1. Poetry Unit Olgin 4th Grade
TOPCATSGRRR!
Poetry Unit Olgin 4th Grade

2. Title (Significance)
Can We Auto-Correct Humanity? (Title of this spoken word poem)
Discuss what this title means to you.
What does it mean to auto-correct?
What is humanity?
Watch this video to find out.

3. Organization (Structure)
Poetry is Rap! Rap is Poetry!

4. Poem’s Setting (Place)
Without the title of the poem can we figure out where the setting is taking place?
I need a double cheese burger and hold the lettuce
Don’t be frontin son — no seeds on the bun
We be up in this drive through order for two
I gots a cravin’ fo’ a numba nine like my shoe
We need some chicken up in here, in this hizzle
For rizzle my mizzle, extra salt on da frizzle
Doctor pepper my brothah, another for ya motha
Double-double supah size and don’t forget the fries

5. Clues (Connotations/Word Choice)
The Tongue Sticker-Outer
By Shel Silverstein
They say that once in Zanzibar
A boy stuck out his tongue so far,
It reached the heavens and touched a star,
Which burned him rather badly.
I wasn’t there, but they say that lout
Now keeps his tongue inside his mouth,
But if you ask I’m to stick it out …
I think he’ll do it gladly.
Imagery and Visualization
What words or phrases help you see a picture in your mind?
Picture in my Mind Key Words and Phrases

6. Attitude (Poet/Speaker)
Mood - The feeling or atmosphere of a piece. How it makes the reader feel.
Imagery - When a piece of writing creates an image in your mind.(Similes, metaphors, personification, 5 senses)
Nope By Shel Silverstein
I put a piece of cantaloupe Underneath the microscope. I saw a million strange things sleepin’, I saw a zillion weird things creepin’, I saw some green things twist and bend– – I won’t eat cantaloupe again.
Point of View and Voice
Whose point of view is the poem written from?

7. Theme (Message)
Drawing Conclusions from poetry is necessary to understand the theme (message) of the poem. To make a conclusion you use the information you already know, and the information you gather as you read a text
For example, it is common knowledge that wolves are considered carnivores or wild animals that eat meat. When reading "Little Red Riding Hood" and you read that the wolf is disguised and waiting for the little girl, you decide that the wolf could only be there to eat "Riding Hood". How did you come to this conclusion? You used the information about wolves that you already possessed, and the knowledge you gathered as you read the story.
Now watch this spoken word poem and try to identify the Theme using this sentence stem.
This poem is mostly about ________________________ because it talks about ______________ and ___________________.

8. Sections (Lines, Quotes, Stanzas)
Where the Sidewalk Ends from the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends“ By Shel Silverstein There is a place where the sidewalk ends and before the street begins, and there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright, and there the moon-bird rests from his flight to cool in the peppermint wind. Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black and the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow and watch where the chalk-white arrows go to the place where the sidewalk ends. Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, and we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go, for the children, they mark, and the children, they know, the place where the sidewalk ends.
Line Break
When the sentence
breaks and goes to the
next line, usually to
keep the rhythm of the
poem.
Stanza
A group of words in a
poem written together
and separated by a
skipped line.

9. Graphical Elements Alliteration
repetition of the initial consonant sounds
The poorest juggler ever seen was clumsy Clara Creech, who juggled a bean, a nectarine, a pumpkin, and a peach.
Jack Prelutsky
Line Break
termination of a line of poetry and the beginning of a new one
(break is between comes and on)
The fog comes on little cat feet.
Carl Sandburg
Meter
system of stressed and unstressed syllables that create rhythm in a verse
But soft, what light through
yonder window breaks
William Shakespeare
(but SOFT / what LIGHT / through YON/der WIN/dow BREAKS)
Metaphor
comparison of unlike things (made without using like or as)
Colors loud enough to be heard Walter Dean Myers
Onomatopoeia
a word that imitates the sound it represents
All is still while the moon glows save crickets chirping lullabies.
Juanita Havill

