to “Something Told the Wild Geese,” explaining the scientific principal behind each stanza in verse which they will read to the class.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

This activity for gifted learners follows close reading of Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan.  At the end of the reading of Sarah, Plain and Tall, all students will complete a timeline of events & characters throughout the novel that is differentiated based on readiness.  This project should be assigned to students who not only demonstrate a solid understanding of the novel, but also show keen insight into the main characters’ development (traits, motivations, feelings, etc.) throughout the novel.  Students will analyze the characters’ development through the lens of the American frontier/pioneer period in our nation’s history, determining possible relationships between events during this time period and character development in the novel, through both research and careful reflection of characters/events in the novel.  This will culminate in the creation of a dual timeline.  This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

 Upon completion of genre study on poetry, students will create their own limerick.  While reading poems in their Wonders Literature Anthology and Student Reading / Writing Companion, students will learn about inventions through various poem structures.  Students will be provided with a list of inventors to research, selecting an invention to create their own limerick while using “Cold Feet”, “Our Washing Machine” and “Bugged” (p.166) as a model.  Students must include poetry elements such as metaphors / similes, alliteration and rhyming words in their written poem.  Students will record themselves reading their poem using their Chromebook, upload their video into Google Slides and include a photo representation of the invention.

Students will learn the difference between the genres, then work collaboratively to identify genres and subgenres. Lessons within the unit have a powerpoint introduction, group work, as well as homework.

Lucinda H. Kennaley has written for Highlights. In this short story, a boy goes on his first dive for pearls in the Arabian Gulf. As students read, they take notes on how Omer feels about his first dive.