My Inner Weather Report

imagery, key details, theme, mood, text evidence, summarizing, author’s purpose

This poem compares feelings to weather events. Its purpose is to help readers notice their feelings and realize how they change. 

The ideas of the poem are conveyed in both the words and the graphic illustration. It is told in the first-person.

The language is mainly simple; the word hovered might be challenging for some students. The graphic style and layout of some of the words and lines reflect their meaning.

No special knowledge is required.  

• On your classroom’s board or, if teaching remotely, in the chat, write a list of several emotions, for example: 
  • Upset 
  • Angry 
  • Joyful 
  • Excited 

Ask students to describe each emotion in the list using a weather event. Then have them look at the graphic poem. Without reading any of the text of the poem, ask students what weather events they can identify in the artwork and what emotions they associate with those weather events.

• Ask a volunteer to read aloud the Up Close box.

Read the poem aloud for the class a few times, or have students listen to the poet read the poem aloud. As students listen and follow along, ask them to think about what the pictures in each panel add to the experience of reading the poem.

1. What different weather events can you identify in the text and artwork of this poem? (key details) Students should mention most of the following types of weather: wind, a thunderstorm, lightning, thunder, rain, clouds, sunshine, a breeze. 
2. What is the “inner weather report” in the title and the last panel of the poem? What is the “fierce storm” in the first panel? (theme) The “inner weather report” is how the narrator feels inside. The “fierce storm” is a bad mood that the narrator of the poem experienced a day earlier.
3. How do the way some of the words are written and their position in the panels help you imagine the storm the narrator is describing? (imagery) The way “lightning” and “thunderclaps” are written help readers imagine the flashes of lightning and the cracks of thunder in the storm. “Pitch-black clouds hovered overhead” is inside an image of a cloud over the narrator. The line “and it poured all day long” is broken up in a way that looks like the rhythmic pitter-patter of rain falling.
4. 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 mood changed from one day to the next? (mood/text evidence) Yesterday, the narrator felt angry and upset. Today, she is feeling calm and happy. Answers for the second part of the question should be one of the following: 1. I know that she felt differently because the expression on her face changes in the panels from one day to the next. She looks 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 muted, and the colors in the last two panels are bright and cheerful. 3. I know she felt differently from one day to the next because the poem describes her experiencing a “fierce storm,” which seems like negative emotions, that happened yesterday and a calm, pleasant day that seems like positive emotions occurring today.
5. Read the text and look at the artwork in the final panel. How do they summarize the narrator’s experience over the whole poem? (summarizing) The last panel shows both a storm and a sun, which represent both weather events the narrator experienced throughout the poem. The text states that she’s been noticing her feelings as they come and go, just as the weather she’s described in the poem has come and gone from one day to the next.
6. How do you think comparing her feelings to weather events helps the narrator? (theme) In the last panel, the narrator of the poem says that her feelings—like the weather—come and go. Thinking of her emotions as weather events that pass probably helps her not get wrapped up in or overwhelmed by negative emotions because she realizes they will soon go away. Also, by comparing her emotions to the weather, she better understands that, just as she can’t control the weather, she cannot control or change her emotions. She can just “notice” them and wait for negative emotions to pass. 
7. What skills do you think the author wants the reader to gain from reading this poem? (author’s purpose) The author probably wants readers to learn how to think of their own emotions as weather events and learn how to take their own “internal weather report,” because then readers can better understand and acknowledge their feelings. They can also be reminded that it’s as normal as occasional bad weather to have bad days and that, like a rainstorm clearing into a sunny day, the bad days will eventually turn into happy ones. 

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 seconds to picture it. Then, have them think back to the last time they felt a “fierce storm” of emotions. Ask: What started the storm? How did it pass? Finally, discuss the following questions as a class: What can you do to help yourself, or someone else, battling a “fierce storm” of emotions? What can help turn a “fierce storm” into a sunny day? 

Distribute or assign the Poetry Kit (available in your Resources tab), which will guide students to write their own poem about their inner weather report!

• After they read the poem, have students record an “inner weather report” for themselves in the style of a TV weather report. They can either record their weather report on an app like Flipgrid to share with the class or send a video directly to you. 
• Have students create a journal where they’ll record their own “inner weather report.” Have them draw or describe their inner weather twice a day in the journal, once in the morning and once in the evening. 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.”