Richard Cory

Good morning,

Period 3: There is a poem shared with you in your writing group folder. It's called Richard Corey.
Find it and read it.  Then have a chat discussion about the poem with your group (without talking).

If We Must Die...Poetry analysis

Good Morning,

Yesterday you did some research about the life of Claude Mckay. Today I am asking you to look very closely at one of his poems.  Please use the Poetry Analysis From to enter your responses. Please remember that the usual expectations for short answer questions apply here as well.

I will be grading English Journals Tuesday and Wednesday next week. Please make sure yours is up to date and includes all the work listed on the chart in our room.

Update your status on Goodreads.

We will continue reading The Great Gatsby tomorrow. Bring your book.

Poetry Tool for Finding Poems

Here is a poetry tool you can use to find poems.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poetrytool.html

Comparing poems about walls

Last week we read Mending Wall by Robert Frost. Go back and read it again to your self. In a moment we are going to look at another poem about walls.

Now listen to what Roger Water's said about walls. I bet you have heard this before, but have you ever looked beyond the subject of his words. There is a point and a theme going on here.

Now open your "Am Lit View Only Folder" in Google Docs. You will find a new file there called Comparing Poems. Follow the directions at the top of the page. Ask for help if you need it.

You have homework: Read the poem The Latin Deli on page 1224 in your textbook. After you read it write (on paper) a response to the poem in which you discuss the subject of the poem and the ideas in it.  If you wish to read it on line the book it is in can be found here through Google Books. It is on page 3. You will need to scroll to it.

What makes a poem?

Today we looked at a poem by Sylvia Plath without the title. I asked you what you thought it was about. You gave me many interesting answers, various animals, various groups of people, etc. None of them were the true subject of the poem though. (I knew they would not be right.) Then I asked you for the ideas in the poem. You told me conquering, rebellion, growing, nature, coming of age, revolution, etc. Your ideas about the ideas in the poem were all great. Even without knowing for sure what "things" the poem was about you could still figure out the ideas in it.

Poems have two component parts, a subject and an idea. Sometimes you can figure out the idea even if you cant figure out the subject.

Below is the presentation of the poem with LITTERAL images. Litteral is when something is exactly what it says. You told me this poem is really FIGURATIVE. The author is using metaphor and personification to describe her subject. The real subject of the poem is pictured on the very last slide.

The Poetry of Langston Hughes

Good morning,
   I'm glad to be back.
   Today we are going to look at some of Langston Hughes' poetry. I will play each poem for you and then give you a few minutes to write your impressions in your English Journal. (Like we did when we read Walden.) Think about what the world was like when Hughes was writing these poems. Consider how his poetry reflects the times he lived in.

You need tabs for:

1. Your English Journal
2. The poems we will read
3. This blog

If you missed class: (Do not click these links if you are in class.)

The audio clips I played for you come from http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/langstonhughes/av.html

Which is part of this site: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/langstonhughes/web.html

Poetry Presentations

Ready or not you are presenting your found poems today.
After each presentation please follow the link below to grade the presentation you just saw.

GRADE PRESENTATIONS HERE

When we are done with presentations I will give you a tiny URL you can use to grade your own group.

Comparing two poems...ugh...sort of...

Ok yesterday I taught some poetry and it wasn't that bad. I can do it for another day. One day at a time right? If I can do it you can do it. Today is going to be even better because I'm going to make you do all the work. (I love it when that happens.)

Your task: (With your group)

1. Take another look at the two poems we looked at yesterday. Mushrooms and A slender fellow in the grass.
2. Find something you think these two poems have in common. (They have more than one thing in common so you have choices here. Make a list before you choose.)
3. Find three other poems that have the same feature. (Poems you don't hate would be good.)
4. Create a presentation to share these three poems with the class. (Hint: GD...New...Presentation...Share it with group.) Decide who will read each part and what you want to say.
5. Find a visual (picture) to go with each poem you present.
   

Wow, that was fun (for me). Now I have to go find that Google Form I use when you are grading each other's presentations. Get to work people.

Poetry...Slam...crash...bang...shudder...yikes...

Good Morning,
Poetry is a major portion of American Literature that we really haven't seen much of yet this year. I admit this reflects my personal bias. I did not like poetry in school and I have been reluctant to subject you to it. (That's the slam part, and there's more coming.) I'm not going to pretend I love poetry to try to get you excited about it. I do think though, that there are some poets you need to know about and some things you need to know about poetry. Conveniently, this fits the state standards, but more importantly it just makes you a more educated person.

I promise to only show you poems and poets that I like, and since I am really picky about poetry this could be a short list. I also promise not to ask you to write any poetry unless you really want to. (Actually, I have a selfish reason for this too. Since I don't like poetry I don't want to read more than I have to.) I will ask you to write about the poems we read and the poems you find.

Together we will seek out our favorite poets, our favorite themes, and find ways to make it as interesting as possible. Are you with me? No, wait, don't answer that. Just go read this poem.