Lesson Plan Teaching a Poem by Rote - Students.ou.edu

Lesson Plan
Teaching a Poem by Rote
Objectives:
1. Memorize a poem by rote.
2. Further knowledge of literature.
3. Phrase recognition.
4. Consistency of beat through words in a poem.
Materials:
1. “Way Down South” from The Random House Book of Poetry for Children
Sequence:
• Ask question one.
o “Where does this poem take place?”
• Present poem.
Way down South where bananas grow,
A grasshopper stepped on an elephant’s toe.
The elephant said, with tears in his eyes,
“Pick on somebody your own size.”
• Restate question and have students answer.
o [Way down South; South; Where bananas grow.]
• Ask question two.
o “What two animals are in the poem?”
• Present poem.
• Restate question and have students answer.
o [A grasshopper and an elephant.]
• Ask question three.
o “Whose toe was stepped on?”
• Present poem.
• Restate question and have students answer.
o [The elephant’s toe.]
• Ask question four.
o “Who cries?”
• Present poem.
• Restate questions and have students answer.
Auld, 2008

o [The elephant.]
“How do you know it was that when the poem never said the word
‘crying’?”
• [It said tears in his eyes.]
o “Oh, so tears mean that someone is crying. Good!”
• Teach the Poem. I say; students repeat.
o One line at a time.
o Two lines at a time.
o All four lines together.
Lesson Extension:
• Broadening interest in similar children’s literature.
• Knowledge of more children’s literature.
• Break down of musical phrases.
Assessment:
• Goal of lesson: Improve teaching skills by the rote teaching method while
students expand knowledge and memorization of the selected poem. Also,
students should acknowledge phrases in the poem from the teaching process of
line by line and adding lines of the poem each time.
• Rubric:
4 – The student performs poem accurately and fluently.
3 – The student performs poem accurately.
2 – The student performs three of four lines of the poem accurately.
1 – The student performs two of four lines of the poem accurately.
Auld, 2008