Cara Neri 12/4/08

Genre Study Final Draft ENG 504

A Genre Study in Lyric Poetry

What is the “new” definition of genre and why is it important for teachers?

How are genres learned in your classroom? How do you navigate between mere immersion in a genre and explicit, systematic instruction? How do you give students perspective on genres that may seem to them to exclude, constrain, or alienate them? A whole-class genre study is your answer! It is unique because it allows students to discover and learn the beauty of what many traditional studies often do not have time to explore. Contemporary genre theory focuses on “what texts and utterances of a particular genre do- and only secondarily on what they say” (Nelson 2). We learn genres socially, by reading and hearing them (Bomer 117). Bomer states: “What we learn, what stays with us, from all of the texts we encounter- stories, jokes, newscasts, shopping lists, tests- is not what’s in them, not their content, but their type, that sense of the way the particular kind of thing goes” (117).

Often, students and teachers alike equate “genre” with a single type or category of text that will be studied during the year, such as poetry, drama, or prose. New research describes “genres as types of writing produced every day in our culture, types of writing that make possible certain kinds of learning and social interaction” (Cooper 25). Genres don’t restrict writers, but allow them to internalize genre as essential to thinking, learning, communication, and social cohesion.

The genre study is a structure you can create in order to scaffold and support reading-writing connections. According to Lucy McCormick Calkins, author of The Art of Teaching Writing, “In a genre study, our students read and evaluate, muse over and analyze, learn from and model themselves after the texts that are like those they will write” (365). The core concept of published authors Coe and Freedman, as well as Charles R. Cooper, Calkins, and Bomer is that genre studies are necessary to the teaching and evaluation processes. During this process, students will acquire knowledge of the genre’s special strategies and features through analyzing and discussing published and student work, making this knowledge explicit in criteria lists, drafting and revising their own products, and then repeating the cycle again. Essentially, students will be writing the genre that they have come to understand through touchstone texts. “At the conclusion of a genre study we need to stand back and talk together about what we’ve discovered. We’ll also want to talk in general about what we’ve learned about taking on a new genre” (Calkins 364). You can use the unique characteristics of the genre you wish to teach, and then you can give more productive assignments and evaluate students’ writing more insightfully within a genre study.

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Coe and Freedman focus on the new work on genre as something that “empitomize[s] the significance of approaching reading and writing as social processes in which individuals participate” (2). Genres are present in all facets of society, from marriage announcements to obituaries. Students come to the classroom with knowledge of many different types of genre and it is our job to show that genres are “life-giving,” as Calkins puts it best. It opens doors and leaves a lot of room for variety and choice, while also allowing the classroom community to inquire deeply into something together. Rather than isolate a genre, we want to show students how it is possible to read and live within a genre. Genre studies can be general, focusing on literature such as short stories and poetry, or very specific- such as, cooking recipes, movie scripts, and lyric poetry.

Why do a genre study on lyric poetry?

Why is there a need to do a genre study on lyric poetry, in particular? Nancy Atwell, an esteemed educational researcher, points out: “Poetry expresses our feelings, dreams, and needs: no other genre does it so well” (427). As humans, we have a unique ability to express ourselves and to share our sensitivity and creativity with others. In reading poetry from others, we can see that we are not alone in our experiences and learn from the experiences of others. Poetry not only gives writers a medium to express feelings from inside themselves, but also a way to heal and grow from past experiences.Similar genres that accomplish this may be personal journals and memoirs, but there is no other genre that has the power to reveal emotion like lyric poetry. Poetry allows readers to focus on shorter word constructions; it emphasizes the power of words.

From another point of view, students need to understand various literary devices for the English Language Arts Regents exam in eleventh grade. Reading and writing poetry help students develop an understanding of concepts such as similes, metaphors, imagery personification, allusions, connotations, mood, and tone. The more students read and write poetry, the more they will understand these concepts.

The Genre Study: Step by Step

How does one begin a genre study? The format of a genre study has been established by several published educational experts and researchers, including Lucy McCormick Calkins and Charles R. Cooper, who describe the process of conducting a genre study in a very similar way. The following genre study integrates Charles R. Cooper’s 8 part plan as a foundation for a genre study in lyric poetry. The steps are classified into reading models of the genre, listing basic features of the genre, having students gather texts, choosing and inventing topics using a writer’s notebook, planning to write, revising within a writer’s workshop, collecting a portfolio, publishing, and reflecting on the genre study.

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1. Introducing the Genre with Reading Models

Begin with the big picture. Ask students what lyrics/ a lyric is. Ask them to give you examples. Determine where students stand in terms of what they know about poetry. What do they know about poetry? What do they know about lyrical poetry? An option to determine their pre-existing knowledge is to give a small “quiz” that will not be graded, but will serve as an indicator of what students know. This will allow you to begin your study at a point where you and your students are comfortable.

