Poem with illustrations of a girl reacting to a storm.
Shannon Wright
Poetry,

My Inner Weather Report

A graphic poem about identifying your feelings

By Georgia Heard | Art by Shannon Wright
From the September 2021 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will read a poem presented in a graphic form and discuss how it uses images of different types of weather as a way of identifying feelings. 

 

Complexity Factors
  • Purpose & Levels of Meaning
    The poem uses the metaphor of weather to describe emotions and the way people’s feelings can change from day to day.
  • Structure
    This is a free-verse graphic poem with some elements of concrete poetry. For example, the words “all day long” are positioned on the page to mimic falling rain. The poem is structured like a comic book, with words and illustrations appearing in a series of cartoon panels. The ideas of the poem are conveyed through both the words and the graphic illustrations. It is told in the first person.
  • Language
    The poem includes some domain-specific vocabulary, such as bolts, lightning, thunderclaps, and breezes. In addition, there are a few words that may be challenging for students: fierce, pitch-black, and hovered.
  • Knowledge Demands
    No prior knowledge is required to appreciate the poem.
Featured Skill: Main Idea and Supporting Details,
Other Key Skills: visual literacy, key details, interpreting text, inference, figurative language, compare and contrast, text evidence, connecting to the text
Standards
  • Common Core
    RL.1, RL.2, RL.3, RL.4, RL.5, RL.6, RL.7, SL.1, SL.2, L.1, L.5
  • TEKS Grade 3
    1a, 1c, 3b, 4a, 6a, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 7c, 7f, 7g, 9b, 10c, 10d
Content-Area Connections
  • English Language Arts
    figurative language
  • Social and Emotional Learning
    self-awareness (identifying emotions)

Presentation View
See Student View
Think and Read: Main Idea

The speaker in the poem talks about her feelings by comparing them to different types of weather. Think about how describing your feelings this way could be helpful.

My Inner Weather Report

Yesterday a FIERCE STORM blew in

with bolts of LIGHTNING 

and THUNDERCLAPS


Pitch black clouds

hovered overhead, 

and it poured all day long.


Today I feel sunny

with gentle clouds and no breezes at all.

I'm learning to take my inner weather report—

and notice my feelings

as they come and go.

FROM MY THOUGHTS ARE CLOUDS. TEXT © 2021 BY GEORGIA HEARD. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION OF ROARING BROOK PRESS, A DIVISION OF HOLTZBRINCK PUBLISHING HOLDINGS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Activities (5)
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
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Activities (5) Download All Quizzes and Activities
Skills Activities
Answer Key (1)
Can't Miss Teaching Extras
From the Storyworks 3 Archives

Share another graphic poem with your class, “A Circle of Sun,” from our May/June 2020 issue.

Encourage Expression

Ask students to check in with how they’re feeling and document their own “inner weather report.” Assure them that they may keep their responses private. Students might choose to draw a picture, write a journal entry, or create their own graphic poem. (You can find a document with blank cartoon panels above.)

Teach This

For tips on how to talk about feelings and why it’s important to do so, direct your students to “Talking About Your Feelings” at the Kids Health website.

Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Table of Contents

1. Preparing to Read

2. Reading and Discussing the Poem

3. SEL Focus

4. Skill Building

5. Differentiate and Customize

Struggling Readers, Multilingual Learners, Advanced Readers, Text-to-Self Connection

1. Preparing to Read

Set a Purpose for Reading 

  • On your classroom’s board (if teaching remotely, on your digital board or in the chat) write a list of several emotions, for example: 

    • Sad 

    • Angry 

    • Happy

    • Excited 

  • Ask students to describe each emotion in the list using weather-related words (stormy, sunny, etc.). Then have them look at the graphic poem. Have the class choose one of the panels without reading the words. What type of weather is shown in this panel? Ask students to identify an emotion they associate with that type of weather.
  • Read aloud the bubble labeled Main Idea, and instruct students to keep this prompt in mind as they read the poem.

Preview Text Features and Vocabulary

  • Read the title and point out the names of the poet and the artist who created the poem together. You might want to share our video, “Artist Visit: Shannon Wright,” at this point (or you can wait until after your students have read the poem).

  • Indicate any vocabulary terms that may be challenging for your students, and ask if anyone knows their definitions. Look up the meanings of the words together, as needed. Direct students’ attention to the following words: fierce, pitch-black, thunderclaps, hovered.  Review their meanings together.

  • Ask students to describe the various images in the illustration.

2. Reading and Discussing the Poem

  • Read the poem to the class, play the audio version, or use text-to-speech.

  • Next, ask students to take turns reading aloud each line in the poem.

