An I-Pod Inspired Poetry Lesson from WritingFix
Focus Trait: IDEA DEVELOPMENT Support Trait: WORD CHOICE

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This Lesson's Title:

Things I Love Poems & Songs

exploring things you love in a poem or in a song

This lesson was created by NNWP Teacher Consultant Karen McGee who also hosts our Alphabet Books Across the Curriculum Homepage.

This writing prompt inspired by

"I Love" sung by Tom T. Hall

Click here to do a Google search for the lyrics.


Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources:

Step one…sharing the book, the poem, and the song:  Put four large heart-shaped pieces of chart paper on the board. Ask the students what those hearts represent. When the students talk about love, tell the students that today they will be writing about the various kinds of things that they love. Then, read the Brigitte Minne’s book, I Love, aloud.

Ask the students to turn to a partner and share with that partner after you offer the following prompts:

  • Talk about one thing you love to do in the winter, spring, summer, and fall.
  • Talk about something you love to do with either your mother or father.
  • Talk about something you love to eat.
  • Talk about someone you love and why that person is so special to you.

Now, ask the students to share their ideas with the entire group as you put their ideas on the four charts:

  • Something you love to do
  • Something that you love to feel
  • Something that you love to eat
  • Someone you love

If students talk about loving food items like chocolate, probe for more detail, like: What kind of chocolate do you love best? What else do you love to eat that has chocolate in it? If students talk about loving sports, probe for specific details like: Do they love to play a sport, and if so, which one. What part of that sport is the best? Do they love to watch that sport in real life or on T.V. Do they like to talk to their friends or family members about that sport?

Remind the students that these four charts will act as Content Word Walls (to be used for spelling purposes) and as an idea springboard.

Next, play the song “I Love” by Tom T. Hall. You can find a video version of this song on You-Tube. Put the lyrics on the overhead and play it again so that you and the students can sing the song along with Tom. T. Hall.

Inform students that they will be writing their own poems/songs about things they love.

Younger students will use the song "I Love" as a model for their poems. Older students will use the title poem from Eloise Greenfield's Honey, I Love (and Other Love Poems) as their model for their poems.

With older students doing this lesson, read Eloise Greenfield's poem slowly. Put a copy of the poem on the overhead, and read it a second time, allowing the students to see the poem as they listen. Examine the poem closely, asking students to notice what Greenfield did to compose each stanza of the poem (rhyming couplets, repetition of words and phrases). Be sure to point out the rhythm of the poem so that students who can’t or don’t want to rhyme can still build the rhythm and follow the model.


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 will certainly talk about the idea development, since it's the focus of the lesson, but y ou might prompt your students to talk about each model's word choice as well.


Step three…thinking, talking, and pre-writing:  Introduce this pre-writing template with younger students. With the help of the students, fill out the template using information from the four charts. After the addition of each line, sing the song to check that the word choice matches the rhythm of the song. Remind younger students that Tom T. Hall’s song reflects the things that he loves. Their job will be to write a song that reflects the things that they love. They can use the charts for ideas and spelling, and they need to sing each line they write to check for the appropriate rhythm of the song.

With older students, fill out this version of the pre-writing template. You might pull your lowest functioning students to a table to support them during this stage of the writing. Depending on the age of the students or level of disability, you may choose to write another group poem with the students before they start doing this independently.


Step four (revising with specific trait language):   Two tools for revision are provided below. You can use one or both, depending on how much time you have to spend on this assignment. One way older students can revise their songs is to attempt some rhymes while still making sense. 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.


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 Tom T. Hall by clicking here.


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