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This unit was from when we were teaching virtually in 2020. I was a terrible virtual teacher and I really hated it, but I think some good handouts came out of it. I decided to teach The Poet X after my 10 self-contained students voted to read it. The free unit for The Poet X is detailed below.
How I Had Kids Vote on the Class Book
One thing I am committed to this year is trying (to the extent possible) to let the kids pick the books that we read as a whole class. (I have a lot of reasons for doing whole class texts, but that's a whole other blog post.) To set up the vote, I gave the kids a reading questionnaire (attached below this paragraph), looked at the demographics of each class (listed in my grade book), and looked at their Reading Inventory scores. We use the Scholastic Reading Inventory as our baseline testing tool and it provides us with the reading range for each student based on lexile. After looking at all of this information, I offered my classes three books that I thought might match their interests and were within their “stretch” reading limits (ie: no more than 100 Lexile points over their reading level. I offered my 9 & 10 reading classes Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.
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To introduce the books to the kids, I put a short PowerPoint together that for each book had a picture of the cover, the first page, and a short summary. I talked through the PowerPoint and read the first few pages of each book to the kids. After that, the kids voted by filling in a Google form. I have attached my PowerPoint if you would like to use it, but you will need to update the Google form or voting tool that you use, as mine is attached to my school account.
Here is the reading questionnaire:
Here are the slides that I used to introduce the books:
Since I have 5 preps this year, I hoped that some of my classes would vote on the same book, and I lucked out with my 9 & 10 reading classes opting for the same book: The Poet X. Phew.
If you have not read The Poet X yet, order it right now!! Elizabeth Acevedo creates stories for kids who often feel left out, who feel that literature does not represent them. Acevedo came to our school last year to talk about her writing, and my class of freshmen sat still for 45+ minutes listening to her speak. The kids will see themselves in her books. In The Poet X, Xiomara, a Dominican-American teen from Harlem, is trying to figure out who she is. She wants to join the school spoken word poetry club but cannot due to her very strict and very religious mother. She wants to date. She wants to dream. This is the story of Xiomara taking the steps to become who she wants to be.
Whenever I teach a book in my reading classes, I follow the
"Before/During/After" (B/D/A) format that I learned in grad school to prep kids to read a passage.
Before: Activate background knowledge, pre-teach vocabulary, introduce big ideas
During: Have kids doing something while reading
After: Do something that helps kids process the text and that also helps you check for comprehension: connect back to the opening activities, write, whatever...just have them do something to process.
I think it's a simple and handy tool to use to remind myself of the work I need to do in order to set up struggling readers for success with a text.
Steps to Teach the Opening of Poet X
Here is how I started The Poet X. I wanted to lay the groundwork for bigger ideas such as “adolescent needs,” but I also just needed to explain the structure of the text and introduce the characters.
Step 1: We started by reading the opening page together and talking about the structure and language. Poet X is a novel in verse, so although students can turn pages quickly, they still need a bit of a tutorial on the format. If you say that “each page is a poem,” they also freak out, because think poetry is a special kind of tool to torture them...so I usually say, very quickly, that “it’sanovelinversesoeverypageisapoembutifyoulistentoitandnotgethungupontheformat, youwill hearthestory.” And then I hit the play button on the audiobook and play the first page for them before the kids can get hung up on the word “poem”
I usually check out the audiobook from my school library or my county library, and if I can’t do that I buy my own through Audible. The professional recordings are so beautiful and I usually don’t regret the money even though I really try to not spend my own money* on classroom supplies (*because we shouldn’t have to spend our own money on the best tools for the classroom…*)
Sometimes I read the opening passage myself, but I butcher the Spanish and I don’t think I do the story justice. On the other hand, many kids enjoy hearing the teacher make mistakes and feeling insecure while reading, so it’s a good way to build empathy.
Step 2: The Poet X has a lot of Spanish in it, so after we read the opening page, I talked to them about how to deal with the words (Spanish or English) that they do not understand.
