Recess, rhyme, and reason: a collection of poems about school

(Stockland, P. M., & Rojo, S. (2004). Recess, rhyme, and reason: a collection of poems about school. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books.)

Summary: A collection pf poems relating to school. This book also outlines the many types of poems and devices used in poems. This book is user friendly for children learning to write poems using material familiar to them.

Reading Level: Ages 9-12, Lexile 910L

Key words/phrases:
    1. School
    2. Expressing Emotions
    3. Children's Poetry
    4. How-To Guide
    5. Types of Poetry

Suggested Delivery:  Small group / Whole class

Electronic Resources:
    1. Kenn Nesbitt’s Poetry 4Kids includes many school related poems by Kenn Nesbitt to expand on the poems given in the book.
    2. Poetry for Kids expands on the poems given in the book, providing similar poems, and provides students who may be struggling with the activities below with more ideas and methods of writing poems.
    3.  Poetry Teachers describes how to teach poetry and poetry activities for teachers to use in their classrooms.

Teaching Suggestions:
   Key Vocabulary:
          Types of Poetry: Haiku, Acrostic, Free Verse, Concrete; Rhyme, Rhythm, Meter, Voice, Imagery, Translated, Stanzas, Metaphors, Repetition, Pattern, Compare and Contrast

   Reading Strategies to increase comprehension:

         Before: Introduce concept of poetry and have students write a brief poem about any topic they want to.

         During: Highlight each poetry concept and make a list of all the concepts on the board for the students to reference.

        After:  Have students see if the poems they wrote in the “Before” activity contain any of the concepts outlined in the book. Discuss and brainstorm ways to include these concepts in their poems.

 

   Writing Activity demonstrating inferential comprehension:
Have students revise their poems or begin a new one which includes at least one of the concepts. Have students explain how the concept is used in their poem.

Share a scare: writing your own scary story

(Loewen, N., & Lyles, C. (2010). Share a scare: writing your own scary story. Minneapolis, Minn.: Picture Window Books. )

Summary: A scary story provides inspiration and scaffolds teaching children how to write a scary story themselves. The story itself follows two children and the scary outcome on an innocent walking of their dog. The sides of each page are dedicated to a technique which is shown on the page within the story. The book describes how to use the technique while writing your own scary story.

Reading Level: Ages 4-8, Lexile 470L

Key words/phrases:

    1. Scary Stories

    2. Authorship

    3. How-To Guide

    4. Creative writing

    5. Writer’s Toolbox Series

Suggested Delivery: Whole Class / Small Group

Electronic Resources:

    1. Scary Starters: Writing Activity Ideas This website provides starters for writing a scary story for when students are stuck.

2. How to Write Your Own Scary Story is a PDF which can be used with children to help them brainstorm ideas before writing their own scary story. 

Teaching Suggestions:

Key Vocabulary: Setting, Characters, Sensory Details, Foreshadow, Plot, Suspense, Setting, Dialogue, Climax, Imagery

Reading strategies to increase comprehension:

         Before: Students share scary stories that they have heard before and identify the parts of the story that help make the story scary, writing them down to make a list to be used after reading the book.

         During: The book can be read through once, just reading the story, then go back and reread the story pausing to focus on each tool identified.

         After: Make a list of the tools on the board or a big sheet of paper and compare this list to the first list to see if the stories they identified used the tools outlined in the book.

Nancy Loewen

Writing activity demonstrating inferential comprehension:

Students will write their own scary story using the tools  provided in the book as a guide. They will use and identify at least three of the tools in the final draft of their story.