Give your students a history of lyric poetry. Since ancient times, people have sung “poems” or “songs.” In ancient Greece, this was done with an instrument called a “lyre,” thus influencing the name of the genre. The lyric was originally written to be sung and one of its characteristics is its melody, or its singing quality. Since there is no longer a musical instrument to accompany poetry, the sounds and rhythms of language now accomplish this musical quality. Today, some of the poems are put to song; other poems are spoken. Let students know you will be reading some of the lyric poems to them to demonstrate how they work.

The next thing you will need to do in conducting a genre study is gathering reading models, or “accessible published examples,” as Cooper defines them. Other authors call these models “touchstone texts.” For the purposes of your genre study, you should choose three to five touchstone texts. These texts will show students the features of the genre you want to emphasize in the study. A list of poems that work well in a lyric poetry genre study is in Appendix A.

When teaching poetry, Georgia Heard, published author of Awakening the Heart, offers the idea that there are different types of “toolboxes” students need to understand and craft poetry. She keeps in mind two simple guidelines when teaching poetic craft to students. The first one is not simply introducing the tools of poetic craft to students with definitions, but as vehicles that serve a more fundamental, deep, and emotional purpose. It is how you present these words to your students that will make the difference. For example, instead of focusing on the definition of metaphor and simile, focus on the feeling one gets when reading a surprising metaphor or simile. How is the reader able to conjure the image of the poem clearly in his or her mind?

Heard stresses the idea that introducing the poetic craft should be done through the metaphor of a toolbox. Just as a carpenter will reach for and use a screwdriver and a chisel, the poet may choose a metaphor and line-break. The purpose of the toolbox is to help students understand how things that are deeply inside can be expressed. There are two types of toolboxes, according to Heard. One is a meaning toolbox, which consists of expressing feelings and experiences through visual and sensory tools and revision techniques. In this toolbox, there is image, metaphor, simile, personification, words, line breaks, beginnings/endings, titles, and observation. The second toolbox focuses on music; expressing feelings and experiences through auditory, musical, and rhythmic tools- such as, rhyme, repetition/patterns, rhythm, alliteration, words, line-breaks, onomatopoeia, assonance, and consonance.

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Clearly, you will not be able to focus on all aspects of the lyric poetry genre Heard suggests with your students. You must decide on a minimal number of genre features and teach only those. You can always teach others at a later date. For the purposes of this genre study on lyric poetry, lessons on how to read a poem, imagery, similes/ metaphors, and line breaks/stanzas work well. Mini-lessons will become your key tool throughout the genre study. You will give mini-lessons on poetic devices of your choice to show students how to craft a poem utilizing each of the features you choose. The models you choose should exemplify the concepts you want to reinforce to your students.

The Importance of Modeling

At this point, you will need to model how to read a lyric poem for your students. Many students may have studied poetry before, but only very briefly and not in the context of a genre study. “Modeling is an essential part of instruction when we introduce a new type of thinking or a new context for established thinking” (Burke 229). It is important for you to show students how you make sense of a short passage of a poem, or how you think through a particular scene in a film to arrive at your conclusion that the character has just undergone some important change. This is classified as a “think aloud.” Why is this necessary? If asking students to analyze a poem, you must first model how it is done. You will do this by “using your knowledge and capacities to show [students] how to do it so they can then complete the task themselves” (Burke 229). Such instruction, often referred to as scaffolding, “allows students to develop a sense of ownership in their work because they are able to develop their own meaning rather than simply following the dictates of the teacher or text” (Burke 229).

Reading a Poem- Focusing on Feel and FormWhen teaching how to read a poem, you must first do a think-aloud with students and emphasize that a poem should be read completely through to the end first. The reader must get a sense of how the poem feels before worrying about the form. After the poem is read once, have students write initial responses and reactions to the poem as you model your own on an overhead or whiteboard. Take the following example of “My Father’s Song” by Simon J. Ortiz.

Wanting to say things, I miss my father tonight.His voice, the slight catch,the depth from his thin chest,the tremble of emotionin something he has just said to his son, his song:

We planted corn one Spring at Acu-we planted several times

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but this one particular timeI remember the soft damp sandin my hand.

My father had stopped at one point to show me an overturned furrow: the plowshare had unearthed the burrow nest of a mousein the soft moist sand.

Very gently, he scooped tiny pinkanimals

into the palm of his handand told me to touch them.We took them to the edgeof the field and put them in the shadeof a sand moist clod.

I remember the very softnessof cool and warm sand and tiny alive

miceand my father saying things.

Poems can be read many ways. The following steps describe one approach from the Oxford English Dictionary’s Poetry Companion. Of course, not all poems require this close a study, and the steps can be condensed depending on the particular assignment. The responses you and your students can discuss are located within the parenthesis. In a think-aloud, it is important to model how you come to your conclusions, so your students will be able to do the same.

