Poetry Month Extra Credit: Found Poetry

In addition to the ways you can earn extra credit for your poetry performance, another way you can earn extra credit is to create some found poetry. What is found poetry you ask?

Here is the explanation from poets.org:

"Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems."

Different types of Found Poetry:

Headline Poem - cut out words and phrases from magazines or newspapers to create a poem

Erasure/Blackout Poem - Take a newspaper or page of an old book and black out all the words you don't want to use and leave the words you want to use to create a poem. These poems can be as simple as blacking out the page with a sharpie or you can get elaborate and create works of art with your blackout poems.

Book Spine Poem - stack book spines to create poetry using the titles of books.

Due date: April 29th

If you create a headline poem or blackout poem, turn the physical poem into me. If you create a book spine poem, take a picture of it and email it to me. The number of points you get depends on the effort you put into the assignment. Blackout and headline poems will be worth more than book spine poems and if you create a work of art with your blackout poem, that will be worth more than if you just used a black sharpie.

Pre-Performance Poetry Reflection

Before you perform your poem, I want you to write about it. Each part of the assignment is worth 10 points and is to be completed in Google Classroom:

1. Type your poem out - be sure to write the title and author.
2. In a paragraph, explain what you think this poem means. Why do you think the author wrote it? What sort of mood or feeling does it give?
3. In another paragraph, explain why you chose this poem. What is it about the poem that speaks to you? (And just so you know, “It was the shortest poem I could find” is not an acceptable response!)


Here is an example from a previous performance I did a few years ago:

Fish Story

by Richard Amour

Count this among my heartfelt wishes:

To hear a fish tale told by fishes

And stand among the fish who doubt

The honor of a fellow trout,

And watch the bulging of their eyes

To hear of imitation flies

And worms with rather droopy looks

Stuck through with hateful, horrid hooks,

And fishermen they fled all day from

(As big as this) and got away from.

This is a poem about a fish story, but from the fish’s point-of-view instead of the human.  Everyone seems to have a fisherman in their family who has a tale to tell of “the one that got away.”  The family members all ooh and aah when said fisherman talks about how, “I once caught a fish this big,” and in a flourish, shows with exaggerated enthusiasm, the size of the fish that he caught, though conveniently no one has seen.  Richard Armour takes that fish story cliché and turns it on its heels by giving it a different perspective – from that of the fish.  Of course, the fish doesn’t tell of the size of the human they caught, but instead the size of the one they got away from (rather than the one that got away).  So of course, the mood of this poem is very lighthearted and humorous, which is always what fish stories are, whether told by human or fish!

What speaks to me about this poem is that I have many men in my family who are fishermen (though not very good ones!) so it’s always funny to hear them talk about fishing and their good-natured ribbing of each other’s lack of talent when it comes to catching anything of substance.  My dad, grandpa (who is now passed), uncle, and brother all love to fish so fish stories abound in my family!  When all of them get together and talk about fishing, everyone always has to laugh at the bantering back and forth between them.  When the men talk about fishing, you can always guarantee that laughter will soon accompany the conversation.  So when I read this poem, I always think of the men of my family and smile because I imagine the fish who is telling this story is the one that got away from either my dad, grandpa, uncle, or brother.

National Poetry Month - Memorize and Perform a Poem

For National Poetry Month, we will all be memorizing and performing a poem in front of the class. 

Requirements:
Choose your own poem
Must be from a well-known, published poet
Must be at least 10 lines long
Must be approved by Mrs. Shaum by April 20th


You will be graded on how well you do the following: 
Memorization
Vocal intonation and expression
Proper volume
Address and engage the audience


Finding the right poem
There are many poetry books in the classroom
The best Internet source for finding poems though is Poets.org
You MAY NOT choose a Shel Silverstein poem (there are so many other great poets out there! Explore and discover a new favorite!)


