Dino Poet
by Tom Angleberger
Pacing MaterialIn Tom Angleberger’s Dino Poet, a dinosaur’s enthusiasm for making poetry meets the lively, unpredictable world of prehistoric adventure. Combining poems, comic-style storytelling, and visual humor, this easy reader invites children to enjoy language as something they can play with, perform, and create.
Big Idea
Writers can turn their interests and experiences into poetry by choosing words, sounds, and pauses deliberately. Reading a poem aloud helps a writer discover how those choices affect its meaning, pace, and humor.
Discussion Questions
- 1.What do Dino Poet’s words and actions show us about how he feels about poetry? Which moment supports your idea?
- 2.How does the prehistoric world give Dino Poet things to write about? What could you write about in your own surroundings?
- 3.Choose a funny moment. How do the words and pictures work together to make it funny?
- 4.Where would you read slowly, quickly, loudly, or softly? What in the words or illustrations helped you decide?
- 5.What would you say to Dino Poet about one of his poems? What would you ask him about being a poet?
Lesson Plan
Learning Goals
- Use evidence from words and illustrations to describe Dino Poet’s interests and responses.
- Compose a short poem using precise words and at least one sound device, such as repetition, rhyme, or alliteration.
- Arrange words and pictures across three panels to create a clear sequence.
- Use phrasing, expression, and purposeful pauses when reading or performing a poem.
- Revise one writing or layout choice after listening to the poem aloud.
Activity Steps
- 1.Read a selected sequence from Dino Poet aloud. Invite children to identify what happens, what the dinosaur notices, and how the words and pictures convey his response.
- 2.Reread a short poem or exchange in two ways: quickly and slowly. Discuss which delivery best fits the meaning and humor, pointing to punctuation, word placement, or visual clues.
- 3.Brainstorm prehistoric sights and sounds, such as enormous footprints, rustling plants, or a thundering stomp. Explain that these are ideas for students’ own scenes, not necessarily events in the book.
- 4.Have children plan three panels: a dinosaur notices something; the dinosaur shares a two- to four-line poem about it; another character or the dinosaur responds. Offer dictation and word banks as needed.
- 5.Ask children to illustrate their panels and practice reading with a partner. Partners identify one effective word and one place where a pause or change of speed helps.
- 6.Have children revise one word, line break, punctuation mark, or panel choice, then share their poetry comics in a short class performance.
Standards Connections
- CCSS ELA RL.1.3: Describe characters, settings, and major events using key details.
- CCSS ELA RL.1.7: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
- CCSS ELA RF.1.4b: Read grade-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
- CCSS ELA W.1.5: With guidance and support, focus on a topic, respond to suggestions, and add details to strengthen writing.
- CCSS ELA SL.1.1: Participate in collaborative conversations with peers and adults. These Grade 1 connections are suggested reference points, not an assigned grade level for the book.
Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!
Dino Poet makes writing craft approachable by placing poetry inside an energetic, illustrated prehistoric story. Readers encounter language not simply as information, but as something a character makes and shares. In a Pace-Write-Read study, children investigate how a short stretch of language can sound different when its words, pauses, or delivery change. Study the book’s pacing at two levels: the movement of the comic story and the movement of the poems within it. Illustrations and panel sequences help readers follow action, while short lines, sound patterns, and punctuation offer opportunities to adjust the voice. Ask children to support their performance choices with something they can actually see on the selected page; not every passage needs to be fast, loud, or rhythmic in the same way. The workshop cycle is simple: notice, write, read aloud, and revise. Children borrow the book’s invitation to play with poetry without copying its wording. Their aim is to discover how a dinosaur-sized idea can become a small, expressive poem—and how listening to that poem can help them improve it.