• Look at the poem’s title: What might this poem be about? (It says “My Father’s Song.” Could this be about a father son relationship or the beauty of music?)• Read the poem straight through without stopping to analyze it (aloud, if possible).This will help you get a sense of how it sounds, how it works, what itmight be about.• Start with what you know. If the poem is difficult, distinguish between whatyou do and do not understand. If permissible, underline the parts you do notimmediately understand. (In stanza four, I clearly see how gentle the father is and how special this one event in the field was to both father and son. I am confused by stanza one because the speaker says he misses his father. Might this imply that his father is no longer living?)• Check for understanding: Write a quick “first-impression” of the poem by answering the questions, “What do you notice about this poem so far?” and

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“What is this poem about?” (This poem is about a son’s memory of his father in a field with mice. This poem is about how ordinary words from a father are a type of important song for the speaker.)• Look for patterns. Watch for repeated, interesting, or even unfamiliar use of language, imagery, sound, color, or arrangement. Ask, “What is the poet trying to show through this pattern?” (The poet repeats certain words, like animals, hand, and sand. I think the poet is trying to get the reader to focus on the words because they are important in the memory of his father. They are things that allow me to vividly picture what is going on in the scene the poet is describing.)• Look for changes in tone, focus, narrator, structure, voice, patterns. Ask: “Whathas changed and what does the change mean?” (There is a change in stanza three to stanza four when the father goes from doing hard labor to gently scooping of a mouse. This shows another side of the father.)• Identify the narrator. Ask: Who is speaking in the poem? Remember, the author and the speaker are not the same person. What do you know about them? (The speaker in unidentified, but I assume it is a “he” who worked with his father in a field. He is not young nor very old, but has life experience.)• Check for new understanding. Re-read the poem (aloud, if you can) from start to finish, underlining (again) those portions you do not yet understand. Explain the poem to yourself or someone else.• Find the crucial moments. The pivotal moment might be as small as the word but or yet. Such words often act like hinges within a poem to swing the poem in a whole new direction. Also pay attention to breaks between stanzas or between lines. (I think this comes in stanza three, when “father had stopped at one point/ to show me an overturned furrow.”)• Consider form and function. Now is a good time to look at some of the poet’smore critical choices. Did the poet use a specific form, such as the sonnet?How did this particular form---e.g., a sonnet---allow the poet to express his or herideas? Did the poet use other specific poetic devices which you should learn soyou can better understand the poem? Examples might include: symbols, metaphors, line breaks, or images. Other examples might include unusual use of capitalization, punctuation (or lack of any), or typography. Ask. “How is the poet using punctuation in the poem?” (There is not much punctuation, which allows the poem to flow on its own, except when there are commas. Certain lines are enjambed and continue on through the next line. The images that I can clearly see are the father’s hands holding a small mouse.)• Check for improved understanding. Read the poem through again, aloud ifpossible. Return to the title and ask yourself what the poem is about and howthe poem relates to the title. (Now I see that this a recollection of a very special time the speaker spent with his father. His father’s words were like a song he wants to remember.)

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2. Listing Basic Features of the Genre

Read each touchstone poem out loud for your students, and then have students read them individually. Each group should be assigned one touchstone poem that exemplifies and illustrates the craft element(s) that you want to emphasize in your genre study. Again, for the purposes of this study, I found that imagery, similes/metaphors, and line breaks/stanzas worked well. However, it is certainly up to your discretion if you want to focus on different aspects of the genre. For a complete list of mini-lesson ideas, please see Appendix B.

Now you will allow students to read independently and inquire into poems through a group activity, so students will be able to expand their understanding and definition of lyric poetry. Students may be divided into smaller groups of three to four in order to list the characteristics of the genre. A handout may be distributed that focuses on the elements of a poet’s “toolbox” you are going to emphasize, depending on the poem, to guide discussion.

Each group may then read a lyric poem and report their analysis for the class. You will summarize their findings on the whiteboard or overhead. When discussing the poems, you and students can also take the time to share images, metaphors, similes, and other poetic devices that add to the over-all effect of the poem. The essential vocabulary for poetry should have been distributed and discussed as the study of model poems progresses.

Imagery“Daddy,” by Sylvia Plath, can be used as a model poem for this group focusing on imagery. These students will focus on the pictures the poet paints with words. Have your students underline or highlight places in the poem where the words give a clear image. Identify parts of the poem where there are no images, and the poem is abstract. Illustrate an image or images and identify exactly which words help paint a clear picture.

In “My Father’s Song,” one image comes in stanza four: very gently, the father scoops up a tiny pink mouse. The reader can see a man’s big hands gently taking a mouse to the other end of the field. “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath contains very strong imagery when the speaker is describing the physical appearance of her father. The image of a harsh, strong man with a black mustache is very vivid. The similes and metaphors help to create this imagery, especially in the stanza about the speaker’s tongue getting caught in her jaw which is compared to a barb wire snare.

