Planned Lesson Activities

Activity Name Look at That Natural World Around You and What Do You See?
Approx. Time 83 minutes
Anticipatory Set
(5 min.)






1. There are a million ways to interpret a poem and only like 1 wrong way: if you cant
back it up with evidence from the poem an alien from outer space, zombies taking
over the world. The idea with poetry is to try to understand the meaning of the poem
beyond just the words that you see. One way to get to a deeper meaning of poetry is to
think of poetry symbolically.
2. Famous author Henry David Thoreau wrote a book called Walden about his
experience living very simply in the woods in a cabin that he built. Thoreaus idea was
that ones true self could be lost amid the distractions of ordinary life. He ran an
experiment where he stripped away those distractions to see if living deliberately
instead of automatically, he would find his true self in a simpler life. His work is about a
connection with the natural world.
3. A lot of poetry is about nature because nature cant speak for itself, so we want to
speak for nature.
The wind caressed her face.
The river cleansed his soul.
Teaching/
Presentation:
(15 min.)
1. Input:
Poems: The Pond and Golden
Color archetypes: the archetypal meaning behind colors in literature
Symbol: something that stands for something else, a single snapshot of a connected
idea. Its called a logographic cue. A stop sign stands for stop your car, the = sign



(20 min.)

stands for the concept of equality. On your computer screen the icons stand for
various programs.
Image: what you visualize in your head when you read

2. Modeling: Gradual Release:
a. Read The Pond
b. (I do, you watch): CSI Protocol step #1: What is the core idea that you can see
represented? When thinking about the core ideas in these poems, make note of
big ideas that you find interesting, important, or insightful about the different
examples. Make sure to demonstrate your thinking on the poems through: coding
the text for your thinking.
(I do, you help) Reread poem again for a purpose. Then, use the Color Archetypes
to help choose a color that represents one of the core ideas you see represented
in the natural world poem.
(I do, you help) Create a symbol that you feel represents the core ideas you have
identified in the two poems.
(I do, you help) Draw an image that represents what you literally see/visualize in
the poem. What is the image in your head? Stick figures are totally fine if youre
not a drawer

3. Checking for Understanding: I check for understanding in the I do, you help steps of
the gradual release process and ask students if they need any clarification on the
directions for what we are doing.
4. Questioning Strategies: The CSI thinking strategy is an analysis and synthesizing activity
for students. The questions is asks encourages both of these levels of Blooms
Taxonomy. The Natural World Poems Work questions ask students knowledge
comprehension and application questions.

Teaching
Strategy:
(Guided Practice)
(20 min.
explained above)

The teaching strategy for this lesson is a gradual release model. The first poem, I model how
to fill out a CSI thinking protocol. The second poem, we read together as a class, and I only
model the first step of the CSI thinking protocol and the students fill out the rest of it on their
own. The natural world poems work is done on their own.


Teaching
Strategy:
(20 min.)



Daily Journal Prompt: The daily journal prompt is time when students work on writing
stamina (a full 4 minutes of writing on either the prompt or a topic of choice). Sometimes the
journal prompts function as an anticipatory set for the lesson.
Daily Reading: The daily reading time is when students work on reading stamina (at least a full
6 minutes) and this time can be used to conference with individual students about their
reading and/or writing in class.
CSI for Golden: Students see a CSI modeled for The Pond and help to fill it out as a class
and then have to fill out a CSI on Golden on their own.
Read poem together as a class.
(You do, I help) What is the core idea that you can see represented? When thinking about
the core ideas in these poems, make note of big ideas that you find interesting, important,
or insightful about the different examples. Make sure to demonstrate your thinking on the
poems through: coding the text for your thinking.
(You do, I help) Reread poem again for a purpose. Then, use the Color Archetypes to help
choose a color that represents one of the core ideas you see represented in the natural
world poem.
(You do, I watch) Create a symbol that you feel represents the core ideas you have
identified in the two poems.
(You do, I watch) Draw an image that represents what you literally see/visualize in the
poem. What is the image in your head? Stick figures are totally fine if youre not a drawer

Natural World Poems Work: students answer questions about the poems after filling out the
CSI to demonstrate their ability to find a deeper meaning in the poem, and to help guide their
comprehension of the poem overall.
Closure

Ticket out the Door: If you could give a voice to anything in nature, what would you give a
voice to and why?
Materials


natural world poems
CSI (2)
Natural world poem work
Journals
Composition books
Document Cam
Differentiation

To modify: Students with IEP only need to fill out first 2 questions on natural world poems
work and have extended time to fill out the CSI for Golden
To extend: students with ALP can expand their CSI to two colors and defend how the poem


could symbolically be either color.
Assessment


This assessment is formative to see that students can interpret a poem and use a protocol to
help them analyze and make meaning of a poem. Poetry is often symbolic and requires
students to be able to discover both connotative and denotative meaning in a poem. The
protocol asks students to categorize the poems into possible symbolic meaning.