Common Core Curriculum Standards Focus:
RL5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
RL5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
RL5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text
RL5.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
RL5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
RL5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
RL5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text
RL5.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
April 30-May 7 POETRY EXPANSION CENTER
We kicked off our Poetry unit by embarking on an expansion investigation - to expand our minds, that is! The students have been challenged to use their research skills in order to find out as much as they can about poetry. They need to tell what poetry is, how it is different from other texts we read, how we read it differently, and the many different types of poetry (they need to research at least 5). Then they need to write a poem using one of the types they researched. This independent mini-project is due May 7th at the end of the day.
April 28-May 16 POETRY UNIT
- Tone: how the author/poet feels about the subject. We read "We are Plooters" and discussed the tone of the poem. We were able to pick out lines or words from the poem that supported our idea of the tone.
- "I Am A Rock" - we discussed tone with poem again. And again, our focus was to be able to pick out words or lines from the poem that would pinpoint that tone from the author.
- We spent some time understanding how visual and multimedia elements can enhance or change the tone of a story. With the poem "Madam and the Rent Man", we saw how music (tempo, pitch, etc) enhanced the tone of the poem. With the movie "Mary Poppins", we saw how music and specifc scenes/lines from the movie can be used to change it from a singsong and happy film to a horror film - "Scary Mary". The students really enjoyed seeing how that could be done!
- Theme: what the reader takes away from the text (usually a life lesson/moral). We read a couple of short stories to begin the discussion of theme. I modeled and guided students through a written response about theme and then turned our learning of theme to poetry. The first poem that we used to identify theme was "Something to Remember" and "The Grumble Family". Students answered a question about the theme of those poems that was exactly like the one we had done together.
MODERN DAY EXPLORATION EXPANSION CENTER
Students need to research one modern day explorer and answer the 5 questions below about him/her:
1. Who is this explorer? Give information about his/her life.
2. What does/did this person explore? Why did they explore this?
3. Was this explorer looking for something in particular? If so, what?
4.
5. How has this person's exploration changed the way we think?
The presentation of this information can be done in any way the student wants, including: power point, prezi, poster, newsletter page, etc.
We kicked off our Poetry unit by embarking on an expansion investigation - to expand our minds, that is! The students have been challenged to use their research skills in order to find out as much as they can about poetry. They need to tell what poetry is, how it is different from other texts we read, how we read it differently, and the many different types of poetry (they need to research at least 5). Then they need to write a poem using one of the types they researched. This independent mini-project is due May 7th at the end of the day.
April 28-May 16 POETRY UNIT
- Tone: how the author/poet feels about the subject. We read "We are Plooters" and discussed the tone of the poem. We were able to pick out lines or words from the poem that supported our idea of the tone.
- "I Am A Rock" - we discussed tone with poem again. And again, our focus was to be able to pick out words or lines from the poem that would pinpoint that tone from the author.
- We spent some time understanding how visual and multimedia elements can enhance or change the tone of a story. With the poem "Madam and the Rent Man", we saw how music (tempo, pitch, etc) enhanced the tone of the poem. With the movie "Mary Poppins", we saw how music and specifc scenes/lines from the movie can be used to change it from a singsong and happy film to a horror film - "Scary Mary". The students really enjoyed seeing how that could be done!
- Theme: what the reader takes away from the text (usually a life lesson/moral). We read a couple of short stories to begin the discussion of theme. I modeled and guided students through a written response about theme and then turned our learning of theme to poetry. The first poem that we used to identify theme was "Something to Remember" and "The Grumble Family". Students answered a question about the theme of those poems that was exactly like the one we had done together.
MODERN DAY EXPLORATION EXPANSION CENTER
Students need to research one modern day explorer and answer the 5 questions below about him/her:
1. Who is this explorer? Give information about his/her life.
2. What does/did this person explore? Why did they explore this?
3. Was this explorer looking for something in particular? If so, what?
4.
5. How has this person's exploration changed the way we think?
The presentation of this information can be done in any way the student wants, including: power point, prezi, poster, newsletter page, etc.