Ways to earn extra credit
Way #1 
If you choose a poem that is 30 or more lines
Way #2 
In addition to performing your own solo poem, work with a partner and perform a poem for two voices


Due Date:
We will be reciting our poems April 29th and 30th 
If you don’t do well on your first try, you are welcome to try it again for a better grade


Some wisdom from Mrs. Shaum
Please make sure that you choose a poem that speaks to you and that you enjoy. If you just choose the first poem you find that’s 10 lines long and you don’t find anything fun or enjoyable about it, then that will show in your performance and you won’t do well. If you find a poem you like (even if it’s over 10 lines) then that will show through in your performance

Poetry Reflective Essay

Write a one-page (front and back), handwritten essay on the following prompt:

Now that we have finished this unit on poetry, I want to ask you one last time, what is poetry?  Does it even matter what poetry is?  What have you learned about yourself through this process?  What did you like?  What didn’t you like? 

Use your journal and your previously created concept maps to help you construct your essay.

Thoughts to consider:

• How your definition and perception of poetry changed
• How you are similar or different from the character of Jack in Love That Dog
• How the blackout and headline poems changed your ideas of what poetry is
• Where you found poetry hiding
• How memorizing and reciting a poem in front of an audience impacted you as a student and as a reader of poetry

"Introduction to Poetry" questions

1. Who is the “them” Collins is referring to in the poem? What leads you to believe that?

2. How would you describe the speaker's tone in the poem? Is this poem meant to be funny or serious? How do you know that?

3. How are we meant to feel about poetry by the end?

4. Choose one of the following images and explain what you think Collins meant by it:

“drop a mouse into a poem

And watch him probe his way out,”

“walk inside a poem’s room

And feel the walls for a light switch”

“I want them to waterski

Across the surface of a poem”

5. What would you ask the poet about this poem if you had a chance to talk to him?

Pre-Performance Poetry Reflection

Before you perform your poem, please complete the following in the comments section. Each part of the assignment is worth 10 points:

1. Type your poem here on the blog - be sure to write the title and author.
2. In a paragraph, explain what you think this poem means. Why do you think the author wrote it? What sort of mood or feeling does it give?
3. In another paragraph, explain why you chose this poem. What is it about the poem that speaks to you? (And just so you know, “It was the shortest poem I could find” is not an acceptable response!)


Here is my example:

Fish Story

by Richard Amour

Count this among my heartfelt wishes:

To hear a fish tale told by fishes

And stand among the fish who doubt

The honor of a fellow trout,

And watch the bulging of their eyes

To hear of imitation flies

And worms with rather droopy looks

Stuck through with hateful, horrid hooks,

And fishermen they fled all day from

(As big as this) and got away from.

This is a poem about a fish story, but from the fish’s point-of-view instead of the human.  Everyone seems to have a fisherman in their family who has a tale to tell of “the one that got away.”  The family members all ooh and aah when said fisherman talks about how, “I once caught a fish this big,” and in a flourish, shows with exaggerated enthusiasm, the size of the fish that he caught, though conveniently no one has seen.  Richard Armour takes that fish story cliché and turns it on its heels by giving it a different perspective – from that of the fish.  Of course, the fish doesn’t tell of the size of the human they caught, but instead the size of the one they got away from (rather than the one that got away).  So of course, the mood of this poem is very lighthearted and humorous, which is always what fish stories are, whether told by human or fish!

What speaks to me about this poem is that I have many men in my family who are fishermen (though not very good ones!) so it’s always funny to hear them talk about fishing and their good-natured ribbing of each other’s lack of talent when it comes to catching anything of substance.  My dad, grandpa (who is now passed), uncle, and brother all love to fish so fish stories abound in my family!  When all of them get together and talk about fishing, everyone always has to laugh at the bantering back and forth between them.  When the men talk about fishing, you can always guarantee that laughter will soon accompany the conversation.  So when I read this poem, I always think of the men of my family and smile because I imagine the fish who is telling this story is the one that got away from either my dad, grandpa, uncle, or brother.

What is Poetry?

In class we discussed the ambiguity of poetry in terms of how it’s defined. As we explore this genre, we will continue to return to the question, “What is poetry?”

