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For my mini-lesson today in Reading Workshop, I'll project the 5th grade Week 2 poem from
The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core ALL GRADES (K-5) e-book) (The Poetry Friday Anthology E-book Series (Grade-by-Grade))
It's a fun poem by Irene Latham in the voice of a backpack. It will get us talking about personification.
And about that talk...I've had great success with what Ellin Keene calls "Open Forum" in her book, Talk About Understanding: Rethinking Classroom Talk to Enhance Comprehension
When we're sitting in a circle (in chairs or on the floor) and I call for an "Open Forum" discussion, it lets the students know that they will "pass the conversational ball" from student to student, rather than every comment going through me. They do not raise their hands to take turns. After the first person speaks, the next person says that person's name, along with a statement of agreement or disagreement, or some other conversational segue. ("Billy, I agree with what you said about your backpack. I had the same thing happen one time...")
During the independent reading time on Poetry Friday, students read poetry alone or with a partner (or two). The goal is for everyone to participate in the oral reading of a poem at the end of the period during share time. Eventually, we will work together to develop a rubric to use for self- and teacher-evaluation of their presentations, but at the beginning, it's all for fun.
Last week, I limited the students to only the books in my poetry collection by Douglas Florian and J. Patrick Lewis, so this week I will choose books by topic -- perhaps only putting out books of nature poetry from which to choose. And, in keeping with the poem in the mini-lesson, we'll keep our eyes peeled for examples of personification the poems we read.
Poetry Friday is fairly informal and definitely a lot of fun. Even if you don't have a large collection of poetry in your classroom library, you can check 20-30 books out of your school or public library and be ready to have fun reading poetry once a week throughout the school year. Infect your class with your enthusiasm for having fun with poetry!
For fun with Poetry Friday on the blogs, go to Katya's blog, Write. Sketch. Repeat. for the Poetry Friday roundup of posts.
by Jim Murphy. This book is fun and one that can be revisited over and over. The book is in a multiple-choice/quiz format. Each page gives the reader an illustration of a bizarre invention, a little piece of information and 4 choices of what the invention is. When you turn the page, you see the correct answer, along with a few paragraphs about the information. This may include the reason for the invention, info on how the invention worked, 
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by Esme Raji Codell is one of the best books about Johnny Appleseed that I have read. This is a gorgeous picture book that shares the stories and legends about this man. I liked the writing in this one as well as the messages to readers. And the art is gorgeous.
. This book takes a look at several scientists who work in dangerous places to do research needed. I enjoyed the story about the storm chaser and I think my students will too. It really shows the research happen when it comes to weather.
by Lorree Griffin Burns was another that I think will be a great cover-to-cover read. It tells the story of people who participate in collecting data right in their own areas. The message that everyone is a scientist is a good one.
. I'm not sure I'll have time to get to it in the next week or two with school starting but I am hoping to dig in soon!