| Element | How to notice or teach it in the novel |
|---|---|
| Pacing | Compare a lively action sequence with a moment when Dino Poet shares poetry. Ask how the amount of text, panel sequence, and oral delivery change the reader’s sense of speed. |
| Plot | Track what happens around Dino Poet’s poetry-making, separating an event from the poem about that event. Have children explain how sharing a poem affects what happens next in a selected sequence. |
| Prosody | Model expressive reading of a short passage, using phrasing, stress, and changes in pitch. Children should explain which words, punctuation, or illustrated expressions support their reading. |
| Word | Select an interesting word from one of Dino Poet’s poems and discuss both its meaning and its sound. Try a replacement and listen for changes in rhythm, mood, or humor. |
| Concept | Explore the central combination of dinosaurs and poetry: one suggests prehistoric adventure, while the other invites close attention to language. Ask what becomes possible or funny when those ideas meet. |
| Voice & Worldview | Notice how Dino Poet’s enthusiasm shapes what he says and what he considers worth writing about. Invite children to describe his attitude using evidence rather than assuming all dinosaurs would speak like him. |
| Point of View | Distinguish a character speaking in a balloon from any narration on the page. Rewrite one short observation as another character might express it, and discuss what changes. |
| Setting & Place | Examine the prehistoric surroundings in a selected illustration. Identify details that could supply a poet with a subject, a sound, or an action word. |
| Original Characters | Discuss how being a poetry-making dinosaur gives Dino Poet a distinctive identity beyond his appearance. Children can invent their own prehistoric poet with a different interest or speaking style. |
| Dialogue | Read an exchange involving Dino Poet with separate readers for the speaking roles. Notice how a response can interrupt, redirect, or add humor to a poetry moment. |
| Details | Find a small detail in the art or language that helps explain a character’s reaction. Use that detail as the starting point for a one-line student poem. |
| Descriptions | Compare what the pictures show with what the words describe. Challenge children to choose one vivid descriptive word rather than explain everything already visible in their drawing. |
| Firsts | Study Dino Poet’s first appearance and the first poetry moment readers encounter. Ask what each establishes about the kind of character and reading experience to expect. |
| Immediacy & Engagement | Choose a panel that quickly attracts attention through action, expression, or a striking utterance. Have children begin their own comic with an equally clear moment rather than a long introduction. |
| Story Scenes, Summaries & Structures | Identify a scene readers experience through successive panels and distinguish it from any passage that briefly reports events. For student comics, use a simple notice–poem–response structure. |
| Tension / Suspense / Surprise | Pause before a response or visual reveal and invite predictions. Discuss how an unexpected reaction to Dino Poet’s words can create surprise or humor. |
| Flashback, Flash-Forward, Cliffhanger | Check whether a selected sequence moves straight ahead or includes a time shift; do not label a flashback or flash-forward unless one is present. Use an unresolved moment before a page turn to explain how readers can be encouraged to continue. |
| Page Turns and Chapter Breaks | Study an actual page turn and, where present, a section or chapter break to see what information is delayed. Ask how the experience would change if the next image or response were visible immediately. |
| Pace & Creativity | Use Dino Poet’s poetry-making as an invitation to test more than one version of a line. Children can read the same line quickly and slowly before deciding whether to shorten it or give it more space. |
| Play | Look for playful combinations of dinosaur action and poetic language. Invite children to invent a surprising phrase that still communicates something their reader can understand. |
| Performance | Perform a brief Dino Poet passage with voice and gesture, then repeat it with fewer gestures. Discuss which choices clarify the words rather than distract from them. |
| Personality | Connect Dino Poet’s expressions, actions, and word choices to his personality. Ask children how their invented dinosaur poet’s personality will influence its poem. |
| Humor | Choose a funny moment and locate its setup and payoff in the words, pictures, or their combination. Experiment with a short pause before the payoff to hear how timing affects the joke. |
| Pause | Identify a place where a reader might pause because of punctuation, a line ending, or a character’s reaction. Compare readings with and without that pause. |
| Poetry / Poetic Devices | Inspect a poem in the book for devices actually present, such as rhyme, repetition, alliteration, or sound words. Let children borrow one device for an original dinosaur poem without requiring every poem to rhyme. |