“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath   You do not do, you do not doAny more, black shoeIn which I have lived like a footFor thirty years, poor and white,Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.

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Daddy, I have had to kill you.You died before I had time--Marble-heavy, a bag full of God,Ghastly statue with one gray toeBig as a Frisco seal

And a head in the freakish AtlanticWhere it pours bean green over blueIn the waters off beautiful Nauset.I used to pray to recover you.Ach, du.

In the German tongue, in the Polish townScraped flat by the rollerOf wars, wars, wars.But the name of the town is common.My Polack friend

Says there are a dozen or two.So I never could tell where youPut your foot, your root,I never could talk to you.The tongue stuck in my jaw.

It stuck in a barb wire snare.Ich, ich, ich, ich,I could hardly speak.I thought every German was you.And the language obscene

An engine, an engineChuffing me off like a Jew.A Jew to Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen.I began to talk like a Jew.I think I may well be a Jew.

The snows of the Tyrol, the clear beer of ViennaAre not very pure or true.With my gipsy ancestress and my weird luckAnd my Taroc pack and my Taroc packI may be a bit of a Jew.

I have always been scared of you,With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.And your neat mustache

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And your Aryan eye, bright blue.Panzer-man, panzer-man, O You--

Not God but a swastikaSo black no sky could squeak through.Every woman adores a Fascist,The boot in the face, the bruteBrute heart of a brute like you.

You stand at the blackboard, daddy,In the picture I have of you,A cleft in your chin instead of your footBut no less a devil for that, no not Any less the black man who

Bit my pretty red heart in two.I was ten when they buried you.At twenty I tried to dieAnd get back, back, back to you.I thought even the bones would do.

But they pulled me out of the sack,And they stuck me together with glue.And then I knew what to do.I made a model of you,A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.And I said I do, I do.So daddy, I'm finally through.The black telephone's off at the root,The voices just can't worm through.

Metaphor and SimileAnother group will work with metaphor and simile in a touchstone text, underline words, lines, or phrases that surprise- that make the reader of the poem look at something in a new way. Ask the students which metaphors and similes are the most surprising. Why? You can also ask students to illustrate the two things which are being compared in the metaphor and simile. Take, for example, Gordon Parks’ “The Funeral”:After many snows I was home again.Time had whittled down to mere hillsThe great mountains of my childhood.Raging rivers I once swam trickled now like gentle streams.And the wide road curving on to China or Kansas City or perhaps Calcutta,

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Had withered to a crooked path of dustEnding abruptly at the county burying ground.Only the giant who was my father remained the same.A hundred strong men strained beneath his coffinWhen they bore him to his grave.

In Gordon Parks’ poem “The Funeral,” there is a focus on metaphor as the speaker talks about how “Time had whittled down to mere hills/ The great mountains of my childhood… Only the giant who was my father remained the same.” What once appeared to the speaker as mountains in his childhood are now simply hills in his older eyes. However, his father continues to remain a giant. The metaphor is powerful because it shows how big a figure his father was- either in greatness or in stature.

Line Break and StanzasAsk another group of students to discuss where and why the poet broke the lines of the poem. How does it enhance or contribute to the meaning of the poem? What rhythms do the line-breaks give the poem? Do the line breaks help emphasize certain words? Stanza means “room” in Italian- is there more than one room in the poem? Why? Use “The Death of Santa Claus” by Charles Webb as the model for this group:He’s had the chest pains for weeks,but doctor’s don’t make housecalls to the North Pole,he’s let his Blue Cross lapse,blood tests make him faint,hospital gowns always flap open, waiting rooms upsethis stomach, and it’s onlyindigestion anyway, he thinks,until, feeding the reindeer,he feels as if a monster fisthas grabbed his heart and won’tstop squeezing. He can’tbreathe, and the beautiful whiteworld he loves goes black,and he drops on his jelly bellyin the snow and Mrs. Claustears out of the toy factory

wailing, and the elves wringtheir little hands, and Rudolph’s nose blinks like a sad ambulancelight, and in a tract housein Houston, Texas, I’m 8,telling my mom that stupid

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kids at school say Santa’s a bigfake, and she sits with meon our purple-flowered couch,and takes my hand, tearsin her throat, the terriblenews rising in her eyes.

The lines are shorter in this poem, but many of them are not punctuated and simply go on through the next line. This allows the poem to have a continuous flow. Certain sounds are repeated: “tears” “throat” “terrible” that stop the reader and draw focus on those words to create a type of rhythmic pattern. The stanza break comes near the middle of the poem, and forces the reader to pause and stop on the word “wailing.” The break stops the poem suddenly, just like the little boy’s belief in Santa. Santa’s death is figurative, yet vivid- he no longer exists for this little boy in Houston.

