Theme - Including a Poetry Slam

Last week our ELA focus was finding theme in songs, movies, and poems- and then connecting it to books. 

For songs, I used Joanne Miller’s Close Read to Music to share 4 songs. 

*Brave 

*Fly

*Man in the Mirror (my old school)

*Let it Go (their old school) 

We listened to the safe share link, they noted on copy paper what they thought the author’s message was, and then we discussed. 

For movies I used Gay Miller’s Animated Short Clips to view. Love this entire product, how it’s organized for different types of strategies. 

*Fishing with Sam

*Glued

We ran out of time for the others…

Then the next day we had a Poetry Slam. I seem to have at least 8 poetry books (mainly Shel Silverstein), and I charged up my Karaoke machine. I passed out the books one per group, and then called one person per table group to choose a poem to present into the microphone. They sat on my stool, They read with emotion. Even my shy kids eventually wanted a turn. After they read, other kids called out their theme ideas. Then we moved onto the next speaker. They LOVED it! 

Then we took everything we learned and transferred it to our textbook and novel, and eventually took a formative assessment. They now have a better idea what theme is and isn't. 

It was a fun ELA week. :)

Hope this helps!