Unit Plan 22 (Grade 3 ELA): Exploring Poetry Forms

Grade Level: 3

Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading, Writing, Language)

Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session

I. Introduction

This week, students explore core poetry features—rhyming, repetition, stanzas, and rhythm—and learn how poem parts work together to create meaning and sound. Learners examine how stanzas build across a poem (structure), how illustrations or layout support understanding (visuals), and how word choice can be chosen for effect (sound, mood, emphasis). By Friday, students analyze a new poem’s structure and visuals, label its rhyme or repetition pattern, and write a short stanza using purposeful words for effect.

II. Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…

1. Identify lines and stanzas and explain how each stanza builds the poem’s big idea.
2. Recognize rhyme and repetition patterns and describe how they affect meaning and sound.
3. Explain how illustrations, layout, or visual elements (line breaks, white space, typography) contribute to understanding.
4. Choose words for effect when drafting a stanza (sound words, vivid verbs/adjectives).

Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 3

• Reading Literature: RL.3.5 (refer to parts of poems; describe how parts build on each other)
• Reading Literature: RL.3.7 (explain how illustrations and other visual elements contribute to meaning, tone, beauty)
• Language: L.3.3a (choose words and phrases for effect)

Success Criteria — student language

• I can point to stanzas/lines and tell how a later stanza adds to the poem.
• I can label a rhyme or repetition pattern (e.g., AABB, refrain) and tell how it changes the poem’s sound/meaning.
• I can explain how an illustration or layout helps me understand or feel the poem.
• I can write a four-line stanza using words that create a clear sound or mood.