During the poetry unit, an activity that helped build some background knowledge was the following.
As a warm-up, 6th grade students heard Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror" while reading the lyrics to inspire and expose students to different forms of poetry (video was not shown to avoid distractions). Afterwards, they had to answer the following questions in their journal: (allow 4-5 minutes to write answers)
• What is poetry?
• Where can we find poetry?
Once completed, students shared their entries with the rest of the class--remember to encourage students to participate by praising them for their effort or by the use of kind words after they have shared their comments. The last step was to elaborate a class poster where the students wrote down the answers for their first question. This poster is currently displayed in the classroom next to our door, where students can read it every time they come in or go out of the classroom.
This is what they came up with!
Special thanks to all of my VERY smart 6th graders!
