5-26/27 2010 Tone

Lesson:
We traded our chosen poem with a classmate and had them analyze it and rate it for difficulty.
We looked at how to read a poem with appropriate tone. If absent please visit this following links to get some ideas about tone. Listen to numbers: 1, 2, 21, 28, and 30.
http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/audiocd.html

HMWK:
Mark up your poem for tone. Bring the marked up version to class next time along with your paragraph analyzing your poem
Practice reading your poem (begin memorizing)

5-24/25 2010 Poem-splosion!

Lesson:
We had our two marked up poems stamped.
We spent the entire class ingesting poems trying to find the perfect poem to share with our classmates.

HMWK:
Type two analysis paragraphs for your two top poems. Bring them next time with your marked up copies of these poems.

5-14/17 2010 Practice Practice Practice.....

Lesson:
We emphasized the important aspects of choral reading. See the choral reading sheet on the assignments page to see the rubric and how you will be graded.

We then practiced with our groups for the remainder of class.

HMWK:
Choral Reading practice. Performance next class.
Group analysis due next class!

5-11/12 2010 Speaking!

Lesson:
We practiced strategies for dramatic reading. Here are the basics:

Take Risks
Have a sense of humor
Be helpful (critique-don’t criticize)
Be willing to take critiques
Be respectful and sensitive of other peoples fears, concerns, and time.
Listen!
Practice

We then divided into groups for a choral reading. You can see your group and the poems for your group on the assignments page.

Homework:
Read your poem and analyze it.
Complete the performance history on the assignments page.

4-7/4-10 Poetry analysis continued

Lesson:
We went over Soweto Road as a class.
We then analyzed 3 poems in groups as a class. If you were absent, use poetry buddy to analyze the following poem.
HINT! It is about SOuth Africa!:

Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang
(A Person Is a Person Because of Other People)

By holding my mirror out of the window I see
Clear to the end of the passage.
There’s a person down there,
A prisoner polishing a doorhandle.
In the mirror, I see him see
My face in the mirror,
I see the fingertips of his free hand
Bunch together, as if to make
An object the size of a badge
Which travels up to his forehead
The place of an imaginary cap.
(This means: A warder)
Two fingers extend in a vee
And wiggle like two antennae.
(He’s being watched.)
A finger of his free hand makes a watch-hand’s arc
On the wrist of his polishing arm without
Disrupting the slow-slow rhythm of his work
(Later, Maybe, later we can speak)
Hey, Wat maak jy daar?
-a voice around the corner.
No, just polishing baas.
He turns back to me, now watch
His free hand, the talkative one,
Slips quietly behind
--Strength brother, it says,
In my mirror,
A black fist




HMKW:
Final South Africa Project due next class

5-5/5-6 2010 Poetry continued!

Lesson:
Today we turned in our train poems.
We practiced analyzing two poems in class. If you are not comfortable with analyzing poetry, you should come in during projects or another time to work with me on analyzing your first one. It can be a little tricky.

We practiced first with this poem by William Carlos Williams:

The Red Wheelbarrow

So much depends
Upon

The red wheel
Barrow

Glazed with rain
Water

Beside the white
Chickens

The basics to analyzing this are:
1. Read the poem once, then re-read it marking it up by highlighting, labeling, making marginal notes on: sound, form, meaning. Color-coding and making a key may be helpful.

2. Finally, make a conclusion about what the poem’s message seems to be. (Relax: there is not one “correct” meaning as long as you can give support from the poem that would be convincing and intriguing to reasonable people.)

3. Analyze this poem using the methods we talked about in class. Begin with your conclusion about the main message. Support this argument with examples you found.

Can you try analyzing "The Red Wheelbarrow". HINT! Don't go too deep. It is not a poem about South Africa.

If you think you got that one try this one from a South African writer, who wrote this during Apartheid. HINT! It is about South Africa!:
In the s*** house a shotgun
Praying hands hold me down
Only the hunter was hunted
In this tin can town
Tin can town
No stars in the black night
Looks like the sky fell down
No sun in the daylight
Looks like it's chained to the ground
Chained to the ground
The warden said:
"The exit is sold.
If you want a way out,
Silver and gold."

Broken back to the ceiling
Broken nose to the floor
I scream at the silence, it's crawling
It crawls under the door
There's a rope around my neck
And there's a trigger in your gun
Jesus say something
I am someone, I am someone
I am someone
Captain and kings
In the ships hold
They came to collect
Silver and gold
Silver and gold

Seen the coming and the going
Seen them captains and the kings
See them navy blue uniforms
See them bright and shiny things
Bright shiny things

The temperature is rising
The fever white hot
Mister, I ain't got nothing
But it's more than you got

Chains no longer bind me
Not the shackles at my feet
Outside are the prisoners
Inside the free
Set them free
Set them free

A prize fighter in a corner is told
Hit where it hurts
Silver and gold

If you were absent, try analyzing both of these poems at home. Bring in your analysis to see if you are on the right track.

HMWK:
Our homework was to analyze the poem "Soweto Road". It can be found, with instructions, on the assignments page.

5-3/5-4 2010 Poetry Unleashed!

Lesson:
We took a poetry pre-assessment. Make sure to pick one up next class. We went over poetic terms. If absent , please look up the following terms and find the definition and one example of each:
Alliteration
Assonance
Rhyme
Verse
Stanza
Meter
Rhyme scheme
Simile
Metaphor
Tone
Rhythm
Onomatopoeia
Figurative Language
Symbol
Personification

Look up trains and South Africa on the internet. Follow the directions for the train poem on the "assignments" page.
HMWK:
Train poem (see assignments page)