Magnetic Poetry Collaboration: After reading poems from the book Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alarcón, students collaborate with students in the same or in other classes or with students in other schools to write a ‘magnetic poem’ together using Build-your-own Online Magnetic Poetry Kit
| Proficiency Level | Novice Mid/ Novice High |
| Title | Magnetic Poetry Collaboration |
| Summary | After reading poems from the book Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alarcón, students collaborate with students in the same or in other classes or with students in other schools to write a ‘magnetic poem’ together using Build-your-own Online Magnetic Poetry Kit |
| What are my learning targets? | I can… – Describe the cover of a book using the PZ Thinking Routine ‘I see, I think, I wonder’ – Read poems from the book Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alarcón – Explain why I like a poem from the book -Explain why I like an image from the book – Collaborate with another student to write a ‘magnetic poem’ using words from the poems in the book – Illustrate the poem – Recite the poem created using Flipgrid – Give my opinion of others’ poems (optional) |
| What is my essential question/understanding? | – How might reading and discussing poetry collaboratively expand, challenge, and refine our ideas? – How might poetry help students understand themselves, others, and the world? – How might writing poetry empower students? |
| What is the input /resource? |  Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alarcón |
| How do we build background knowledge?How do we activate prior knowledge? | – Students use Post-it notes of four different colors to jot down what comes to mind when they hear/see the words ‘summer’ ‘autumn/fall’ ‘winter’ ‘spring’ What do they think about? They are encouraged to write down words or to draw – Students use Post-it notes of four different colors to jot down ‘nouns’ ‘adjectives’ ‘verbs’ ‘adverbs’ they know that connect to these different categories and place them in the corresponding ‘bucket’ |
| What is my introduction to this lesson? | Using the Project Zero Thinking Routine, ‘I see, I think, I wonder’ students describe the cover of the book Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alarcón |
| How do I want my students to process this input? | Pre Collaboration – Students read the book Laughing Tomatoes: And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos: Y Otros Poemas de Primavera by Francisco X. Alarcón individually, in pairs or as a class (Interpretive Reading/Listening) – Students share their favorite poem from the book with the class and explain why they like it (Presentational Writing or Interpersonal Speaking) – Students share their favorite image from the book with the class and explain why they like it (Presentational Writing or Interpersonal Speaking) Collaboration – In pairs or in small groups, and using Wonder.me or Zoom, students complete a graphic organizer – Build-your-own Online Magnetic Poetry Kit (each group makes a copy before starting or the teacher creates the copies for them) – Students write one word from the poems in each space that looks like the word from a magnetic poetry kit according to different categories, such as nouns, adjectives, verbs. – In the center of the graphic organizer, there is a drawing of a fridge. Students ‘move’ the words to the fridge to create their own poem. (Presentational Writing) Post-Collaboration – Students illustrate their magnetic poem – Students individually record themselves using Flipgrid reciting their magnetic poem – Students give feedback in Flipgrid on others’ poems (Interpersonal Writing/Speaking) |
| How could we reflect upon our learning? | Reflection – Students add a reflection of their collaboration in their Spanish portfolio using these guiding questions: – What did you like about the collaboration? – What was challenging? – What did you learn? – What do you think about making magnetic poetry with another student? – How did it change the way in which you see others and the world? – What did you learn about yourself? – How does it make you feel? – Do you feel this experience has empowered you? How? – What do you think you would do differently next time? |
| What extension activities could be done? | – Students illustrate their poems individually and compare their drawing with their partner’s – Read poems from the same author – Read poems from other authors |
| What other resources should be credited? | – Project Zero Thinking Routine – Build-your-own Online Magnetic Poetry Kit in Literacy WorldWide – Flipgrid – Wonder.me / Zoom |
Other books by Francisco X. Alarcón –
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