| Repetition | Look for repeated words, sounds, or visual actions in a selected passage. If repetition occurs, discuss whether it builds rhythm, emphasizes an idea, or makes a moment funnier. |
| Rhythm | Speak a short poem and gently tap its natural stresses. Compare a smooth reading with a deliberately rushed one, emphasizing that rhythm does not have to mean a perfectly regular beat. |
| Punctuation | Examine the punctuation in Dino Poet’s speech or verse and test how it guides expression. Have children change one punctuation mark in their own writing and listen to the result. |
| Questions | Notice any questions characters ask and how they invite a reply or move an exchange forward. Children can try beginning a dinosaur poem with a question and ending with an unexpected answer. |
| Compare-Contrast | Compare Dino Poet’s poetic language with the language of an ordinary exchange in the story. Discuss differences in sound, arrangement, purpose, and reading speed. |
| Objects | Choose an object actually visible in a book illustration and describe it from Dino Poet’s perspective. Use the object as a concrete anchor for a short poem rather than a vague topic. |
| Threes | Check a selected sequence for groups of three words, actions, or images, without assuming the book consistently uses them. Then test a three-part student pattern: notice something, say a poem, show a response. |
| Lists | Gather three things Dino Poet could notice in a selected setting illustration. Turn the observations into a list poem and discuss which item makes the strongest ending. |
| White Space & Negative Space | Study the space around text, inside balloons, and between panels. Ask how a less crowded area can focus attention or give a reader room to pause. |
| Art & Graphics | Examine how facial expressions, poses, and panel boundaries contribute information beyond the words. Have children explain a moment first from its text and then from its art. |
| Interactives & Gamification | Turn the reading into a classroom 'poetry detective' game by asking children to find a sound pattern, a useful pause, and a visual joke. This is an instructional adaptation, not a claim that the book contains game features. |
| Placement | Follow the placement of balloons and pictures to determine reading order on a selected page. Children should place their own poem and reaction so a partner can follow the intended sequence. |
| Form | Discuss how Dino Poet combines comic storytelling with poetry rather than presenting only continuous prose. Compare how a poem looks and sounds inside a panel versus written separately on a page. |
| Dummy | Explain that a dummy is a rough practice version of a book or comic. Children can sketch a three-panel Dino Poet-inspired sequence to test text placement and pacing before adding finished artwork. |
| Passion | Use Dino Poet’s commitment to poetry to discuss how personal interests give writers subjects and energy. Invite children to make a dinosaur poem about something they genuinely care about. |
Pace-Write It!
20-minute Pace-Write-It! task: 'Stomp, Pause, Poem.' Minutes 0–4: Reread a short poetry moment from Dino Poet and its surrounding panels. Identify the poem’s subject and one specific clue for expressive reading. Minutes 4–7: Read the selection twice, changing speed or pause placement; children explain which reading better fits the words and pictures. Minutes 7–12: Each child writes or dictates a two- to four-line poem spoken by an imagined dinosaur noticing something in its prehistoric surroundings. Require one deliberate sound choice—repetition, alliteration, rhyme, or a sound word—but not all four. Minutes 12–16: Children place the poem in a speech balloon and draw a second panel showing a response, using the book’s combination of verse and visual storytelling as inspiration. Minutes 16–19: Partners perform their mini-comics, then suggest one helpful pause or word change. Minute 19–20: Children make one revision and explain: 'I changed ___ so my reader would ___.'
Classroom Activities
Pace-Write It! Dino-Sized Poems
Children create a three-panel dinosaur poetry comic inspired by Dino Poet’s combination of prehistoric adventure, playful language, and visual storytelling. They show a dinosaur noticing something, responding with a short poem, and reacting afterward, then experiment with reading the poem at different speeds. This lesson is designed for early elementary learners; children may write independently, dictate, or use shared writing.
Pace-Write It! Dino-Sized Poems
Children create a three-panel dinosaur poetry comic inspired by Dino Poet’s combination of prehistoric adventure, playful language, and visual storytelling. They show a dinosaur noticing something, responding with a short poem, and reacting afterward, then experiment with reading the poem at different speeds. This lesson is designed for early elementary learners; children may write independently, dictate, or use shared writing.
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