This Lesson's Title:

Writing Original Nature Poetry

visualizing details to create tone and mood

This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Maureen Copenhaver Arroyo at an AT&T-sponsored in-service class for teachers.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially from chapter 1 of the book.

Check out Woodsong at Amazon.com.

If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :

Pre-step…before sharing the published model:  Students need to have knowledge of some style of poetry as this lesson does not teach how to write poetry but leaves it open to any style or length.  Students should also know the difference between drawing and sketching images, as this is not an art lesson! Teachers click here to use a website for poetic forms, or feel free to do a web search on your own!

Step one (sharing the published model):  Teacher reads aloud chapter one of Woodsong by Gary Paulsen, which contains a very profound account of understanding “the woods” through an experience he witnesses of predator versus prey.  As you read it aloud, students will visualize any images they create in their minds and sketch them on a blank piece of paper. 

After reading the chapter, give students time to label their sketches with any words, phrases or ideas they have either taken from the text or from their own words.  Share some sketches or ideas aloud to encourage different images (such as the images of the beauty of nature, the fear of the deer, the amazement of the narrator, the excitement of the dog team or the horror of the catch).  Students then will pick one image and the emotion or tone connected to it (i.e. beauty, amazement, excitement).  This emotion/ mood will act as the title of a poem. Click here for a list of emotions if you don't have your own! 

The last step is to have students compose a poem.  The length and poetic style is at the teacher’s discretion.  Be sure to encourage students to portray their chosen emotion throughout the entire poem as this will build their voice.  Using active verbs, exact adjectives and good poetic styles will help build upon their word choice.  Use the three button interactive game for ideas of different poetic styles and emotions.  To expand on the images of nature beyond this chapter we've included the second button "aspect of nature". 

Step two (introducing student models of writing):  Step two (introducing student models of writing): In small groups, have your students read and respond to any or all of the student models that come with this lesson.  The groups should certainly talk about the voice, since that's the focus of this assignment .  You might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well. 

• Three fifth graders share their nature poems

Step three (thinking and pre-writing): The interactive buttons on the Student Instruction Page might help inspire your students to begin brainstorming for this poetry assignment. 

Students will need a blank piece of paper for sketching and labeling.  Students will begin their pre-write by completing their sketch and labeling it with words. Before beginning to write, students should meet with a partner and edit for ideas. 

Step four (revising with specific trait language):   To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-Its to your students' drafts.  Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5."   Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings.  For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.

• Sheet of 6 Voice Post-It Notes
• Sheet of 6 Word Choice Post-It Notes

Step five (editing for conventions):  After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor.   If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers.  With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it.  The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers.

Step six (publishing for the portfolio):   When they are finished revising and have second drafts, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block.  Their stories might become a longer story, a more detailed piece, or the beginning of a series of pieces about the story they started here.  Students will probably enjoy creating an illustration for this story as they get ready to publish it for their portfolios.

Interested in publishing student work on-line?  We invite student writers to post final drafts of their original at WritingFix's Community of Student Writers.  This is a safe-to-use blog for students and teachers. No writing is posted until it is approved by the moderator. Contact us at publish@writingfix.com if you have questions about getting your students published.

Learn more about author Gary Paulsen and Woodsong by clicking here.