  • Discuss the Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions. (Alternatively, assign all or part of the Learning Journey Slide Deck, which contains the questions as well as other activities from this lesson plan and a link to the poem.)

  • Follow up with the SEL Focus activity.

Close-Reading and Critical-Thinking Questions  (30 minutes)

  • What different weather-related things can you see in the artwork of the poem? (visual literacy/key details) Students should mention most of the following: wind, a thunderstorm, lightning, thunder, rain, clouds, sunshine, a breeze. 
  • Think about the title of the poem and what you read in the Main Idea bubble. Now, look at the first panel. Is the “fierce storm” an actual storm? What do those words actually describe? (interpreting text) No, the fierce storm describes the unhappy and upset feelings of the narrator.
  • The panel in the middle of the poem contains the words “Pitch-black clouds hovered overhead, and it poured all day long.” How does the narrator probably feel in this panel? (inference) The narrator probably feels angry or very unhappy.
  • How do the pictures in this panel help you figure out what the narrator is feeling? (visual literacy) The pictures in this panel show big, black rain clouds with rain falling on the girl. The dark and stormy weather plus the look on the girl’s face help you figure out that she’s feeling mad or upset. 
  • Look at the first panel at the bottom. What does the narrator mean in the line “Today I feel sunny”? (figurative language) The narrator means that she is feeling happy.
  • How did the narrator of this poem feel yesterday compared with today? What is one clue from the text or artwork that tells you her feelings changed from one day to the next? (compare and contrast/text evidence) Yesterday, the narrator felt angry and upset. Today, she is feeling calm and happy. Answers might include: 1. I know that she felt differently because the expression on her face changes in the panels from one day to the next. She looked worried and upset yesterday but peaceful today. 2. The colors in the artwork change with the narrator’s changing emotions. The colors for the panels describing yesterday are dark, and the colors in the last two panels are bright and cheerful. 
  • What does the narrator mean when she says, “I’m learning to take my inner weather report—and notice my feelings as they come and go.” (main idea) The girl is comparing her feelings to different kinds of weather. She is learning to pay attention to her feelings and to notice how they change.
  • Why might it be helpful to notice and describe what you’re feeling? (main idea/connecting to the text) Answers will vary. Students might suggest that being able to notice and describe your feelings can help you understand yourself better, as well as help others understand you better. Noticing that your feelings change, like the weather does, could help you understand that a bad feeling won’t stick around forever.

3. SEL Focus

Mindfulness

This poem introduces a technique for students to identify and talk about their emotions, and provides a framework for them to constructively think about negative emotions they might encounter. After reading the poem, lead students in a guided meditation and discussion that will help them reflect on their own emotions. Have them close their eyes and take a few deep breaths. Ask: What weather event best matches how you’re feeling at this moment? Give them a few moments to picture it. Afterward, allow students to draw what they pictured during the guided meditation. If students are comfortable sharing their drawings with the class, invite them to do so.

4. Skill Building

Featured Skill: Main Idea

Distribute or digitally assign our Main Idea Skill Builder and have students complete it in class or for homework.  

Differentiate and Customize
For Struggling Readers

Read the poem aloud once with your students. Then read the poem again, pausing after each panel to discuss the words and pictures. During a third read, ask students to act out what’s happening in each panel with their hands, bodies, or voices. For example, they might stomp their feet and clap their hands to act out the thunderstorm in the second panel or smile to act out the sunny feeling of the fourth panel. For the final panel, ask students to take their own inner weather reports and act out what they’re feeling.

For Multilingual Learners (MLL)

Some multilingual learners may be unfamiliar with the term weather report. Take a few moments to explain what a weather report is. (You might want to show a brief video clip of a weather report from the news.) Direct students’ attention to the illustrations in each panel and ask them to describe the weather in the poem. Ask: How does the weather change throughout the poem? Have students describe how the girl looks in the top frames, the middle frame, and the bottom frames. Ask: Based on her expressions, how do her feelings seem to change? Afterward, read the poem aloud then discuss how trying to understand your feelings is like taking an “inner weather report.”

For Advanced Readers

Have students create a journal where they’ll record their own “inner weather report.” Have them draw or describe their inner weather once a day in the journal. After a week, have them look back over their journal and reflect on how their internal weather changed—or stayed the same—throughout the week. They can then use what they recorded in the journal as a starting point to write a poem in the style of “My Inner Weather Report.”

Text-to-Self Connection

After they read the poem, have students record an “inner weather report” for themselves in the style of a TV weather or news report. Some students may be unfamiliar with TV weather reports, so show the class a video of one and briefly discuss its typical structure and elements. Students can either record their weather report on an app like Flipgrid to share with the class or send a video directly to you. 

Text-to-Speech