A mini-lesson concerning the effective use of stanzas can be presented at this stage or while students are revising their first drafts. The purpose of this lesson is to teach students that a poet does not arbitrarily decide where to begin a new stanza. Rather, stanza breaks are used intentionally to lend meaning to the poem.

The length of stanzas depends on what the poet wants to say and also helps determine how it will be said. In lyric poetry, stanzas tend to be the same length, although they can certainly vary. The end of a stanza represents a pause or break in the lyric poem. It often indicates the end of one thought or feeling. Begin by reading two to three touchstone texts aloud. With students, analyze how each poet makes use of stanza breaks and how the arrangement of stanzas affects the conveying of the emotion.

Step 1. Read one of the touchstone texts aloud as students follow along.  

Step 2. Consider the following questions:

•  How many lines are in each stanza?

•  Are the stanzas all the same length or do they vary?

•  Why do you think the poet chose to break up the stanzas this way?

•  What effect do the stanza breaks have on the action?   Step 3. Break students into groups and read one or two additional poems aloud as students follow along.  

Step 4. Students silently reread poem(s) and answer the prompts above.  

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Step 5. Groups present their findings. Students construct a definition of stanzas based on this activity.

Step 6. Using the prompts above as a guide, students revise their poems, considering how to make effective use of stanzas in their lyrics.

Tone

One way to approach this topic is to read two or three touchstone texts aloud and ask students to analyze how tone is used in these poems. Choose poems that are written about the same subject, but have different tones so that students can analyze how these tones affect the telling of the story. First model a point of view analysis using one of the touchstone texts. Next, have students work in groups to analyze the use of tone to create atmosphere and theme in one or two additional texts. Ask them to discuss how they might use tone in their own lyric poems. Also include in the lesson an overview of how tone contributes to atmosphere and theme. A lesson can be created using “Sea Fever” by John Masefield.  

“Sea Fever” by John Masefield

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tideIs a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I miss you, my dearest, my love, my wife-I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-roverAnd quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

There is a clear pattern of end rhyme that runs through the poem, giving it a pattern and a beat. It is being spoken to the speaker’s wife, who cannot hear him. This type of raw emotion and feeling is the essence of lyric poetry. The tone of the speaker is somber because of the word choices the poet uses, such as “lonely sea.” Sea-gulls are “crying” and white sails are “shaking.” The stanzas all begin with similar phrasing and are separated by the speaker mourning the fact that he must go back to sea.

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Students should understand how tone functions in a lyric poem before they begin their first drafts. An important characteristic in lyric poetry is tone. Students may have studied tone in relation to short stories and novels, but perhaps not in relation to poetry. If students are unfamiliar with tone, a lesson in how diction builds tone is a good idea before they begin their drafts.  

Diction in Lyric Poetry  

Step 1. Read one of the touchstone texts aloud as students follow along. William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” serves as a good example:

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:10 Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but theyOut-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood, 20 They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.

Step 2. Analyze the tone in the poem with students. Consider the following:

•  Who is the speaker in the poem?

•  What clues are there in the poem that show you what the speaker’s tone is?

•  How does this tone contribute to the atmosphere and theme of the poem?  

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Step 3. Break students into groups and read one or two additional poems aloud as students follow along. Choosing two poems that focus on the same topic, but express two very different tones is a great idea because it will show students how word choice contributes to tone and theme. Although writing about the same topic, the poets’ word choices create different atmospheres which, in turn, dictate the different themes in each poem. Use Edna St. Millay’s poem entitled “Spring,” found below:

To what purpose, April, do you return again? Beauty is not enough. You can no longer quiet me with the redness Of little leaves opening stickily. I know what I know. The sun is hot on my neck as I observe The spikes of the crocus. The smell of the earth is good. It is apparent that there is no death. But what does that signify? Not only under ground are the brains of men Eaten by maggots. Life in itself Is nothing, An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, April Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

Emily Dickinson’s “The Sky is Low” will serve as another great example to help students understand the importance of word choices on the tone and theme of a poem.

"The Sky is Low" by Emily Dickinson

The Sky is low-the Clouds are meanA Traveleling Flake of SnowAcross a Barn or through a RutDebates if it will go-

A Narrow Wind complains all DayHow some one treated him.Nature, like Us is sometimes caughtWithout her Diadem.

Diadem: n. crown 

Step 4. Students silently reread the poem(s) and answer the following prompts:

•  Who is the speaker in each poem?

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•  What clues are there in each poem that show you who the speaker is? Document lines or passages.

•  How does the speaker’s tone affect the telling of the story?

•  Based on these examples, how does the word choice determine the tone, atmosphere, and theme of the poems? Document lines or passages.

Step 5. Groups present their findings. Record these findings on the board.

