and the Poscar goes to....

Poetry Recitation Champion 2015

Have a great break...

Poscars... "O Captain My Captain..."

Congratulations on your excellent performances today in the Poscars....

A Closing Thought...
In the movie, Dead Poet's Society, Robin Williams challenged his students "...to dare to be different, to strive to find their own voices, to dare to strike out and find new ground..." For this, he was fired from his job.... This last scene shows how his students showed that they would not forget his lesson and embrace life as he had taught them. "...the powerful play of life goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will YOUR verse be?"

Hopefully, you will take what you have learned in poetry and follow the teachings of Robin Williams  Carpe Diem

No  H/W - 'Read'

Membean Test tomorrow

The Poscars

Will you receive one of these on Thursday?

Just think - fame - fortune - paparazzi! Will you be ready?

CAN YOU DISCUSS YOUR POETIC MOVES IN DEPTH?

The Poscars Award

The following 'Poscar Awards'  will be handed out at the end of the Poetry Party on Thursday.

• Best Visual Interpretation (Use of Body Language)
• Best Projection (Volume)
• Best Inflection and Pacing 
• Best Memorized Delivery
• Best Multiple Voice Poem
• Best Original Poem (Overall 'top' award for poem and performance)
• Best Props
• Best Group Poem
• Most Improved Poet

Awards will also be given to the PIPE off 

Class and Block champions

Will you raise your performance and be nominated for one of the awards?

Slam Poetry: Expecting

Lesson Recap:Enjambment

 

H/W
50 mins of Membean this week

Poetry H/W

• You must have at least one of your poems MEMORIZED by Wed. 
• You will need to recite the poem to me privately. 
• You must speak of the poetic moves in the poem. 
• You will receive SUMMATIVE craft grade for your poetic moves and a speaking and listening grade (PIPES) for this poem. This poem can be a group poem (paired)
• Rubrics are on left side of the blog.
• Most of Tuesday's class will be spent revising your poems and preparing for this.

Sentence Fluency Test - Next WED - Spend 5 mins each night doing some of these exercises

Sentence Fluency: Test Practice Exercises -

http://www.csus.edu/owl/index/sent/clause_quiz.htm

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/language_arts/goforgold/content_builder/dswmedia/g4c26/nadia.htm

http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/sensort/index_pre.html

http://itech.pjc.edu/writinglab/senpat.htm types of sentences

http://eslbee.com/cgi-bin/quiztest.cgi?helenkeller

http://webschool.wash.k12.ut.us/language/lessons/compoundsentences.html

http://www.quia.com/pop/37751.html

http://www.quia.com/quiz/242899.html?AP_rand=1383585617

http://www.quia.com/quiz/299540.html (ignore question 13 and 16)

http://www.quia.com/rr/126726.html

Some of the questions on this exercise, we have not covered yet...but we will. Try it for fun!

http://www.quia.com/quiz/815621.html?AP_rand=60951870

TEST PRACTICE: ASK the Teacher sheet

Extended Metaphor

Lesson Recap  Figurative Language A=B means C
To build an 'extended metaphor'
1) Start with an anchor metaphor - My life ain't no crystal stair
2) Brainstorm words, verbs, phrases, adjectives associated with A and B side of the metaphor
3) Build the lists into lines of poetry using one from the A and B side
4) Craft the lines into poetry using other poetic devices
5) Revise, edit, and publish into files below

See these examples from class today

Mentor Samples

H/W

• C/D -& E/F classes. Read your paired book club book. Be prepared to come to class on Thursday to argue about a topic that you both disagree with.
• All classes: Don't forget yesterday's poem - (Due Wed)

EXTENDED METAPHOR POEM
You must create an extended metaphor in your team and turn it into the slideshow: DUE FRI (You will work on this in class WED)

Turn your work in here Both names on the piece
C/D Class Extended Metaphor
E/F Class Extended Metaphor
G/H Class Extended Metaphor

Grading Criteria

• You poem uses a single 'anchor' metaphor and continues to 'extend' that metaphor throughout the poem
• Other metaphors that are linked to the anchor metaphor can be clearly identified in the poem
• Your poem communicates a message/idea. - e.g. My life ain't no crystal stair - the idea is that she has had a tough life, but never gave up and kept reaching other goals.
• Poetry format and structure with an effective title
• Minimum 16 lines

This assignment is simply testing whether you can write a poem that contains an extended metaphor. Remember, not every line needs to be a metaphor.



Mentor Poem:
Remember your last poem? Many of you still need to turn in your last poem that spoke about your poetic moves. Nicholas did a really impressive job here talking about the different moves he made in his poem.

Poetry Competition and Student Samples

Enjoy Olivia's excellent poem , Elizabeth's, Regina's  Claire's

Poetry Competition: Round 2 - What will you do to amaze your the audience?