10. Personification Repetition Rhyme Rhyme scheme Simile
giving human qualities or characteristics to animals or objects
the Sun
calls me
through the window
“wake up get up come on out”
  Francisco X. Alarcon
Repetition
using the same words or phrases in the same stanza or in a pattern in the poem
How thin and sharp is the moon tonight! How thin and sharp and ghostly white Is the slim curved hook of the moon tonight!
Langston Hughes
Rhyme
a pattern of words that contains similar sounds at the end of the line
My Valentine Has eyes of green With twenty eyebrows in between. Her skin is blue. Her head is square. She hasn't got a brain in there.
Myra Cohn Livingston
Rhyme scheme
a repeated pattern of rhymed words at the end of the line
I'll tell you the story of Clooney the Clown Who worked in a circus that came through town. His shoes were too big and his hat was too small, But he just wasn't, just wasn't funny at all.
Shel Silverstein Rhyme scheme: AABB
Simile
comparing two physically dissimilar things using "like" or "as"
I slip under its silver light and pull it to my chin, like a quilt Nikki Grimes
(Comparing moonlight with a quilt)

11. Stanza Verse White Space
a group of poetic lines
(The example shows two stanzas.)
Place, sound, Celebration, Memories of feelings, of place
A journey on the A Train that started on the banks of the Niger And has not ended
Walter Dean Myers
Verse
a single line of poetry
I wandered lonely as a cloud
William Wordsworth
White Space
blank areas around poem without (including space between stanzas) that are used to change a poems
tone, pace and look
We take the dare
to build a bridge.
Rock-by-rock we
steady
stones
for
sneaker-stepping.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

12. Rhyme Scheme
Rhyming words are words that sound the same at the ends, such as cat / hat, or jumping /bumping. When a poem has rhyming words at the ends of lines, these are called “end rhymes.” Here is an example of end rhyme: My cat is nice. My cat likes mice. A “rhyme scheme” is a way of describing the pattern of end rhymes in a poem. Each new sound at the end of a line is given a letter, starting with “A,” then “B,” and so on. If an end sound repeats the end sound of an earlier line, it gets the same letter as the earlier line. Here are three slightly different cat poems, each with a different rhyme scheme. The first is AABB, the second is ABAB, and the third is ABCB): My cat is nice. A My cat is nice. A My cat is gray. A My cat likes mice. A My cat is fat. B My cat is fat. B My cat is fat. B My cat likes mice. A My cat is cute. C I like my cat. B I like my cat. B I like my cat. B

13. Rhythm
Meter - The way the poem flows as you read it with prosody. It's the musical quality some poems have.
“The Raven (Excerpt)" by Edgar Allan Poe
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you" - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.

14. Repetition Repetition
Are there phrases or words that are repeated? Why is that phrase important?

15. TOPCATSGRRR! Full Example
The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost 
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
*Rhyme Scheme ABCAB.

16. TOPCATSGRRR! Full Example
T The Road Not Taken; Significant because it tells the reader that perhaps a choice was made.
O This poem has 4 stanzas with 5 lines each. The lines are about the same length in each stanza.
P The poem takes place in the woods (yellow wood) and is along a path with the road dividing into two different paths. It's in the morning and probably autumn.
C The last line makes you feel as if the author made the right choice-positive connotation.
A The poet and speaker are the same person. He is speaking for himself.
T The poem is about having decisions in life and maybe only having them once. You can't go back. Make a choice.
S Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
G The reader gets a picture of grass and leaves that have not been stepped on. Trees with yellow leaves.
R The Rhyme scheme is ABAAB.
R The poem does have a rhythm due to the rhyme scheme and the lines being all about the same length.
R There is any repetition in this poem.   

17. Take 5 Minutes to Review
What does TOPCATSGRRR stand for? Who has the mnemonic device memorized? T O P C A S G R

18. Poetry Questions
Directions: Ask each other these questions after you read a poem. Answer each question with your partner out loud.
What is the title of the poem?
Who is the author of the poem?
Who is the speaker of the poem?
How many stanzas are in the poem?
Can you find any rhyming words?
Can you find any alliteration?
Can you find any personification?
Can you find any similes?
How did this poem make you feel?
What is this poem about?

19. Poetry Questions Analysis
Select any poem either written in class or on this link to analysis using the slide before.
ela/elem/Poetry/Kids'%20Poems%20Teaching%20Third%20and%20Fourth% 20Graders%20to%20Love%20Writing%20Poetry.pdf