Dissecting Poems

We've been dissecting poems this week! Before you gag from the smell of formaldehyde, don't worry, no chemicals were used.

Today, we applied our knowledge of certain elements of poetry by "marking-up" two poems by Nikki Grimes. Students identified the stanzas, lines, the rhyming words, and even the rhyming patterns.

You can see in the picture some students finding the words that rhyme and then thinking about the patterns the poet is using to create the poem's form. Like, we noticed that the rhyming words come at the end of every other line.

After our dissections, students paired up and practiced reading the poems, catching on to the rhythm, using the rhyming patterns to help. Here are some pictures of students practicing...