Performance?
PIPES?
Memorization?
Interpretation?
Level of Difficulty?

Use the links to the left of the blog to find ADVANCED poems to recite





Root Word of the Week

Complex Sentences/Poetry Endings

Lesson Recap

Poetry Ending Strategies

H/W

• Make sure your book club is ready to present tomorrow if you haven't already presented
• Spend 15 minutes collecting your 'Found ideas for your poem.
• You will choose one of your poems to submit for a grade at the end of tomorrow's class
• Membean test tomorrow
• READ your partner book. 

Root of the Week

Root of the Week - Cogn - Learn/Know

H/W

ALL CLASSES
Bring an article (or an link to an article) that you found on the web for Tuesday's class. You will need this to create you next poem.

C/D - E/F Classes
Membean - 30 minutes by Wed (50 word test is Wednesday)
IXL - 7th Grade O.3 (By Wednesday)

Enjoy this example of visualizating ideas in poems

Visualizing: Using Poet's Eyes

Lesson Recap: Bite into your poems. Devour the ideas

When you visualize, you can go from use the literal images to reach a more abstract interpretation of the poems you read.

H/W

• Keep up to date with your reading
• Your book club presentations should be finished for Monday (You will have 30minutes in class tomorrow to work on them)
• Membean

What is Poetry?

Files for Today: Reading and Writing Poetry Unit

Make a copy of this link for our next unit: How to Eat a Poem

Root of the Week: Sens/Sent - FEEL


Lesson RECAP




BIG REMINDER - What are the four rules for compound sentences and can you give an example of each one? HINT HINT - Assessment coming!

H/W
50 minutes of Membean by FRI (55 mins is above expectations). Some students should look VERY carfefully at the Membean stats for January and strive to do much better in FEB!


Finish your first youtube video about your noticing in the poem from today's class: (DUE WED) - This is a change from the due date I said in class.

READ - You will have your final meeting for your second book club tomorrow - Make sure you hae FINISHED your second book club book

This is Random Acts of Kindness Week around the world?  (Will you participate?)

https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/ 

Fortunately/Unfortunately Poems

Learning Reflections
Write 1-2 SPECIFIC sentences summarizing your learning for our previous units. Remember, these comments will be used on your report card. Be precise and articulate!

C/D Class Learning Reflection
E/F Class Learning Reflection
G/H Class Learning Reflection

All Classes

This is a great site to use to get ideas for your Research topic. sign up for an account.  New Articles and Research Topics. Use this class code when asked: KZMAC

This site also has good ideas for topics http://www.bbc.co.uk/iwonder

Poem 2: Fortunately/Unfortunately Poem- Due Thur

Step 4 Add 'poetic elements'

H/W - You must bring a PRINTED copy of  two poems tomorrow.  They can be any two poems from your poetry portfolio. (Save ink by not printing all the colored backgrounds with the poems.) The visiting authors will be in class tomorrow, so DO NOT FORGET TO BRING PRINTED COPIES of your poems. You will be reciting these poems in the library on Friday.

Next Friday, you will receive a grade for your finished Poetry Portfolio. Make sure you have all your poems included. (e.g. the two poems we did this week)

Inside -Outside Poem - Help

Remember: You need your poem interpretation ready for Wed. See the rubric below to see how you will be graded with this work. Your poem and interpretation need  to be on one sheet of paper.

Study link 7.10



Go to this link and read about positive and negative numbers; then, do the 10 questions at the end of the      exercise
http://www.mathsisfun.com/positive-negative-integers.html

Inside -Outside Poem - Help

Now isn't this a challenging poem to write...or is it? - Read below for help getting started...

Inside/Ouside poem about yourself. (Due: Fri)

Don't make your poem more complicated than it needs to be...Think about the assignment for a second... all i'm asking you to do is write a poem about yourself. Now...going a bit further...i'm suggesting ways you can go about doing this by using categories...for example.. write about your personality, your dreams, your fears, your weaknesses etc etc... by thinking about categories gives you a way to organize your thoughts... so the next step is ... how do you do that...???

well why not begin by just writing about yourself in a literal way...
What do others think of you?

They think... all i enjoy writng and i a super students...
your poetry might soon like...

outside
A test taking machine some may suggest
Fear of failure is why I strive my best

inside

I think... ..i like doing art....

(how can i do that in a poetic and/or figurative way..?)

Drawing and mixing paints brightens my days
Being artistic and creative in countless ways


Hope this helps!

Poetry Parties

Congratulations on your wonderful presentations in each of the poetry parties this morning.


Feel free to give 'kudos' to your fellow classmates through 'comments' complimenting them on some of the poems you enjoyed the most.  Enjoy the animoto videos below.

