Wednesday, Nov. 30 Agenda

*Bell Ringer: Finish pg. 6 Modern Poems

*Current Poets Research Introduction: Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marilyn Hacker, Dana Gioia, Jack Kerouac, Pedro Pietri, Marc Smith, Taylor Mali, Robert Pinsky, Li Young, AND LOTS MORE TO CHOOSE FROM

*Go to blog for example

*American Voices groups:

*What is the American voice: your group needs a few different ideas/definitions/aspects to definition –post this on Schoology, then follow the directions about what to do next.

American Voice Definition and Authors We've Read...

Post your group's definition (and associated ideas) of American Voice as a comment in Schoology.  Once every group has posted, read through them and create a working definition of American Voice by compiling the important points from everyone's definitions.  Use that as your definition while working as a group on the next point...

Your group has been assigned an author/authors.  *Dickinson and Bradstreet (Alaina's), Whitman (Dani's), Thoreau and Emerson (Joe's and Jami's), William Carlos Williams and other modern poets (Kalvin's and Thorne's)

You need to find the notes/information you have on that author/authors and answer these questions about their American Voice.  Make sure one of you types up the answers as a comment to the assignment on Schoology, but all of you write it down in your notes.

*Overall Question: How does their writing exemplify the (or an) American voice?

*How does their writing show America at their point in time?

*What does their writing say about people and society?

*Thinking of all, what aspect(s) of America are not reflected with the voices so far? 

Once you have posted these ideas, work on your current poet research. 

Poetry Explication Example

Go to this link: Hamilton

And then this one: My Shot

Tuesday, Nov. 29 Agenda

*Bell Ringer: 40 min time to finalize poem teaching

*Presentations, take notes

*BOOKS WITH FRIENDS half way check Friday, so use time if you have it

Monday, Nov. 28 Agenda

*Bell Ringer: Discuss “Because I could not…”, Bradstreet, “O Captain” and “Song of Myself” then Whitman and Dickinson (WN entry)- partner, then large group

*Modern Era Review –add to notes on Modern Era poetry

*Modern Era Poem Explicating Practice with Partner pg 930

*Movements of Modern Era poetry: Notes and group work

*Read all poems together, then:

*With your group, plan if any research needs to be done before you present, then do it if necessary

*Work time on poems: you will TEACH them tomorrow (after 20 minutes or so):

*Annotate, teach (explain in detail) anything/everything you think needs explaining, meanings (literal and figurative), poetic devices, background, connection to Modern Era and poetic movements

*—What is the poem about? Surface (what happens in the poem, story)? Deeper (theme, message, big picture)?

—If also in a text book, what are some of the questions the book asks?

—Is there any pattern (word, rhyme, image, etc)?

—What poetry terms are used in the poem? How do they contribute to the meaning?

—Alliteration, symbolism, personification, rhyme, repetition, figurative language (simile, metaphor, imagery), allusions, others?

—What characteristics from our notes can be seen in the poem? How does it fit into this era? (imagism, free-verse, objectivism, etc)

—Is there a format? (What does it look like, mechanics, line breaks, etc)

—What rules does the poem follow or break?

—(Page 4 folks…) Ars Poetica: a statement by the poet about poetry, about his or her beliefs about what poetry is and about what it does. What does the poem demonstrate about poetry? 

*BOOKS WITH FRIENDS half way check Friday, so use time if you have it

"Oh Captain! My Captain!" Literal and Figurative Chart

Tuesday, Nov. 22 Agenda

—*Bell Ringer: Literal and Figurative “Because I could not Stop” -for those gone, get notes from a person who was here 

*Anne Bradstreet: note check from hwk (also bring up your “Because I could not Stop” sheet)

*“The Author to Her Book” (on own or with partner)

*What lines imply Bradstreet sees herself as unworthy to write

*Interpret lines 3-5 of “The Author to Her Book”

*What do you think about her attitude that the book is a ninth child? Is this a good comparison (how are they similar or not)?

*Discussion of Bradstreet Poems (on Monday when all are here)

*Walt Whitman

*“Oh Captain! My Captain!” pg 375 (handout)

*Analysis of what is the literal level, what is the figurative level (like with “Because I could…”) see the picture on the next post

*Whitman: Note check of “Oh Captain! My Captain”

*“Song of Myself” pg 368 (handout)

*questions and WN due: MONDAY

Read Sections 6, 31, 32 of "Song of Myself" Annotate in general, as well as these specific points:

Romantics/Transcendentalists –emotion over reason, individual over society, common people over aristocracy, freedom over control, nature over human works.

¡How does Whitman’s poem (sections 6, 31, 32) show this?

¡Why does a child ask about the grass? How can childhood be connected to Romanticism?

—What could grass symbolize? (multiple things, quotes that show)

—What is he saying about death?

—How does Whitman’s work use parallel structure (repetition of grammatical structure)?

—In WN: What do you think are some stylistic (format, structure, conventions) and ideological (beliefs, views, etc) differences and similarities between Dickinson and Whitman? Please list as many as you can think of, if you want to do a venn diagram or a chart, that’s fine.

—All of these (questions and writer’s notebook) due Monday.

Monday, Nov. 21 Agenda

*Bell Ringer: Find the 4 poems you wrote about and write your insights (just a few of your interpretations) on the documents as comments (DON’T write on the document itself)

*Read and analyze/explicate “Because I could not stop for Death-” on page 548/sheet

*On sheet (then put it in your binder):

*What is this extended metaphor comparing?  (Extended Metaphor: a point by point presentation of one thing as though it were another)  List three specific comparisons you can find in the poem.

*How do the three images (visual images seen during the ride) reflect stages of life? What parts of life is she saying goodbye to?

*How would you describe the overall mood of the poem?  Does this mood reflect the speaker’s attitude toward death? Be specific

*“Because I could not stop for Death” stuff and comments on documents due in +/- 35 minutes

*Discuss Emily Dickinson’s poetry (packet and individual)

*Anne Bradstreet – (HOMEWORK)

* “Upon the Burning of Our House” pg 118 and “Author to her Book”

*Analyze the poem (also, how do you see Puritan characteristics)

*Final step, meanings and poetic terms

Friday, Nov. 18 Agenda

*Bell Ringer: 15 min to finish/cross check “Civil Disobedience”

*“Walden”/“Civil Disobedience” Discussion

*Find your poetry terms sheet, read through to remind yourself of all of the ideas we look for in poetry (we will be looking at poetry for a few days, so if you aren’t sure on definitions, check different resources as well)

*Editing of timed essay (using ‘suggesting’ mode on google drive): need by end of block

*Emily Dickinson p546 (READ THIS WHEN YOU FINISH YOUR ESSAY, BEFORE WE MOVE ON, take notes on the poem packet or Romantic era notes on info about her that seems important)

*Read ‘author’s style’ pg 547 (add any definitions to poetry terms sheet, if necessary)

*Read through and annotate all of the poems in the packet.  Once you’ve read and quickly annotated them all, pick four. For those four, make sure your annotations are very detailed and you have a solid understanding of different ideas within the poem.

One More...

And here's Brandon's: