Character Education Development/Acrostic (Name Poetry)

Based on district-wide character education words of the month, students will write one positive character trait about each of their classmates.

Students will use the positive characteristic traits written by their classmates to compose an acrostic (first and last name) poem and follow poetry writing style.

Students will use a thesaurus to enhance vocabulary.

Students will use a computer to type poem.

Language Arts - State Goals

	3.B.2a - Generate and organize ideas using a variety of planning strategies.
	3.B.2b - Establish central idea, organization, elaboration and unity in relation to purpose and audience.
	3.B.2d - Edit document for clarity, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc.
	3.C.2a - Write for a variety of purposes and for specified audiences in a variety of forms.
	3.C.2b - Produce and format compositions for specified audiences using available technology.
	4.A.2c - Restate and carry out a variety of oral instruction.
	5.A.2b - Organize and integrate information from a variety of sources.

Social Emotional - State Goals

	1A.2b. - Describe and demonstrate ways to express emotions in a socially acceptable manner.
	1B.1b - Explain how peers can support school success and responsible behaviors.
	2A.2a - Identify verbal, physical, and situational cues that indicate how others may feel.
	2A.2b - Describe the expressed feelings and perspectives of others.
	2B.2a - Identify differences among and contributions of various social and cultural groups.
	2B.2b - Demonstrate how to work effectively with those who are different from oneself.
	2C.2a - Describe approaches for making and keeping friends.
	3A.2a - Demonstrate the ability to respect the rights of self and others.
	3C.2a - Identify and perform roles that contribute to the school community.

Example of Acrostic Poem:

M million dollar smile,

A always reading,

R ready to learn,

Y young at heart!

J joyful and full of life,

O on the go,

N nice to others,

E empathy toward classmates,

S silent and peaceful!

Pencil/Note paper

Acrostic Poetry Writing Rubric

This lesson will require one 50-minute work session.

Students will put their name on a piece of notebook paper.

Inform students that they will pass the notebook paper around to all classroom peers.

Instruct students to write one positive character trait about the peer whose paper they have.

Tell students to pass papers until all students have written something about each of their classmates (zigzag if in rows).

Instruct students how to write an acrostic poem using the given example.

Review the acrostic poetry writing rubric. Students will go to the computer lab to create and type individual acrostic poems using a thesaurus to enrich writing.

Students will be graded using the acrostic poetry rubric.