Self Portrait Poetry Anthologies

Some teachers at my grade level begin the year with the student creation of Self Portrait Poetry Anthologies.  A colleague and I designed the unit based on Georgia Heard's Book, Awakening the Heart.  I think it's a great start of the year fourth grade unit for the following reasons:

• Short text.
• It's a "get to know yourself and each other" project.
• It's a nice first step to our goal of developing reading response writing.
• It has many avenues for success and presentation.

Today I introduced the project guidelines and modeled one poetry response.  In the next few days and weeks, the lessons will introduce students to the process of finding a poem that "speaks to you," copying and reading a poem, understanding a poem, poetry craft and vocabulary.  The project will end with students' podcasts and other creative projects.

If you decide to try this project, let me know how it goes.  Also, please share any revisions or new ideas you have for the process.  I've added a few links below that may help.

Poetry Links