Step 6. Present a brief overview of how diction determines tone in lyric poetry- to fill in any gaps in the students' answers.   Although all of the poems discuss nature, they are unique in their word choices and themes. It is specifically the speaker’s tone that guides how the poem is read, the overall atmosphere of the poem, and what the poem’s theme regarding nature is. The tone is established through the poet’s diction, or word choice. Some words have a negative connotation while others have a very positive connotation. This influences the mood. The poets have chosen these words very deliberately in order to describe the atmosphere and convey the theme of their respective poems. For example, Wordsworth’s tone regarding nature is happy and bright as he describes the beauty of daffodils as they are “fluttering and dancing.” Millay, on the other hand, depicts the Spring season as an “idiot, babbling and strewing flowers” (li.18). This diction has a negative connotation and contributes to the theme Millay wishes to convey.

Step 7. Students discuss how they might use tone in their own poems and begin their first drafts in class. You may have students brainstorm and list words with negative connotations as opposed to words with positive connotations. For example, the phrase “caged bird” implies something very different from a phrase like “pet parakeet.” The diction of “caged” sets a somber tone of an imprisoned bird that cannot escape. However, a “pet” has a positive connotation and implies happiness and love between animal and owner.

During class discussions, ask your students to take notes. “The teacher may need to classify a scattered list generated from student discussion or to fill in gaps,” after the group brainstorming activity takes place, according to Charles R. Cooper (47). When the definition has been fleshed out, you can then create a handout to distribute with the definition and list of genre characteristics. Accordingly, you need to know the characteristics of what lyric poetry is and what lyric poetry is not, so they are listed below for you to form into your handout.

What Lyric Poetry IsA lyric poem is the most direct statement of a poet’s deepest feeling; it grows out of his or her willingness to express an experience that was amazing or sorrowful. The lyric was originally written to be sung and one of its characteristics is its melody, or its singing quality. Since there is no longer a musical instrument to accompany poetry, the sounds and rhythms of language now accomplish this musical quality.

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Plenty of strong and beautiful poems are made from everyday language. You sometimes hear this language in conversation, when people are talking their best. Poems hide in things you and others say and write.Lyric poetry can be any one of the following four types:

A poetic personal statement made from the poet (or persona) to another person. (Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”)

A poetic personal statement made from the poet to no one in particular. Written in the first person. (Simon J. Ortiz’s: “My Father’s Song)

A poetic personal statement made from the poet to someone who cannot hear him (an apostrophe). (An example would be “Sea-Fever” by John Masefield.)

A poetic personal observation made to no one in particular, lacking a first-person voice. (“The Death of Santa Claus” by Charles Webb, “Dreams” by Langston Hughes and “Winter” by William Shakespeare)

1. The word lyric is derived from the Greek word “lyre.” A lyre is an instrument which looks like a hand-held harp. The Greek lyric was meant to be sung aloud, not read. With the Romans, the lyric evolved to oral with no music.

2. May have conflict and a sense of resolution, but lack plot3. Spontaneous, conversational, real words4. Quite simple, yet very moving5. Emotional response, description of a passionate moment, reflection6. It may have a pattern (such a rhyme, blank verse) or it may not7. Any number of stanzas can be present, or just one8. Lines can continue with or without punctuation and do not have to end at a certain

point9. Imagery is present through similes, metaphors, or both

Lyric Poetry is NOT:1. Narrative poetry, which tells a story with characters, exposition, plot, conflict, and

resolution (example: The Odyssey)2. Complex constructions with elaborate, intellectual conceits (elaborate

comparisons, such as equating a loved one with the graces and beauties of the world) For example: your eyes are as lovely as twilight’s first star

3. Hollow words written simply to be “poetic” (For example, “the whimsical watering in my soul”)

4. Full of trite language- clichés like: “I am dead inside,” “I still carry you in my heart,” “the only and only,” etc.

5. Rhymed at any cost: good poets don’t sacrifice real insight or graceful phrasing to come up with rhymes- this may make serious feelings sound foolish and inauthentic

6. Filled with archaic words and poetic inversions- don’t try to sound overly poetical because it makes the poem end up sounding silly

7. Filled with allusions and mythology- exotic words and Greek gods are not dragged into poems as decorative elements

8. Intended to impress with extensive vocabulary

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3. Have Students Gather TextsAs a homework assignment, you should have students gather their own lyric poems or songs that they find meaningful for them. This allows the students to become involved in poetry through personal choice. I suggest giving your students websites to browse, such as poets.org or poetryfoundation.org. I also have an incredible librarian who stock piled books of poetry for my students to sort through in the classroom. I asked students to recopy poems they liked, or at least book mark them. Students should present their songs or poems, explaining why they are lyrical. One idea is to put the students in pairs and have them exchange the poems they brought. Students can then analyze each other’s poem, citing the reasons why it is or is not a lyric. They can even compare the two poems during this activity. Through this assignment, students will discover their own touchstone texts, which will help them experience lyric poetry by making it real and meaningful for them. As Randy Bomer points out, in having students gather their own touchstone texts, they learn that the genre exists beyond the classroom (124). The students will step into the roles of readers and teachers. Teachers can encourage students to continue to look for, read, and share poetry with the class. The class may together discuss the poems: what makes them lyrics?

