Poetry Lesson Plan (Day One)

Your Name: Lauren Hammers

Grade Level: 1st Grade
Type of poetry: Acrostic Hero Poems

Learning Standards Addressed:

1) 2.RI.6 Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer,
explain, or describe.

2) 2.SL.4 Tell a story or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant,
descriptive details, speaking audibly in coherent sentences.

3) 2.L.6 Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read
to, and responding to texts, including using adjectives and adverbs to describe (e.g.,
When other kids are happy that makes me happy).

Learning Objective(s):

Students will be able to write an accurate acrostic poem that has approximately 5-8 lines.

Students will be able to describe a person in their life that they see as a hero by writing
multiple sentences that include adjectives and other descriptive phrases.

Anchor/Mentor Text:

Fathers are fun - and serious too!

And you learn more from them than you do at school.
Think of all the good times you've had.
How would it be without your dad?
Everything would be harder with no mentor for growth.
Reflect on the man who loves you the most.
Soon will come the day for you to fill his shoes.

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/fathers-day-acrostic

Name/Type of text: Celebrating Fathers by Don Mathis/ Acrostic Poems

Source: FamilyFriend Peoms https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/fathers-day-acrostic

Rationale for choosing this text: I chose this text because number one I think that acrostic
poems are a good foundational type of poetry for younger students. Acrostic poems can be as
basic or as detailed as the writer chooses and I think that this anchor poem is in that middle
ground of not being too complex or too simple. I also chose this text because it is about
someone’s father and I want my students to write about their hero or the person in their life
that they look up to the most, which in many cases can be a father.

Key vocabulary terms: 1) Acrostic

2) Adjectives
3) Hero
4) Mentor
5) Reflect

Presentation of anchor I will explain to my students the concept of an acrostic poem. I

text: will show them how you can choose a word and then how you
write it vertically and that is the base of the poem. I will then
introduce the idea of writing poems about our heroes or the
people that they admire. After showing the basic format of the
acrostic poem I will present to them an example, the father poem
shown above. I will have the poem projected largely at the front
of the class and then read it aloud to my students. I will then
have the students read aloud with me for the second time. After
the poem has been read twice, I will emphasize the fact that each
line of the poem starts with a letter in the word “father”. This is
also the time to make sure that every student understands each
line of the poem. Next I will ask my students to raise their hand
and show me which words in the poems are adjectives and we
can highlight/ circle all of the adjectives in the poem as a class
(this is important because I want my students to use adjectives in
their own poems).

After the reading and evaluating of the anchor text I would love
to scaffold by then writing our own acrostic poem as a class
using the same word “father”. We can start by just brainstorming
words (specifically adjectives) or phrases that remind us of our
fathers. Once we have a solid list of words and phrases I can then
guide the students by finding ways to connect the things we
brainstormed to the letters in the phrase “father”. I want to do
 this because it will allow students to see the thought process of
writing an acrostic poem. They can use these same practices
when they eventually write their own.

Engagement/practice: After the students have gotten acquainted with the anchor text
and have participated in the whole group poem writing I want
them to start thinking about writing their own poem. I really
want my students to start thinking about who their hero is and
why. They can use their notebooks to write down a list of people
they look up to which are then potential topics for their acrostic
poems. I want to make sure that students are choosing names or
words that have around 5-8 words so their poems are not too
long or too short. Some examples can be: “mother”, “brother”,
“abuela”, “Jackson”, or “friend” (I would love for students to
write poems in whichever language they feel most comfortable
that way they can best express themselves without any language
barriers). Once students have a thought of a couple different
options I would like them to pair up and share. Students can talk
with a partner about why they look up to the people on their list
and then hopefully by the end of their discussions they can
choose the one person they will write about. Their partners can
also help them check to make sure that their words/names are the
appropriate number of letters. This discussion is also another
form of brainstorming because they are starting to think about
why these people are their heroes which can eventually be
translated into their poems. I can also float around during these
discussions to provide extra support, such as offering suggestions
or input about topics.

Closing activity: I would like the closing activity for this day to be a brainstorm
recap. At the end of day one I will pass out a sticky note to each
student in the class. I will ask them to write their name, the name
or word that they are using for their acrostic poem, and lastly I
want them to write one adjective that describes that person that
they are writing their poem on. Once they have completed their
sticky note I will have each student place their sticky note on the
white board at the front of the classroom. This is a great check
for me as a teacher because it allows me to see everyones topics
and double check that they are appropriate before the poems are
actually written. This also lets the students see which of their
 peers have similar topics and gives them ideas of other adjectives
they could potentially use in their own poems.

Next steps: The following day I think it would be a great idea to have
students bring in items or photos that remind them of their
heroes. If I give them this task on day one, and also let families
know so they can assist them in collecting things at home, then
they can have these things available before they begin writing
their poems. I can have them get their objects/photos out and
hopefully they can provide inspiration for their poetry writing.