Section Three
- Poetry is a trestle
- spanning the distance between
- what i feel
- and what i say
- Nikki Giovanni5
After we have gone through learning or relearning the basics of poetry, exploring writing poetry and developing our appreciation of poetry, we come to the final part of our poetry unit. Hopefully by now your students have been inspired by all their activities in their poetry classroom and have discovered the "poet within." They begin creating their personal poetry booklet. We have discussed this booklet during the second section of our unit, so this project should not be a surprise. I do add a little more in the warm-up part of our class. I continue using some of the same activities from section one and two but add the following. I have the students complete incomplete sentences. They can be given a very "plain" sentence and asked to use figurative language to liven it up. They may be given an object that they have to describe using vivid vocabulary. All of these writing warm-ups get them ready to be creative when they are writing their poems for their final project.
The poem booklet activities are split between class work and homework. Each day when the warm-up is complete, the students write in their journal what their plan will be for that class period. I check these entries every day as the students are working. This plan helps keep them on task and focused. They can look at what they have completed from the previous classes and plan what they have yet to complete. This project is where they show that they are now looking with poets' eyes and hearing with poets' ears in response to their surroundings. I remind them to use figurative language when writing their poems. I use question stems as they write to encourage critical thinking about their subject. They write and read and reread and rewrite. They can work with a partner, if the choose, to help with their ideas. They can read the poem aloud to themselves or their partner, again, if they choose, to see if the poem sounds right. The process is ongoing and active. The closure of our writing days is letting the students share what they have accomplished for that day. I generally choose the students who will share their progress for that day so I can be sure to hear from all the students throughout the writing section.
Section Three Rubric
Your poetry booklet is due on ____________________. You must have a total of at least ten (10) poems in your booklet. Seven of the poems must be original and the remaining three can be some of your favorites among those we have read throughout our poetry unit. You may include more than ten but the extra poems must be original poems. Original poems are poems you have written. You may use poems you have written for our classroom activities. There will be the option to present your booklet but it will not count against you if you do not present. If you do make a presentation, you will be given extra credit. It will not count against you if you do not make a presentation. You will be given class time to work on your project and will also be expected to work on your project for homework. All projects must be handed in on time.
THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!! This poetry booklet counts as TWO TEST GRADES!!!!
CONTENTS
| 1. | Acrostic Name poem (10 points): use the letters of your name to create a poem that describes you. This poem does not have to rhyme. You must use your full name, first and last and cannot use nicknames. |
| 2. | Free Verse (10 points): free verse poems do not rhyme and have no set form. This poem should be at least 15 lines long. |
| 3. | Figurative Language poems (10 points each): you must have a total of three poems for the figurative language poems. Each poem must have five examples of a chosen figurative language device. You may choose any three of the figurative language devices that we studied at the beginning of our unit. You need three different examples of figurative language: one for each of your three poems. You may refer to your notes to recall all the figurative language terminology. |
| 4. | Emblem poem (10 points): this is a poem that takes the shape of its subject |
| 5. | Haiku or Limerick (10 points): you have a choice of including one or the other. Limericks have a rhyme scheme of AABBA and haikus follow a 5-7-5 syllabic pattern. |
| 6. | The remaining three poems are your favorites from our unit. (5 points each) |
You must have a title cover for your booklet. (5 points) Each poem must be on a separate sheet of paper. You may include pictures and/ or visuals. Neatness and creativity count for ten (10) points. You may write on construction paper or lined paper. Be neat. Be creative. This is your book and this book should reflect your best effort as we finish our poetry unit.
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