4. Inventing

Once the students have read models of lyric poetry and responded to them in writing, they will be ready to begin writing, and their writer’s notebooks will be their guides. These notebooks are important because they will be their places to look back on old ideas, old thoughts, old phrases, and recurrent themes. Natalie Goldberg’s research focuses on the idea that writers need time to process new sensations and heightened emotions before they can write about them (14-15). The writer's sketchbook will be a place for the students to let their feelings develop, and they should, as Calkins suggests, return to their notebooks often for ideas and topics and insight about their own emotions. Essentially, the writer’s notebook, or sketchbook, will be a launch pad for writing poems.

I will use sketchbook prompts, such as:- What do you think is the most important word, phrase, passage, or paragraph in this work? Copy it and explain why it is important.- Do you think the title is important? Why or why not? Explain.- Do any incidents, ideas, or actions in the work remind you of something that happened to you? Explain.- Answer the following critical questions:

- I can connect with the text because…- I feel. . . - I wonder. . . - I am confused by. . . - The text reminds me of. . . - I would like to ask the author. . .-I . . .

- Write an imaginary conversation you have with the speaker of this poem.

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Please see my Journal Rubric in Appendix C.

5. Planning

The First Lesson: The Found Poem or “Cut-Up”At this point, I would do a “found poem” mini-lesson with the students to show them how language can work on many different levels and in many different ways. Many students may still think they must use complex diction and fancy images to create lyric poetry. The idea of the found poem would be to show students they can create poetry using ordinary language and make incredible poems. Instructors have many different ways of teaching a found poem. Some suggest students use the text of stories and novels they read (Burke 193). Another suggestion may be for students to keep a collection of words they like or find interesting (based on sound, meaning, etc.) The teacher can then give the students 2 pages from a newspaper or magazine. The students will then cut out words or phrases they find interesting. The next step is for the students to create a poem based on the words and phrases they have in front of them. They should change the tense of verbs and add in words to make the poem make sense, but mainly use their found words to construct a poem. These poems are also mainly fun for students to write. After completing them, the students can begin creating lyric poetry of their own for a formal lyric poetry assignment.

The Second Lesson: Creating an Image with a Six-Room Poem ModelGeorgia Heard provides an excellent model for helping students to begin drafting poems. She uses a six-room-poem model and compares writing poetry to “venturing into six unexplained rooms” (67). First, you must have students divide their papers into six boxes. In the first room (box), ask your students to think of something that they’ve seen outside that is incredible, interesting, beautiful, or that stuck in their memories. Then ask students to close their eyes and try and see it as clearly as a photograph- noticing all details about it and describing it as accurately as they can in box 1, which they should label as “image.” Emphasize that they are not writing a poem, but are describing something in the first box.

In the second room, Heard suggests asking students to focus on just the quality of light. So, in the second box, they should write “light” and describe colors, shadows, or sunlight they see when they think of the image they described in box 1. In the third box, ask the students to think of the same image they described, but focus only on sounds. Are there any voices or is it silent? Are there any sounds of rain or wind? In the fourth box, have students write questions they have about their image. In the fifth box, have students write down any feelings they have about the image. Lastly, in the sixth box, select one word, or a few words, that feel(s) important and repeat it (them) three times.

After this exercise, tell your students to close their eyes and see what images appear in their mind. Then, instruct them to repaint the sentences using their own images and

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words. This exercise is not meant to produce a finished poem, but to expand their vision of images for the poems they will be writing.

At this point, students are ready to begin drafting poems. Soven points out that students “do not need a great deal of instruction about form to write poems, short stories, and plays, though they will need some guidance. But teachers must inspire students to use their imagination by giving them a great deal of freedom” (173). After dedicating a few classes to the reading of poems and presentation of found poems by the students, with little instruction on stanza, imagery, metaphor, and simile, the students will be ready to begin drafting. Skeptical students will now realize that not all poems are about flowers and love. There are poems about McDonalds (Ronald Wallace's “You Can't Write a Poem about McDonalds”) and poems about Spider-man (Jim Hall's “Maybe Dats Yowr Pwoblem Too”). There are poems about almost every subject. To get students writing poetry, Georgia Heard offers these three guidelines: •  It helps for a teacher to ask the whole class to set aside other projects for a while and focus on poetry. •  The use of the image, the picture in the mind, is one useful way to help students begin to write poems. •  Poems come from something deeply felt; it's essential for student poets to be able to choose their own topics according to what's important to them (14).  

Students should use their sketchbooks to look for ideas to get them started: what topics are they writing about? Do they have any entries that are particularly meaningful to them? They already have, in a way, many rough drafts of poems.

