Lesson C

 

-Students shared their spoken word poems with small groups, and then a few folks with the class. These humans are producing some great work.

-We watched an awful Katy Perry video, and took apart the lyrics looking for bad metaphors, questionable similes, forced rhyme, and mismatched allusions (ie: it is set in Egypt, but she talks about Aphrodite, who is a Greco-Roman Goddess). 

-Students then read Robert Burns' "Red, Red Rose" for contrast. They labelled the rhyme scheme, and looked for poetic devices, including metaphors, similes, and hyperbole.

-We looked at Christopher Marlowe's "Passionate Shepherd" poem, and did much the same - this time we were looking at the beauty of the love poem, and the connection to nature...

-To contrast the mushy, lovey nature of the previous two poems, we read Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130"

HMWRK: 

Shakespeare wrote very carefully crafted sonnets. The poems may have light-hearted content, or may parody the work of other writers, but the form is serious. 

They are 14 line pieces, made up of three four-line sections (quatrains) and one rhyming couplet. 

The rhyme scheme is ALWAYS ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG without exception. 

Shakespeare also wrote many of his works in iambic pentameter, meaning that each line should have ten syllables, in a pattern of 5 unsstressed/stressed sets (iambs). You can push for that if you like, but we are going to cheat a bit and not worry about meter for this assignment. 

Write a sonnet - have fun! You can be serious, but you can also parody the form, or another concept -TURN IT IN ON TEAMS BY 9 AM AND BRING A HARD COPY TO CLASS

Lesson B

 

Students shared some remarkable poems today! 

Block 1 was on track enough that they were able to play with parts-of-speech game from last class, and get the lesson. Block 2 was divided in students' ability to focus.

Anyone who did not submit their poem in Teams, but would like credit for doing it, should bring it to tutorial on Monday. THEY SHOULD ALSO SUBMIT TODAY's IN TEAMS AND PRINT IT.

Students listened to Barabara Adler's "In the Time Before"  and watched Shayne Koyczan's piece, "To This Day"

We looked at a number of poetic devices, and discussed what made the poems flow, and what helped with impact. 

HMWRK: Create a 12+ line spoken word poem (no maximum). Give it a title. Use enjambment and rhyme for sure, and feel free to use any other devices that come to mind. 

Possible topic: Things which are both ordinary and extraordinary at once.

SUBMIT THE POEM IN TEAMS AND BRING A HARD COPY TO CLASS

Lesson A

 

Today, students reviewed parts of speech (articles, adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, and pronouns) in order to create Mad-Lib-inspired poems in groups.

Students then watched Sarah Kay's Ted Talk

They listened to her two poems for the things that made them effective, including dramatic pauses, and enjambment

As per Sarah's talk, students created a list of 10 things they know to be true.

Students also received a set of poetry terms (in two forms).

ForFriday:

- Students must create a poem, using at least one of the topics on their list. It must be 10+ lines long, and include at least one simile or metaphor. THIS ASSIGNMENT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED IN TEAMS, AND BROUGHT INTO CLASS IN HARD COPY

Lesson 82

 Students came in and got right to work - many also came to tutorial this morning to work on extensions, or find the perfect quote.

Today's was the final class for drafting  - Next: Poetry!

Congratulations to everyone who handed in their writing today 💗

 

Lesson 81

 Students continued their writing work - this was #1 of  2 blocks allotted to finish their good copies.

Only students who missed peer edit work were permitted to take their writing to the Writing Lab today, as we are in good copy, not edit, mode.

Monday's block will be the last one for writing - those who need more than one block of time should attend tutorial tomorrow and/or Monday to ensure they have enough!

Lesson 80

 Students did thorough peer editing work today - Block 1 was especially focused on the work.

Those who did not complete their writing in advance of today's class will not have found it nearly as beneficial as those who had a draft ready to go. 

There are two blocks of final drafting to come - that is it - what is on the page at that point is what will be marked. 

Anyone who missed the peer edit is welcome to attend the writing lab to have that done - no further editing will be done in class. 

 

Lesson 79

 Second day of drafting - peer edit on Tuesday!