To This Day Poem

Originally, I was going to choose an excerpt from Bud, Not Buddy for the key assignment. We had previously read this novel as a whole group in class and I completed the text completxity assignment based off of this text. However, due to recent, intense incidents of bullying in my classroom and in the school, I began to look for resources around bullying and I came across the spoken word poem “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan . Not only did the topic of this poem scream to be introduced to my class, I also noticed that it contained powerful imagery and metaphors that could be used during lesson two of this close reading unit. Additionally, I wanted to make a tie-in between spoken word poetry and rap verses as a way to encourage buy-in from my

The first lesson will focus on CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2 where we create annotations and gist statements to help us begin to understand how to find theme and to help us summarize the text. Standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4 will be addressed by having students complete a graphic organizer to help them understand how the poet uses metaphors in the poem. Standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7, while not the focus of this lesson, will be introduced through thinking about how the video that goes along with the poem compliments and extends the figurative language in the poem. Finally, students will have an opportunity to experience CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.5.3.D when they write their own spoken word poetry, focusing on how they can use words to convey