During my Educ 490 practicum, I taught a Grade 2 English Language Arts unit focused on poetry. I had so much fun teaching this unit and was so inspired with how creative students were in their writing! Following Adriene Gear’s “Powerful Poetry” as a guide, I began the sharing the elements of poetry and how ultimately poetry provides the reader with a feeling. This unit connected to the ELA curriculum content “literary elements and devices: language, poetic language, figurative language, sound, play, images, symbols.” It also connected to the following core competencies:

Communicating

  • I communicate purposefully, using forms and strategies I have practiced.
  • I can consider my purpose when I am choosing a form and content.
  • I can communicate clearly about topics I know and understand well, using forms and strategies I have practiced.

Creative Thinking

  • I can get new ideas or build on or combine other people’s ideas to create new things within the constraints of a form or materials.
  • I can use my imagination to get new ideas of my own, or build on other’s ideas, or combine other people’s ideas in new ways.
  • I can usually make my ideas work within the constraints of a given form if I keep playing with them.

Social Awareness & Responsibility

  •  In familiar settings, I can interact with others and my surroundings respectfully.

To celebrate all of the students hard work throughout the poetry unit, we ended with a sharing circle where students selected their favourite poem and shared it with the class in the circle (if they were comfortable). To observe how much they had learned about different poetic devices and structures, in connection with how proud they were to share their poems with the class was amazing! Below are some examples of Grade 2 poetry.