TOPCATSGRRR!Poetry Unit Olgin 4th Grade

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.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRl8EIhrQjQ

Organization (Structure)

Poetry is Rap! Rap is Poetry!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8lb_sdwenw

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 lettuceDon’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 frizzleDoctor pepper my brothah, another for ya motha

Double-double supah size and don’t forget the fries

Clues (Connotations/Word Choice)The Tongue Sticker-Outer

By Shel Silverstein

They say that once in ZanzibarA 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 loutNow 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

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 cantaloupeUnderneath 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?

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.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Eq-3oywyAA

• This poem is mostly about ________________________ because it talks about ______________ and ___________________.

Sections (Lines, Quotes, Stanzas)Where the Sidewalk Ends from the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends“ By Shel SilversteinThere is a place where the sidewalk endsand 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 flightto cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows blackand the dark street winds and bends.Past the pits where the asphalt flowers growwe shall walk with a walk that is measured and slowand watch where the chalk-white arrows goto 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.

StanzaA group of words in apoem written togetherand separated by askipped line.

Line BreakWhen the sentencebreaks and goes to thenext line, usually tokeep the rhythm of thepoem.

Graphical Elements

Alliteration repetition of the initial consonant sounds

The poorest juggler ever seenwas clumsy Clara Creech,

who juggled a bean, a nectarine,a pumpkin, and a peach.

Jack Prelutsky

Line Breaktermination of a line of poetry and the beginning of a new one

(break is between comes and on)

The fog comeson 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 glowssave crickets chirping lullabies.

Juanita Havill

Personification giving human qualities or characteristicsto animals or objects

the Suncalls 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 ValentineHas 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 ClownWho 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 lightand pull it to my chin,

like a quilt. Nikki Grimes

(Comparing moonlight with a quilt)

Stanza a group of poetic lines

(The example shows two stanzas.)

Place, sound,Celebration,

Memories of feelings, of place

A journey on the A Trainthat started on the banks of the Niger

And has not ended

Walter Dean Myers

Verse a single line of poetryI wandered lonely as a cloud

William Wordsworth

White Spaceblank 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

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

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.

Repetition

Repetition

• Are there phrases or words that are repeated? Why is that phrase important?

TOPCATSGRRR! Full ExampleThe Road Not Taken By Robert Frost 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claimBecause it was grassy and wanted wear,Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I marked the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere 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.

TOPCATSGRRR! Full ExampleT 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.   

Take 5 Minutes to Review• What does TOPCATSGRRR stand for? Who has the mnemonic device memorized?

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Poetry QuestionsDirections: 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?

Poetry Questions Analysis • Select any poem either written in class or on this link to analysis using

the slide before.

• http://www.saisd.net/admin/curric/curricms/documents/tchrtlktdocs/read-ela/elem/Poetry/Kids'%20Poems%20Teaching%20Third%20and%20Fourth%20Graders%20to%20Love%20Writing%20Poetry.pdf