I tell them to-
skip them. If they understand the story, they can just skip over the word and not read it
use context clues
use cognates
Google it
Step 3: Then I played the opening passage one more time and asked basic comprehension questions:
Where does Xiomara live?
What does the main character see and hear in this passage?
What do we learn about the main character?
The beginning of any good book should introduce a conflict. Can you identify any conflicts yet? What evidence do you have?
Step 4. I repeated the above process for the first five chapters (“Stoop Sitting”- “First Words”). I played the chapters out loud one at a time and then asked the questions in Step 3 after each chapter.
Step 5: Once I felt the kids had established a small foothold on the story, I introduced some of the bigger ideas that I wanted them to think about. I did a little research and found some websites with information on teenage development and then I took that information and made a very rough introductory PowerPoint. I asked kids to take notes on looseleaf while I was talking, but since they are virtual. I have no idea if they did. During a normal school year, I would make them a note taking guide, but we are not allowed to ask them to print anything so I just lectured and hoped they took notes or partially listened. The PowerPoints and all class materials get posted on Canvas so that they can access the information if they need it at any point. Anyway, while studying the Poet X, I want students thinking about teenage development as well as health relationships (which we get to later.)
So first I used this PowerPoint to lecture:
This Powerpoint has information from these websites, along with some other general knowledge:
Step 6: After lecturing, I have them listen to "Stoop-Sitting" through "Mami, I Say to Her on the Way Home" and in a paragraph,
Identify 2 needs that are not getting met.
Identify needs that are getting met.
...and that is how I get kids started with The Poet X. I am not the most creative teacher, but I am certainly practical and comprehension driven! I also care a lot about engagement and checking often for understanding and attention.
Lessons for Part 1 The Poet X
Day 1
To start Part 1 of The Poet X, I asked kids to write a short paragraph about the meaning of their name, since there is a chapter dedicated to the meaning of Xiomara’s name. This assignment would also work well with The House on Mango Street, as there is a small section where Esperanza talks about what her name means in English and in Spanish.
Here is the assignment sheet: Name paper
I leave concrete, extension assignments for students to do as homework (aka the “name paper,” etc), because they are fun, interesting, and help the kids connect to the book, but I do not assign work for homework that is absolutely necessary for the next day’s lesson.
Below covers more of what I did for Part 1 of The Poet X. The page chunks below are arbitrary; this is what I could cover in a class period with opening and closing activities.
Day 2
“When You’re Born to Old Parents” (18) to “Final Draft of Assignment” (41)
Lesson:
I started the lesson for this section by reviewing the last class with a quick Q & A and writing the answers up on the digital whiteboard.
What is the setting?
Who are the main characters?
What is the main conflict?
What do teenagers need to be happy?
After the opening Q & A, I asked the kids to find the PowerPoint about adolescent needs, which I posted on Canvas (our online warehouse), and look through it for 2-3 minutes.
Once they have reviewed the PowerPoint, I asked them to write in their journal for 10 minutes in response to the following prompt:
Prompt: In your journal, write for 10 minutes about which needs are and are not met in your own life. I didn’t have kids share out responses when they finished, but instead ask them to take a minute to quietly think about the ways in which they did or did not connect to Xiomara.
In a bid to bolster independence, I then asked the kids to read pages 18-27 on their own ( "When You Are Born to Old Parents" through “Rumor Has It”) I then had them fill in this character chart about Mami, which I felt they could handle on their own. After the chart they had to write a paragraph about why Mami was so strict.
Mami & Papi Character Chart
This is as much as my kids could get done in a lesson. They finished the chart and paragraph for homework.
Day 3
"First Confirmation Class" - "Caridad & I Shouldn't be Friends"
Lesson
To start this lesson, I asked the kids to share out what they wrote in their character charts and to share out their ideas about Mami.
