1. AAPI Women Voices: Untold Stories Through Poetry (Grades 4-5)
LESSON 4
Unit Review
Figurative Language & Poetic Elements
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2. Unit Review: Central Idea Figurative Language Poetic Elements Similes
Metaphors
Poetic Elements
Repetition
Alliteration
Rhyme
Form
Remind students of the different concepts the unit covered. For each topic, call on a student to define or give an example of that concept.
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3. Unit Assignment: Because Poem
modeled after “Learning to Love America”
focusing on repetition & figurative language
Pause after the first bullet point—Give students one minute to talk with their shoulder partner about what they remember about the style and organization of “Learning to Love America”. What concepts from the unit were used in the poem?
As students are wrapping up their discussion, pass out the “Because Poem Assignment”
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4. Unit Assignment: Because Poem
You will be writing about characteristics of your family, neighborhood, culture, or identity that are unique and that you want others to learn about.
1. Think about what you want the central idea and subject of your poem to be
Have students popcorn read the description of the assignment (the first two paragraphs and the bulleted list) and give students five minutes to start brainstorming the subject of their poem, writing down ideas on their paper.
It may be helpful for the students to have the teacher give personal examples of what they would possibly write about. This would work best if you can provide an example that the students cannot easily copy—for example, the subject of being a teacher
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5. Unit Assignment: Because Poem
2. What is the title of your poem?
Remember: This will be the statement/phrase to which the rest of your poem responds.
For example, Shirley Geok-Lim’s poem responds to the title of the poem “Learning to Love America”
The list of reasons that makes up the poem tells why she learned to love America
Again, it might be helpful to share what you might title your poem, based on your sample poem subject.
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6. Unit Assignment: Because Poem
Leaving this slide up, give the students 10 minutes to brainstorm the subject and title of their poem. Encourage students to ask questions and check in with you about their ideas if they are feeling unsure about it.
Make sure every student at least has their subject chosen before moving on.
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7. Unit Assignment: Because Poem
Sharing & Working with Partner Feedback
Each person in the pair should share their poem’s subject and title (if you have a title for the poem) with your partner.
Ask one question or give one comment on the subject or title. Write this down on your “Because Poem” handout.
Find a new partner and repeat steps 1 & 2.
Pair up the students up yourself for the first round, pairing students with those they may not often get paired up with. If you find that students’ feedback to one another seems particularly helpful, you can have the class do a third round of switching partners and giving feedback.
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8. Unit Assignment: Because Poem
What emotions are you trying to focus on in your poem?
What parts and traits of the subject and your relation to it are you going to focus on in your poem?
What are some important events in your family or community’s history?
What traditions, activities, or practices are unique to your family, culture, or community?
Tell students to think about the questions on the slide as they look over the different comments or questions that their partners had. These questions and the feedback from your classmates can be used to decide if they need/want to change the subject and/or title of their poem.
You may want to give them the option to work with a partner to ask them for advice during this part.
Go around the class and check-in with students about any questions or concerns they might have about this process.
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9. Unit Review + Practice Handout
AAPI Women Voices:
Unit Review + Practice Handout
The rest of the class will be spent working on the Because Poem and this handout.
Keep the Because Poem assignment in mind and use the prompts to create some of the figurative language for your poem.
Begin by passing out the Unit Review + Practice Handout and tell students the rest of the class will be spent working on the Because Poem and the worksheet, using it to review and practice the concepts covered in the unit. Encourage the class to keep their poem assignment in mind while completing the worksheet since the practice prompts from the worksheet will help create some of the figurative language that can be used in their poems.
Anything not finished in class is homework.
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10. Unit Review + Practice Handout
AAPI Women Voices:
Unit Review + Practice Handout
Subject
Your description of subject
Comparison
homework
easy
two + two
Sample Sentence:
Finishing the reading homework for history was as easy as two+two. (simile)
Go over the example on the handout with the students: using the subject of “homework”, description of “easy”, and comparison of “two+two”, an example sentence you might come up with is: Finishing the reading homework for history was as easy as solving two + two.
If there is time towards the end of class, ask a couple students to share their sentences, identifying the subject, description, comparison, and whether it was a metaphor or simile.
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11. Lesson 5 Preview
Bring a rough draft of your Because Poem to class tomorrow.
You will need this for Lesson 5 classwork
Does not need to be typed, but must be written as a poem just filling out the worksheet does not count
Lesson 5: Unit Wrap-Up
Poem revisions (form) and presentations (extra credit)
Unit Evaluation—class discussion
Ask who would be interested in presenting their poem in front of the class so you can have a rough estimate of how much time to allot for that section of the class. Make sure students know that raising their hands now does not mean they must read their poem—this is just to get an estimate.
Presentations = reading the poem & briefly (in one or two sentences) identifying one poetic element and explaining its significance to the poem
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12. Requirements & Expectations for Because Poem
Poem has a clear central idea or subject
Poem is at least 10 “Because” lines long
Contains at least one simile and one metaphor
Contains at least one example of alliteration or rhyme
Contains at least two examples of form
Grading will also take into account the grammar, spelling, and proper punctuation throughout the poem.
Does not have to be typed, but must be written neatly and clearly.
For the second bullet point, explain to students that not every line has to begin with “Because” and that lines can be as short as one word long (there should be reasoning behind this though).
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13. Women Poetry Lesson 4: Unit Review
(Figurative Language & Poetic Elements)
Curriculum Developer:
Prabhneek Heer
Curriculum Contributors:
Patricia Kwoh
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