Movement in Poetry

Teacher: Beccah Derks                                                                      Grade Level: 4th/5th Grade
Subject Area: Language Arts/Music                                                 Time Needed:  30 min                                  

Standards: Composing and Arranging Music within Specified Guidelines

Achievement Standard:
Students:
a.       Create and arrange music to accompany readings or dramatizations
b.      Create and arrange short songs and instrumental pieces within specified guidelines
c.       Use a variety of sound sources when composing

Objectives:
 Given instruction, students will read the poem "The Leaves" silently to themselves.
Given instruction, students will underline the verbs and adjectives in the poem "The Leaves" while the teacher reads it aloud.
Given instruction, students will use movement to represent the verbs and adjectives in the poem "The Leaves".
 Given instruction, students will select instruments, including body sounds, to accompany the reading of the poem "The Leaves". 

Why is it important that students learn my lesson?
Poetry is often a difficult genre for children to grasp.  So the goal of this lesson is to focus on the descriptive words and the rhythmic structure of the poem in order to improvise movements which mimic the feeling of the poem.  Students should note that there are 3 distinct parts of the poem which will be represented by different actions and movements (loud, soft, fast, slow, etc.). 

Materials:
13 copies of poem "The Leaves"
Variety of musical instruments including: hand drum, maracas, sand blocks, etc.

Background for Teachers:
The students have just begun working on a poetry unit.  They have talked about rhyme, meter and stanzas.  The in class example today is a poem about leaves falling written by an anonymous source.  The poem is split into 4 stanzas of 4 lines with an ABCB structure. 

Steps in Lesson
Introduction:
Students create list of descriptive words and images for the season autumn and leaves.
 "Turn and Talk" with a neighbor and share lists. 

Procedures:
Students begin by reading the poem "The Leaves" (Anonymous) silently to themselves at their desks.  Ask them to try to visualize the poem and the actions being represented. 

The teacher then reads the poem aloud again and this time the students are asked to focus on finding and underlining the verbs (action words) and adjectives (describing words) in the poem.    

Students find a space in the room where they will not be touching another student.  While the poem is being read for the final time, students should use movement to interpret the poem.  For example during the like "They circled and flew along" students may spin around in circles slowly and float throughout the room.  

Finally, students will be using a variety of instruments, including body sounds, to compose a song as a class to accompany the poem.  They should be focusing on the rhythmic patterns of the poem and where the accents are in each line. 

Closure:
 While reading the poem aloud, students perform the accompanying song. 
o   Discuss the impact of music and movement on the meaning of the poem.
o   Does the poem make more sense now?
o    Do you have a visual representation in your mind while reading the poem now?

 Assessment:
Informal Assessment: poems will be turning in their copies of the poem "The Leaves" with the verbs and adjectives underlined. Students will not be assessed on their actual movement or music composition but instead on their active participation.

Special Considerations:
For students who are physically disabled, students could use instruments to interpret the poem instead of using movement. 

Next Steps/Connections to Other Subjects:
The next step would be for students to do this in small groups with different poems.  It would also be interesting to see the compositions they created when using spoken word compared to traditional poetry.