At this point, I felt the students had a good grasp of the start of the story so I started to get into the language of the book a bit. I focused specifically on metaphors for this lesson and presented this information to the students. I asked them to take some notes in their English notebook, but since we are virtual, I have no idea if they did or not.
Poet X Metaphor PowerPoint
After the metaphor PowerPoint, I had students listen to "First Confirmation Class" through "Caridad & I Shouldn't be Friends.” I stopped whenever there was a metaphor and talked through it with the kids. If I was on my game I would have made a chart, but...that will be a task for next year!
For homework, I had students extend the lesson by completing the “religion and metaphor” assignment below. I asked them to think about their own religious beliefs (or lack thereof) and create a metaphor to summarize it. This was actually pretty tough for the kids and most of them needed a bit of help coming up with their metaphor.
Here is the handout with the prompt:
Day 4
"Questions I Have"-"Final Draft of Assignment"
Lesson
Because we are virtual, I usually start with an icebreaker. I have not posted most of them in my blogs about The Poet X because they are pretty general, but every once in a while I connect the icebreaker to the text, which always made me feel like Super Teacher. Since I taught this book early in the year, I ended up doing icebreakers at the start of most lessons. Today’s opening isn’t really an icebreaker but it helped me learn a bit about each kid’s current mood.
I started by asking the kids to create a simile where they compared being a teenager to an object. I had to review simile quickly (and I would go over it later in the lesson), but a brief verbal review with the sentence starter below was enough to get them started.
Prompt: Being a teenager is like _____________________ because_____________
After the opening simile creation, I had students complete these Kahoots to review characters and plot events: Kahoot 1, Kahoot 2
After the Kahoot, I went through this PowerPoint in order to review metaphors and reintroduce similes.
Similes vs. Metaphors PowerPoint
For the next chunk of pages, ("Questions I Have" -"Final Draft of Assignment"), I asked students to listen for similes and metaphors, and then I played the pages out loud.
After the read aloud, I asked students to complete this simile and metaphor chart.
Day 5
Listen to "Routine" through "All Over a Damn Wafer"
Lesson
For this chunk of pages, I could not figure out what to focus on because there was so much going on. Some of the topics in this section include sibling relationships, sexual harassment, and, Xiomara's relationship with church. Ultimately I decided to leave the big takeaway of the lesson flexible.
At the start of class I asked students to take out a notebook and a piece of paper. I told them that I was going to play the next chunk of pages and that I needed them to write down three down questions and three text-to-self connections. (Most of my kids already knew what a “text”-to “self” connection was but some years I have to explain it.)
After we were done listening to the section, I gave the students a handout to fill out with their questions & connections. I answered the questions on the spot and that was the lesson for the day.
Poet X Questions & Connections Handout
Day 6
"The Flyer" to "Asylum"
Lesson:
This lesson started with an icebreaker where I asked each student to share out an answer to one of the following questions: Icebreaker: What club do you wish we had at our school? Or, which extra curricular activity do we have that you really like?
I asked students this question because we were about to start the part of the book where Xiomara first notices the flyer for the Spoken Word Poetry Club.
Before I played the book for the kids though, I had them watch this amazing slam so that they could understand what Spoken Word Poetry is. *Warning: Language* I would only show this to my high schoolers..
Title of poem: "Monster"
I did not follow up with this poem or do more than a cursory discussion about it, but I think this is an area that is ripe for development next year.
I finished the lesson by:
-Going over “asylum” and what it means (but I would like to develop more next year)
-Answering questions from last lesson
-Having kids listen to pages 67-84 "The Flyer" to "Asylum"
To wrap up Part 1 of The Poet X, I simply had the kids listen to the last few pages and then complete the Part 1 reading check. The reading check was just a list of short answer questions, BUT it took forever and I should have done the reading checks in small chunks (note 100 to self for next year!)
The Poet X Part 1 Reading Check
After the reading check, I pick a few questions from The Poet X Multiple Choice Test (paid product) and use them as a reading quiz.