This Lesson's Title:

Between Repeated Lines

using repetitive lines to organize poems about family members

This lesson was presented at the 2007 Pinon Poetry Festival by Northern Nevada Writing Project Teacher Consultant Kim Polson.

The intended "mentor text" to use when teaching this on-line lesson is the picture book Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection of Family Poems by Mary Ann Hoberman. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author.

Click here to view this book at Amazon.com.

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

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

After discussing several poems that feature repeated lines from the collection Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection of Family Poems, student writers will brainstorm ideas for interesting lines to repeat in poetry.  Students will choose one line to repeat in a poem about a family member.  Students will use the repeated line to help them plan and organize a poem about someone they love. Teachers: Click here to see the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; writers will develop strong and interesting details in between their repeated lines.  The support trait in this assignment is organization; writers will decide how to structure their poems around their repeating line.