As with any unit of study, we like to reflect on our work and what we’ve learned (about the genre, writing in general and/or ourselves) before moving on to a new unit. This is a great time to incorporate the voices of published poets, allowing students to identify poets whose work habits and writing experiences resonate with them. This promotes a feeling of connectedness to a writing community that is larger than our own classroom and school.
Reflection might include verbal whole class activities and personal writing in writers’ notebooks. We like to use this time to make connections among units of study as well, perhaps helping students identify commonalities among genres—for instance, although poetry and fiction are different in many ways, using concrete images that help readers create pictures and scenes in their minds as they read are traits of good writing in both genres.
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