4th Grade · Reading · RL.4.5, W.4.3.D

Poetry Lesson Plan for 4th Grade

A ready-to-teach poetry lesson for 4th Grade, built around stanzas, rhyme schemes, rhythm, speakers and repeated lines in poems, how a poem differs from a play, and writing diamantes, limericks, quatrains and other poem forms. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

Count stanzas and name a poem's form
Mark a rhyme scheme and find rhythm and repeated lines
Tell how a poem differs from a play

Materials

Read a Narrative Poem and Find the Stanzas
Write a Diamante Poem About Two Seasons
Read a Limerick and Mark the Rhyme Scheme
Write a Limerick About a Silly Animal
Read an Unrhymed Poem About a Subway Ride
Write an Unrhymed Poem About a Favorite Place
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Build the background (5 min)
Introduce poetry in plain language and connect it to a book the class already knows. Write the key term where students can see it all lesson. For 4th Grade, one clear sentence beats a full definition.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Read a short passage aloud. Stop twice and narrate your own thinking about poetry: what you noticed in the text and what made you notice it. Students are learning the move, not the answer.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Read a Narrative Poem and Find the Stanzas". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate poetry one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned poetry.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild poetry with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own poetry problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand poetry.

Skills covered in this lesson

Poetry comprehension · Poetry writing

Questions teachers ask about teaching poetry

What poetry skills do 4th graders learn?

4th graders explain how poems differ from stories and plays, using words like stanza, verse, rhythm and meter (RL.4.5). They also retell a poem and find its theme (RL.4.2). When they write poems, they choose concrete words and sense details (W.4.3.D).

What is the difference between a poem and a play?

A poem is written in lines grouped into stanzas and often has rhyme and rhythm. A play has a cast of characters, dialogue and stage directions that tell the actors what to do. One sheet tells the same lost puppy story both ways, so children can compare the parts side by side.

How do I help my child write a poem?

Read the model poem at the top of the writing sheet aloud together first. Fill in the plan box or pick words from the bank before writing any lines. Then read the finished poem aloud and check it against the rule on the page, such as the AABBA rhyme of a limerick.

Do the 4th grade poetry worksheets have answer keys?

The 10 poetry comprehension sheets do. The 6 poetry writing sheets are open, so every child's poem will be different. Use the rule box on each writing page to check the form instead.