Learning Context:
• This is a third grade classroom. My classroom is a heterogeneous group of 18 students. This
will be a whole group lesson including a PowerPoint presentation and possible Photo Story
presentation. A classroom “book” with students’ I Poems will be created at the end of the
project as well.
• To engage students I am going to play a portion of Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am a Rock.” (“I
am a rock, I am an island…and a rock feels no pain, and an island never dies.”)
• I will ask probing questions to get them thinking about the context of the song.
i.e. – “Can a person be a rock or an island?” “What do you think that means?”
• Ask students to come up with their own definition as to what they think an I Poem may be.
• Display personal I Poem (“I Am a Mighty Oak Tree”) on overhead, and Mrs. Muscarelli’s I
Poem – “Tornado.” Have students analyze poems and determine what elements and
characteristics they find in both poems.
• Discuss why those characteristics make the poems more inviting and interesting.
• Read the book, Sierra, by Diane Siebert. (Whole Group Activity including discussion).
• Have students determine if there are any characteristics within the poem that they have used
in their writing this year. (i.e., “five senses).

Mini Lesson:
• Students will take a walk on school grounds. Each student will choose an item that they wish to
become: A tree, a bench, a slide, a swing, a birdhouse, etc. Each student will take a digital
picture of his or her object that was chosen.
• Teacher will print out a picture of each of the objects students chose to write their I Poem about.
• Using the picture, students will brainstorm ideas about their object, answering the following
questions: How is it used? Where is it located? What does it do? Who or what uses it? Why is
it on the school grounds? What does it look like? Students will generate additional questions and
answers.
• Using a model format, students will create an I Poem about the object they chose using the
picture and brainstorming information to help them create a first draft.
• When students have completed their I Poems, students will form four writing groups. Students will
take turns reading their poems to group members. Using highlighters, students will highlight parts
of the poem that show elaborative detail, glittering adjectives, vivid verbs, similes, metaphors, and
point out any factual information that was used in the poem.
• A bulletin board display will be created that will display digital pictures and completed I Poems.

Pre-Assessment:

• Students will be creating a picture dictionary to show their knowledge of what landforms are.
  Students will be given a list of vocabulary words for the landforms. In their own words, students will
  write a short definition and create an illustration of each landform or body of water.

Landforms/Bodies of Water

• Following pre-assessment, the social studies unit on landforms (geography) will be taught to the
  students in a whole-group setting. Unit 3, Chapter 5, pgs. 145 – 153.
• Students will be provided with books and websites for their resources.
• Teacher will read the book, Water Dance, and pages from Sierra. Students will discuss the
  characteristics of the stories, the format they are written in, and the descriptive language used.
• Together, we will complete a shared writing. We will choose one landform and write an I Poem that
  represents that landform; this will serve as a model of how to write an I Poem.
• Students will use their social studies texts, the Internet, and books to research the information.

Part of Our Island I Poem:

I am an island.
I am surrounded by a deep, blue blanket of water and isolated from other land.
I wonder who will sail their boats in the waters surrounding me?
I hear the sound of the crashing waves, as loud as thunder, against my jagged, rocky shore.
I am an island
I see the dolphins dancing in the distance performing a water ballet.
I feel the ocean breezes rustle through my many trees, sheltering the small animals and birds.
I know that maybe long, long ago I was part of a mighty continent.
I am an island.

• Students will research landform or body of water chosen to find factual information using textbooks,
  library books, and Internet sites.
• Using a skeleton format for their poems, students will create a first draft of a poem based on their
  reading and research.
• Students, with teacher, will edit poems and then write a final draft.
• Students will type, using word processing, completed poems.
• Students will create a Power Point slide(s) using the I Poems they wrote to be used in a class
  presentation.