Each daily lesson plan clearly expresses the essential questions we are exploring in this unit: 1) How can

I mod* my life story using limited words and then share it with the world? *This is a video gaming term (short for modify) that refers to when a gamer creates a new character or mission that is downloadable to others. This question challenges students to compare and contrast the art of creating a visual story on a video game and the art of creating a written story full of imagery that uses only words. 2) How does figurative language communicate a theme and help the reader make a personal connection? These essential questions reflect the following overarching goals: 1) Helping students understand how poetry is relevant to their lives 2) Training students to analyze figurative language Each daily lesson plan lists the four objectives for this unit: 1) I will be able to define figurative language vocabulary. 2) I will be able to identify figurative language in poems others have written. 3) I will be able to interpret figurative language. 4) I will be able to apply my interpretation of figurative language to the overall meaning of the poem. These objectives represent the range of Blooms Taxonomy because the skills required access higher level thinking skills. These essential questions, goals, and objectives are aligned with the following Common Core State Standards: 1) Acquire and use general academic, as well as domain specific, words. 2) Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. 3) Write routinely in shorter time frames. 4) Analyze technical, connotative, and figurative meanings. 5) Determine central ideas and themes, analyze their development, and summarize. 6) Use diverse formats and media. Literacy is addressed by the following daily objectives: 1) Given class time, every sixth grade student will be able to write original examples of each of the first 5 figurative language vocabulary terms. 2) Given class time, 100% of sixth grade students will be able to choose one word with a particular connotation and justify how their choice supports the theme of their poem. 3) Students will be able to sing the TPCASTT song, and will therefore be able to prove that they know the steps of how to analyze poetry using TPCASTT. Numeracy is addressed by the following daily activities:

1) Students played a matching game with vocabulary words and their definitions. Students used spatial comprehension to create pairs of two, matching words and their definitions. 2) Students wrote Number Poems in which they practiced aligning alliteration with the numbers 1-10. For example, One wacky worm waved. Two tiny turtles toppled. Technology is addressed by the daily activities: 1) Students discussed the connotation and denotation of images projected on the Smartboard and then assigned words to these images, in order to visualize their understanding of connotation and denotation. 2) Students analyzed a movie cover using the TPCASTT method, utilizing a digital image to solidify their understanding of how to analyze a poem. 3) In lesson plans following the ones recorded here, students shared their poems through blogs. Students were asked to demonstrate proficiency in a variety of ways: 1) Students produced their own original poems, which they shared on their poetry blogs. 2) Students participated in Socratic Circles, in which they prepared for and discussed with their peers the meaning of a poem. 3) Students took pre and post tests in the form of written paper assessments. This assessment required them to define vocabulary words, give examples of vocabulary words, identify figurative language in poetry, interpret the figurative language they identified, and apply their interpretation to the overall meaning of the poem.