ALEX Learning Activity

This introductory activity will introduce students to poetry terms such as phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression. The teacher will read a poem aloud to the students to demonstrate the application of these poetry terms.

This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.

Students will apply oral literacy skills by participating in choral reading.

Students will read grade-appropriate poetry, practicing phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression.

1. The teacher should present the slideshow to students.

2. Slides 2-6 will provide students with definitions of poetry, phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression. The teacher can add additional information or demonstration if desired. 

3. The teacher will display the poem, The Snowbird's Song from ReadWorks.org, for all students to see. 

4. The teacher will read the poem aloud, directing students to listen for the application of the words discussed previously (phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression).

4. The teacher and students will read the poem together (either choral reading or the students can repeat lines/phrases after the teacher). The teacher should direct students to use phrasing and meaningful expression while reading the poem. 

The teacher will listen to students read the poem aloud to determine if students are reading with appropriate phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression.

ReadWorks is a website that provides K-12 teachers with free literacy resources (About ReadWorks). ReadWorks has literary and informational texts on a variety of subjects and reading skills. You may narrow your search using grade level or Lexile level, making this website a wonderful tool for differentiation. Students will complete their work digitally, and you will provide their scores and feedback digitally. This makes it easy to go paperless for this activity.

Prior to implementing this activity, you will need to sign up for an Educator Account on ReadWorks. Use the Find Content tab to search for the informational article that will be used during this activity, The Snowbird's Song. You can click the blue button in the top right corner to enable "Projector View."

The students will need to understand the application of phrasing, rhythm, rhyme, and meaningful expression.

Corresponding activities are available here:

Learning Poetry With the Snowbird: Part 2

Learning Poetry With the Snowbird: Part 3