ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

After observing and working with my 2nd grade students in the area or writing, I have assessed that there is a need for reinforcement in the area of descriptive writing. In checking on our school’s fourth grade North Dakota State Assessment from March 2003, I found that students in Stanley need to work on increasing their understand when engaged in the writing process, going from 61 to 63 to meet state averages. This would come from being engaged in the writing process, which is Language Arts Standard 3 for 2nd grade. The students would be engaged in the following activities. The students need to be aware of the world around them to put down their thoughts on paper in an exciting and interesting way. They will do this by being exposed to the world around them. I will expose them to (the five senses) many different sounds, smells, sights, tastes, and touches of the world around them. We will go on walking field trips around the school and community. As we walk we will be using our sight to become more aware of what we can write about in our poems. In the classroom I will use several different types of music to engage their listening skills, and they will “write what they hear”. I will use odors to help them with describing words on the smells of the world around them. They will have several types of fabrics to feel and express their thoughts in the form of poems. They will be engaged in the prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, final draft and publication. They will then have created a Back Pack of Poems describing what each of these senses means to them as they are exposed to it. They will be introduced to 5 different types of poems. 

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: 1. Students will understand that in the world around them there are many things they can describe and enjoy in the form of poetry. 2. They will realize that they are capable of expressing themselves about many things in the world through the use of words used in poetry of many types.
Learning Goal(s): 1. Students will understand that their five senses help them to express themselves. 2. Students will be able to complete five different poems using expressive and exciting words. 3. Students will understand that they can be poetry authors with the help of the world around them.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. Why is being aware of the world around you important in expressing yourself using poetry? 2. How do the five senses help you express yourself? 3. How is being aware of the world around you making you a better writer?
Learning Objectives: 1. The students will be able to identify different sounds and compose an Acrostic poem including their thoughts about those sounds, using many describing words and spelling words with 80% accuracy or better. 2. The students will use their sense of smell to compose an Alphabet poem about the odors, using many describing words and spelling words with 80% accuracy or better. 3. The students will be able to taste several different foods, and compose a Cinquain poem, using many describing words and spelling words with 80% accuracy or better. 4. The students will be able to feel different fabrics and will compose a Rhyming poem, using many describing words and spelling words with 80% accuracy or better. 5. The students will be able to go on walking field trips using their power of observation, then compose a Limerick poem about what they saw, using many describing words and spelling words with 80% accuracy or better. 6. The students will be able to type all of their poems on a computer. 7. They will download clipart to enhance their poems, and use a digital camera to add photos to their poem. 8. The students will video tape themselves reciting their poems, which will be shared with their parents. 9. The students will be able to share by reading all of the Back Pack of Poems with the Kindergarten and 1st grade students in our school. 

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding? 1. Each student will be given a rubric to follow when they are writing their poems. 2. They will check their rubric often as they write, and follow the guidelines in the rubric. 3. They will be given a checklist that covers all five poems, to make certain they are proceeding carefully and following all the guidelines.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance will provide evidence of understanding? 1.  Questions will be asked during the writing sessions to get the students thinking what they have seen and heard of the world around them. 2. Questions will be asked of them on how best to put it down on paper, so it will be clear to all who read their poems. 3. They will be required to use many different describing words in their poems.
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?  1. The students will research and read poems in different web sites before they start to write their poems. 2. They will share with the class the poems they have found that describe the world around them, by printing them and sharing them with their classmates. 3. To begin to compose their poems they will use Inspiration in the computer lab to organize their thoughts. 4. When the students have finished all of their poems, I will have the students do a self-reflection summary of their Back Pack of Poems, stating how they feel about their poems. 5. The students will come up with their way of sharing their poems with the class and other classes in the school. 6. They will share them with their family through a movie taken with a digital video camera as they share the poems with their classmates and other classes.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment)of understanding will you collect? 1.  I will collect a copy of each student’s Back Pack of Poems. 2. I will use the rubric and the check list the students have been using to evaluate their work. 3. Each student will share all of the poems with the students in other classes through our Reading Club which visits classrooms and reads to the children

Instructional Strategies

Students will use all three teaching and learning strategies. Writing of descriptive poems will be the main topic used in each strategy. Inquiry-based learning will be used to answer the questions: 1. Why is learning to write descriptive poems about the world around you important to you?  2. Where are some different resources that help us become aware of the different sights, sounds, views, smells and touches that we can describe in poetic verse?  3. How is experiencing the five senses helping to create their poems? 4. Through researching different forms of poems on line, the students will become aware of the different types of poems being written.
Problem-based learning will give the students the opportunity to learn that sounding out words is important for the creative writing of poems. The sounding out of words in poems when they are on line and researching the world of poems is also important.
The students will use project-based learning when they each make their own Back Pack of Poems, which will be shared with their classmates and other classes in the school. They will use word processing documents to create their Back Pack of Poems.