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Lesson Plan

Commemorative Coin Poetry

Main Subject Area: Language Arts

Duration of Lesson:  30 minutes

Keywords:

  • Bibliographies

Brief Description:

    Students discuss and research an individual or event that has been memorialized on a commemorative coin. They then use the information they found to write acrostics, creating stand-up accordion books to display the poems.

National Standard(s):

  • Demonstrate competence in the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing

Additional Subject Area Standard(s):

Objectives:

    Students will collect and organize research data and use it to write creatively.

Materials (online):

    Internet access

    The U.S. Mint's Web pages about commemorative coins - www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/commemoratives/index.cfm?action=Premodern, and www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/commemoratives/index.cfm?action=Modern

Materials (offline):

    Paper

    Pencils

    Art supplies

    Reference materials

Coins Used in Lesson:

    U.S. Commemorative Coins

Grade Level(s):   3-5  

Procedures (online):

    1. Research U.S. commemorative coins, for your students to use, by looking through the U.S. Mint's Web pages listed under Materials/Resources.

Procedures (offline):

    1. Decide which commemorative coin you want students to research.

    2. Using the KWL ("what we know, what we want to know, what we learned") strategy, brainstorm with the class about the coin's subject. Create a three-column KWL table, filling in the first column with facts they know about the subject and the second column with the questions they want answered (what they want to know).

    3. Divide the students into small groups, and assign each a question to research.

    4. As a class, have the groups share the answers they found. Use the information to fill in the third column of your KWL chart (what we learned).

    5. Divide the students back into the same small groups, and have them write an acrostic for the commemorative coin. For example, the first letter of each line in the poem could spell out the name of the individual or event:

    Originated in Athens

    Links people of many nations together

    Youngest athlete ever to compete was 12 years old

    Myriad of events

    Participants come from many countries

    Individual and team sports

    Cities around the world vie for the honor of hosting the games

    Summer and winter games are held every four years

    6. Have the groups create an illustrated page for each line of their acrostic, and then tape the pages together to form a stand-up accordion book for display.

Assessment / Evaluation:

    Use a standard writing rubric that includes any criteria set by you or the students to judge the merits of the acrostics and accordion books.

Differentiated Learning Options:

    Have students transform their acrostics into online or multimedia projects. Ask each student to write a brief essay explaining why the person or event was worthy of a commemorative coin.


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