Buxton Class


 
Graham  Class
(The camera we used for this animoto did not take good video shots, so the quality and sound will not  be as good.)

Poetry Parties

Poetry Parties will take place on Monday morning. These will be a celebration of language, music, and literature. I expect passionate performances and powerful deliveries from ALL of you.  Each of you will have to come prepared to deliver TWO performances.  You will also need to turn in your completed, decorated poetry books containing at least 8 of the 9 poems we have done in class from the list below. You may choose NOT to include any one poem from the list below: (you are welcome to include all 9 if you decide)

Personal Poem - Describing an emotion

Narrative Poem -  Relating the world event

Inside/Outside Poem - The Fruit

Inside/Outside Poem - About yourself.

Published Poem - The poem you recited in class

Midwest Group Perform

Road Less Taken -Interpretation

Beatles song - Interpretation

Free Choice - Show your creativity here!

Side note. I am so proud to observe your brilliant creativity with respect to the regions inquiry based assignment. A perfect example was what Lilly said in class this morning,

"Mr Buxton, can I make my timeline the Brooklyn Bridge? I also want to use different cars (forms of transport) to represent the historical events that occured over time in my region."

Bravo Lilly! How will the rest of  you, 'think out of the box?'

Impressive 'elevator pitches' today  from the Buxton class for your Animoto movies. I am excited to see your finished versions next week.

Inside - Outside Help!

H/W
Grammar Package (Due: Fri)
Spelling Test will be next Tuesday

Inside/Ouside poem about yourself. (Due: Fri) - further advice below

Don't make your poem more complicated than it needs to be...Think about the assignment for a second... all i'm asking you to do is write a poem about yourself. Now...going a bit further...i'm suggesting ways you can go about doing this by using categories...for example.. write about your personality, your dreams, your fears, your weaknesses etc etc... by thinking about categories gives you a way to organize your thoughts... so the next step is ... how do you do that...???


well why not begin by just writing about yourself in a literal way...
What do other think of you?
They think... all i enjoy writng and i a super students...
your poetry might soon like...  outside
A test taking machine some may suggest
Fear of failure is why I strive my best
inside
I think... ..i like doing art....
 how can i do that in a poetic and/or figurative way..?
Drawing and mixing paints brightens my days
Being artistic and creative in countless ways

You need to do just 12 lines like this... and maybe find a special way to end...
no...the title doesn't count....(but give a realistic title)

Also..VERY IMPORTANT...there is a rhyming dictionary on the left side of the blog...use it to find words and phrases that rhyme if you want...

Remember my old phrase... NIKE!!!!

Visuword

Click the link below for an excellent resource for finding synonyms and related words and ideas for your poems. This site can be used  for any form of writing, but it is very useful for your poems. I will put a permanent link on the right side of the blog for future use. Just type in any word you are looking for alternatives or synonyms or related ideas and see what appears!

http://www.visuwords.com/

Don't forget to be thinking of your classic poem for next week's recitations. If you are unsure what is meant be 'classical' poetry, you should ask me first before memorizing your poem. An inappropriate choice will negatively affect your grade.

Enjoy's Bekah's and Will H's zoobursts. Notice how she used her own photos in her creation, and he used his own voice and sound effects. +2.  Well done!

Carpe Diem - Make your lives extraordinary

Free free to comment  about today's lesson introducing poetry.  Feel free to add any of your drafts of your personal poems for others to comment.

Below is a chance to see the video clip from today's session again.

Invictus - Reflection

Listen below to  an interview with the captain of the South African rugby team (Matt Damon's character) as he speaks about Nelson Mandela.



How will you use the last lines of  Invictus in your life going forward?

I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of  my soul

Watch the real live ending of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final below.



H/W
Character Sketch due in tomorrow - Make sure you are making 'clear'  judgments throughout.

Bring in your comfort zone rectangles (if you still have it) for discussion in tomorrow's class (Fri). How have you stepped out of your comfort zone recently?

Poetry Party H/W

Make sure you are ready for next week's poetry party.

Buxton Class - Thur 2.35-3.05pm
Graham Class - Thur 12.45-1.30pm

Make sure you have prepared your poems so that you can deliver them passionately. Your poetry booklets should be ready for inspection on Monday 12th Jan.

Comma Pop Quiz - Well done today!

Remember there are some more practice exercises on commas under my list of websites below. I strongly recommend you practice your comma usage a little more before next week's test. If you have any questions, add them to the blog or ask me in school.

Tomorrow (Fri) we will play the States and Capitals Round 1 - Class Championship.

Make sure you are prepared for tomorrow's Social Studies Test - Remember the 'Bob's yuour uncle' hint related to geographical features!