1. Artist to Artist by Davida Adedjouma
Background: This poem is about generations within a family and what family members hand down to those who come after them. This poem expresses the poet’s compassion for her gifted father who was an artist but was never able to fulfill his dreams of working as an artist. What are other art forms that you can think of before you begin reading?
Vocabulary to know:
black and blue: bruised
meat on their bones: not skinny stick figures/life-like
Poetic devices:
Repetition: What lines are repeated? Why does the author do this?
Symbol: what does the author mean by “black and blue” each time they are written?
Artist to Artist by Davida Adedjouma

2. My Grandmother Had One Good Coat -by Tony Medina
Background: This poem takes place in a city where there are homeless people living under the elevated commuter train station.
Where have you encountered homeless people? How do you feel when you see someone who is homeless?
Vocabulary to know:
patent leather: a type of shiny leather, often used for fancy shoes
Taunting: teasing, baiting, insulting
Passersby: people walking by
Poetic devices: Narrative Verse- a poem that tells a story; often contains characters, setting, problem and solution

3. Four-Two-One
In each box write a word from the poem that you think is the most important. Share with a partner. The 2 of you make 4 new boxes and decide on the 4 most important words.
Join with 2 other people (group of 4) and share your words. Now make only 2 boxes and as a group decide the 2 most important words.
As a group decide the single most important word in the poem and write it in the last box.

4. Open Compare and Contrast
How are they similar?
How are they different?
What similarities and differences seem significant?
What categories or pattern(s) do you see in the significant similarities and differences?
What interpretation or conclusion is suggested by the significant similarities and differences?

5. Spider Vocabulary Complete the Spider Vocabulary chart on the board
Choose words from the word bank to put inside the middle of each spider
Remember that the spider legs contain words that are: 1 synonym, 1 antonym, an example of the term, an analogy, the part of speech of the word, 1 word associated with it, 1 clue, the category the word falls under