English+11+H+–+Poetry

= Poetry = Stop that moaning and groaning! It is just poetry. Nothing more. Have no fear, while we will talk about images, themes, sonnets, flowers, spring, and love, we will also look at and listen to some rap, hip-hop, alternative, and classic rock. As we progress through this unit we will realize that poetry surrounds us everyday in different forms and that no matter who you are and what you do, you can enjoy poetry.

March 15, 2010
Today was the start of our new FUN unit on poetry. We listened to Magic Carpet Ride and looked for images, symbols, and themes. After talking about different types of music, we realized that they are different forms of poetry that are enjoyed on a daily bases. We finished class creating our own poems - Found Poems.

media type="file" key="Sahara - Various Artists - Magic Carpet Ride.m4a" width="300" height="50" Homework Read The Tiger and The Lamb and write one paragraph on each expressing your thoughts about each. How are they the same? How are they different?

March 17, 2010
After starting the class off with a PowerPoint, we moved into a lively discussion about //The Lamb// and //The Tiger//. Following our discussion we watch Paramore's //Brick By Boring Brick// and compared the themes and images from a modern music video to those found in the poems.

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Homework Read Kubla Khan

March 19, 2010
Today was the last day of the third term and we celebrated by creating visual posters representing Kubla Khan after talking about Coleridge's life. It was a lot of fun watching each of you present your posters and listen to how you explained each image. (Some of you are able to think in a very abstract and sometimes very strange way.)

Homework Enjoy the weekend!

March 23, 2010
What a happy start to class today - we wrote our own obituaries! After considering our own mortality, and what makes our lives our lives, we listened to //Gravedigger// by Dave Matthews' Band and entered into the life of J. Alfred Prufrock. We finished class analyzing Mr. Prufrock's life while reading //Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock//.

media type="file" key="Some Devil - Dave Matthews - Gravedigger [Acoustic].m4a" width="300" height="50"

Homework Read //Drowning, Not Waving// and //This Is A Photograph Of Me//, write a paragraph for each including theme and images.

March 25, 2010
How does it feel to be invisible when people don't recognize you or talk to you? was the journal that stated class. After sharing our stories about when and how this happens, we divided the class into small groups that discussed either //Drowning, Not Waving// //or This Is A Photograph Of Me//. Each group wrote their comments on an overhead and shared them with the class. We finished today's class by comparing and contrasting the two poems.

Homework Enjoy nature and come back ready to share your experience.

March 29, 2010
Sonnets! Something we all enjoy - now. After starting class with [|funny sonnets] we learned that sonnets can be fun and how to write our own. The rest of the class was used to work on our sonnets.



Homework Work on your sonnet.

March 31, 2010
Today we started the shift from just reading and analyzing poems to learning how to write about them in a more academic style. After reading two poems and talking about how we could write about them, we pulled out the 2009 AP English Literature Test and found that they too had used the same poems. We reviewed the rubric to see how similar our topics of discussion were, and evaluated the difference between teach grade. With a clear understand of the rubric, we divided into small groups to read, evaluate, and grade (using the AP rubric) three essays written by students who took the 2009 test. To finish class each group shared their assigned grades, and we compared them to the grades received. We were shocked in how close some were, and how far others were but gained a better understanding of the expectations when writing about poetry academically.



Homework Continue to work on your sonnet, open mic is next class. Also, do not forget, if you have any other talents that you would like to share with the class (i.e. singing, violin, piano, harp, etc.) come prepared to share.

April 2, 2010
Open Mic was amazing! Your sonnets and other poems and talents blew us all away. You all seemed to enjoy the good too. Thank you for the amazing last day.