The Wizard

Prelutsky, Jack. (2007). The Wizard. B. Dorman (Illus.). New York, New York: Greenwillow Books

This adaptation of a poem from Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep shows the life of a wizard living in a tower. Bored by the monotony of his daily life, he decides to have fun when a bullfrog shows up, turning him into everything from a cockatoo to a flash of light.

Connecting to the Standards

Grade 2 RL (4): Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines) supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.

• Students will be able to recognize and identify the rhyme and beat of this poem.

Grade 2 SL (5): Create audio recordings of stories or poems; add drawings or other visual displays to stories or recounts of experiences when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

• Students will write and perform their own poem that has rhyme and rhyme.

Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to identify rhythm and rhyme in a story. They will identify the ending words that create the rhyme and the meter that creates the rhythm. Students will be able to write, edit, and revise their own poetry using meter and rhyme, much like The Wizard. 

Adapted to the Classroom

Students should have already had some experience with poetry and identifying rhythm and rhyme before they are asked to complete the creative writing activity in this lesson, writing there own poem with rhythm and rhyme. 

The book in this lesson, The Wizard is just one example of a poem book that can be used along with this creative writing activity. Students should be exposed to a variety of rhythm-and-rhyme poetry to establish an understanding of different types of rhythm and possibilities for rhyme. 

Once this understanding has been established, students will engage in a creative writing activity that tests their understanding of rhythm-and-rhyme poetry. Students will, over a long writing period, create their own poem using rhythm and rhyme. Students will write over a period of 2-3 weeks, editing and revising their poems. When they are finished, the poems could be recorded by the students and posted to the classroom website.

Bloom's Taxonomy

What are the parts or features of a rhythm-and-rhyme poem? (Analysis)

Create your own rhythm-and-rhyme poem. (Synthesis)

Differentiation

Because this assignment occurs over a long period of time, teachers will have the chance to meet with students who are having trouble completing the assignment and help them get back on track. Some possibilities for support may include a rhyming dictionary or give students the chance to look online for rhymes for their poems.