Every year, all ELA teachers in my school are required to teach narratives in the first quarter of the year. HOW we do that is left to each teachers’ discretion. In thinking of my approach this year, I figured that by the time students get to 8th grade, students have written so many personal narrative essays that they are over it. Honestly, so am I! In any case, since one of my goals this year is to embed poetry within every unit, I decided that the summative assessment would be a narrative poem.
The first thing I did was a review of narrative fiction. A narrative poem has many of the same elements as narrative fiction, so it’s the perfect place to start. We looked at several mentor texts in the textbook (My Perspectives) and a couple of stand-alone stories, “The Pie” & "The Cemetery Path." With these, we honed in on 6 primary literary elements: plot, setting, characterization, point of view, conflict and theme. These are the elements to be worked into their narrative poems.
Next, we reviewed some characteristics of narrative poetry and used mentor texts – again, some in the textbook as well as a stand-alone, “Oranges” by Gary Soto.
Third, I gave them the assignment sheet with the rubric. I ALWAYS give students the rubric along with the specifications of the assignment.
Along with the assignment sheet, I gave students a planning sheet that they could use as a guide for writing their own narrative poems. This is not something I plan to collect from students and grade as I want them to have the freedom to be creative and stray from “structured” requirements. That said, some students need a structured format to follow, and this will help those students organize their thoughts and provide a framework for writing their poems.
I also provided a large list of possible topics from which students could choose, but they also had the option to choose their own topics.
To get their creative writing juices flowing, we did a couple of journal entries where students had several images to choose from and they told some of the story in poetic form.
We also played a group challenge figurative language game I created called “Figurative Language Showdown.” My students LOVED creating short passages based on typical middle school experiences such as forgotten homework, cafeteria food, exam week, etc. Then, they spun the dice to see which figurative language device(s) they had to include. I had some “challenge” rounds with multiple devices required and even some “ultimate mastery” rounds to add in a few more challenging devices.
Finally, this week, I gave students time to do some partner/small group discussions to “flesh out” their ideas, as well as made myself available for one-on-one conferencing. We’ve had a very successful week of activities and writing, and for the most part, my students seem excited about the content they are producing. I encourage students to “build the foundation” like plot, characters, and setting, then layer in the figurative language and other elements like symbolism and imagery to really add flair to their poems.
Next week, we’ll wrap up with some peer editing in stations followed by a final round of edits and conferencing. This week, I've gotten a preview of some of their work, and I’m excited to see the final product!
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