Moving to a Virtual Poetry Unit
Background Information on this Unit:
This Second Grade Poetry Unit was planned for students who are currently learning from home due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. I adapted this unit so that students could still access the mini-lessons from home. I started off by recording the mini-lessons and then half-way through began teaching the lessons live through Zoom.
Links to Resources and Unit Plan
Poetry Unit Video Tutorials & Slides
Poetry Unit Plan
For my final project, I decided to use my Writing Poetry Unit for grade 2 because I adapted it to meet the needs of our Home Learning program. Because I needed to adapt this unit to meet the needs of my students learning from home, I was able to experiment a bit more with the original unit plan. I wanted students to be able to access the mini-lessons from home, receive feedback from their teachers, and use their network of teachers, parents, and peers to support their learning process.
For this unit, I adapted the Teachers College Writing Unit of Study: Poetry Big Thoughts in Small Packages book. In doing so, I wanted to create a tech-rich unit that would promote learning from home. I decided to use the ISTE’s Empowered Learner standards. These are the two areas I focused on:
- ISTE Empowered Learner 1b- Students build networks and customize their learning environments in ways that support the learning process.
- ISTE Empowered Learner 1c – Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
Changes to Unit
The content of the unit did not change when planning for home learning. What did change was how the material was delivered and how students received feedback. When I began teaching this unit to my students (who were learning from home), I was recording all of my mini-lessons and having students work through the videos independently or with the support of an adult at home.

As I received feedback from the parents and students, I realized the writing was difficult for them to grasp without my support. Therefore, I adjusted how I delivered the material and started meeting my students on Zoom each morning for a Live Writing Lesson. The live sessions were accompanied by slides that I could share as I walked the students through the lesson. Doing Writing sessions with the students was a huge relief for both the parents and students!

The biggest change in this unit plan was that the learning environment changed. I did not want this factor to hold my students back from learning. I wanted to set them up with a network that could support this change and promote student agency. In order to do this, students were assigned to small group breakout room sessions during Zoom, given Poetry Tutorial Slides to refer back to, and given a resource list of poetry structure choices (slide 23).
Another change to the original unit was that students uploaded their poems to their Poetry Books each day. This allowed students to get feedback from me or one of the support teachers each day. It also allowed students to utilize peer feedback since they weren’t able to do this in person. Students were also able to get feedback and support through my Office Hours block each day.
Post-Unit Reflections
After completing this unit, I hope to see that my students have found the best way to learn from home. That they are able to utilize their network (teachers, peers, and parents), to continue learning considering the circumstances. Students should be comfortable giving and receiving feedback. Most importantly, not only receiving feedback but using feedback to improve their practice. My hope is that students also feel that I deeply care about their learning, even if I am not physically with them. I do believe this is felt through the time I spend on Zoom with them, making individual calls to support them, or through the tutorial videos and slides, I have made.
I can feel that since I made the switch to Live Writing Lessons using Zoom a huge weight has been lifted from the parents’ shoulders. It is extremely difficult to teach your own child, let alone in a foreign language (for the Non-Native English speaking parents). Through surveys to the parents, I can see that they truly appreciate the time I spend working with their children remotely. The students’ reactions to the end of our Writing sessions on Zoom, also show me they enjoy doing the Writing together. When I tell the students they are done with Writing for the day, they cheer! It is one less thing they have to worry about figuring out on their own.
I have one more week of teaching this Poetry Unit. We will end the unit with peer-editing, self-editing, and learning how to spruce up the poetry books using Google Drawings. I am so proud of their dedication to learning, using their network, and utilizing feedback to improve their practice. This is truly a learning experience for everyone!