To show you how varied and diverse poetry is, I thought I’d share with you a mélange of different poetry definitions from poets themselves.

Your task is to choose one definition that you are drawn to and complete the following procedure:
1) Write the entire definition and the author – 5 points
2) Explain why you chose this definition (e.g. what do you like about it? What caught your eye? Did you choose this one because you disagree with it? Why?) – 5 points
3) Write a paragraph explaining what you think this definition means. – 10 points
4) To make sure this doesn’t just become an assignment that you all come on here to complete without actually reading others’ thoughts, you will also be required to refer to a previous classmate’s post. If you’re the first commenter then you will need to come back later and add to the discussion. – 5 points

Here is the list of definitions to choose from:
“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. “ – Kahlil Gibran

“Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.” – Percy Shelley

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe and words that burn.” – Thomas Gray

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” – Robert Frost

“Poetry is a literature of brushstrokes.” – Nikki Grimes

“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.” – Paul Engle

“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” – Edgar Allen Poe

“Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them.” – Dennis Gabor

“Poetry is the art of saying everything and reducing it to nothing.” – Barbara Hyett

Poetry Performance Reflection

In your journal, please respond to the following:


How did you feel about your poetry recitation and what did you learn from it? Even for those people who didn’t do as well as they’d hoped, there is always something to learn from difficult experiences. Don’t just state the obvious (i.e. “It helped me to learn how to memorize something under pressure.”) but also consider the more subtle aspects of the experience like, “I thought I did well because I had my poem memorized perfectly but then I realized there was more to the assignment than just getting up and memorizing a poem because...”

Thoughts on Poetry Part 2

What did all of the poetry writing and discussion we had do for your opinion of poetry? (Headline, false apology,“Where Poetry hides). How did those assignments help to expand your definition of poetry? What did you learn from the experience? How did they help you write your own poem at the end of the month?

On looseleaf, please respond to these questions in a THOROUGH paragraph (i.e. not stopping at 3 sentences just because you made it to 3 sentences) and remember to INTRODUCE YOUR TOPIC!

Pre-Performance Poetry Reflection

Before you perform your poem, please complete the following in the comments section. Each part of the assignment is worth 10 points:

1. Either find a copy of your poem online or type it here on the blog. (Finding a copy is the easy way to do it, but typing it will help you to see how well you have it memorized!) Be sure to also put the title and author.
2. In a paragraph, explain what you think this poem means. Why do you think the author wrote it? What sort of mood or feeling does it give?
3. In another paragraph, explain why you chose this poem. What is it about the poem that speaks to you? (And just so you know, “It was the shortest poem I could find” is not an acceptable response!)

What is Poetry?

In class we discussed the ambiguity of poetry in terms of how it’s defined. As we explore this genre, we will continue to return to the question, “What is poetry?”

To show you how varied and diverse poetry is, I thought I’d share with you a mélange of different poetry definitions from poets themselves.

Your task is to choose one definition that you are drawn to and complete the following procedure:
1) Write the entire definition and the author – 5 points
2) Explain why you chose this definition (e.g. what do you like about it? What caught your eye? Did you choose this one because you disagree with it? Why?) – 5 points
3) Write a paragraph explaining what you think this definition means. – 10 points
4) To make sure this doesn’t just become an assignment that you all come on here to complete without actually reading others’ thoughts, you will also be required to refer to a previous classmate’s post. If you’re the first commenter then you will need to come back later and add to the discussion. – 5 points

Here is the list of definitions to choose from:
“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. “ – Kahlil Gibran

“Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.” – Percy Shelley

“Poetry is thoughts that breathe and words that burn.” – Thomas Gray

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” – Robert Frost

“Poetry is a literature of brushstrokes.” – Nikki Grimes

“Poetry is ordinary language raised to the nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.” – Paul Engle

“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” – Edgar Allen Poe

“Poetry is plucking at the heartstrings, and making music with them.” – Dennis Gabor

“Poetry is the art of saying everything and reducing it to nothing.” – Barbara Hyett