In order to explain to students what you expect for the assignment, an assignment should be given to them at the beginning of the writing process. Understanding this assignment enables students to write with the guidelines in mind. According to Soven, a writing assignment needs to include the following variables: a context so students understand the reason for writing a poem; clear directions that spell out the audience, the purpose, the time limit, the word count, the number of drafts expected, and criteria that will be used for grading (137). Once students have been given the assignment, allow the students to write for the majority of the class. The beginning of the class would be dedicated to the reading of a lyric poem and a mini-lesson. For the rest of the class period, the students would write. Please see examples of writing assignments in Appendix D and E.

The Importance of the Writing Assignment and RubricA clear writing assignment makes life much easier for both the student and the teacher. The student knows exactly what is required, and the teacher can use the very requirements given to create a rubric to evaluate the poem. The rubric should be distributed with the assignment. When the teacher designs and distributes a writing assignment and rubric that clearly state the expectations before the students even begin to write, there is no room for confusion. Using “genre-specific criteria” for evaluating writing helps teachers clarify expectations to students (Cooper 31).

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When finished with the explanation of the assignment, the students should then be allowed to become a community of writers. Conduct a poetry writer’s workshop, during which the students will be writing. The workshop is important because it helps students to look at their drafts with a critical eye. Students will meet with peers and you, and share their poems, making suggestions for revisions. It is key to remind students that all good poets revise. Sylvia Plath is an author said to have constructed multiple drafts of each poem until she was satisfied with what the poem gave her.

The Writer’s WorkshopThe students need to understand and believe that they are, during the workshop, a community of poets. They need to respect each other and encourage each other. After compiling a first draft, students will be required to give and get a minimum of three peer review responses. Through peer review, students recognize what they lack in their own poems. Please refer to Appendix F for a possible peer review question handout.

The writer’s workshop is necessary because poetry, like all writing, is a process. Atwell points out that “there's a myth about writing poetry, that it's an exquisite experience that comes on the wings of a dove and requires a kid-gloves response from the teacher. Good poetry is hard to write...Eventually, over days and months of reading poetry, they carry inside them a wealth of experience with poems and a wealth of connections between poetry and their lives” (454). Steve Kowitt notes that “it is much more common for a serious and accomplished poet to work for days, weeks or years before feeling that a particular poem is finished. If there is any ‘secret’ to writing, it is rewriting- a process that can be every bit as exciting as getting that first draft down on paper” (48).

Many students believe that a poem comes quickly and that it’s in final form during a single inspired sitting. Teachers can help students understand that this is not the case by modeling their own works in progress, even revising on an overhead in front of the students and asking them for responses and suggestions for your poems. Soven points out that “this opportunity will help them to understand the problems you face when you try to offer helpful comments to them” (125). By turning the students into evaluators, they can look at their own work with a more critical eye.

Share your works in progress with students, and have them answer peer review questions on your poems. I brought in two copies of a poem I had previously written, called “On Mark.” One copy was my first draft of the poem and the second copy was the final draft, after I made all of my revisions. I asked students to respond to my first draft with comments and suggestions. On the overhead, I showed them my revision process. At times I would change lines that I did not like the sound of, or words that seemed to get in the way. I focused on the things I changed, specifically addressing figurative language, imagery, and line breaks.

Students have a hard time going back to something they believe is finished with a critical eye. If the teacher models this step with her own writing, students will see how the process works. Students need to be taught how to revise, and if they see the teacher

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playing with her own poetry, cutting stanzas, cutting lines, writing new ones, moving images around, and experimenting, students will have a better idea of how this works. Students should also conference with the teacher so that the teacher can make sure the student is going in the right direction and track students' progress and revisions.

6. Revising After constructing the first draft and completing the peer reviews, have students turn in the first draft to you. Go through the drafts and plan to address what most of the class had a problem with or left out of their drafts. Begin focusing mini-lessons on revision tactics. Use mini-lessons to instruct on the characteristics of the lyric genre you want your students to focus on, such as line breaks and adding detail to create imagery. See Appendix G for a mini-lesson on adding metaphors, similes, and figurative language to poetry to move poems from the ordinary to the poetic.

A Guided Rewriting Mini-LessonStudents may not be in the habit of doing extensive rewriting and revising, even after doing it in the classroom. Students should be encouraged to read over their poem as objectively as they can. They should then underline one passage, line, or phrase that seems very good to them. Now, they should circle a line, phrase, or section that seems unsuccessful. Perhaps it is too commonplace, or it’s awkwardly stated, or the word choices seem dull or inaccurate. Perhaps there is simply no voice behind the passage, or a voice that is not consistent with the tone you had been trying for. Maybe it seems a bit muddled or overly complex and you sense that readers would probably not understand what you’re talking about. “It’s not always necessary to analyze the reason why a piece of writing doesn’t work: just recognizing that it’s not effective is all you need to get you started” (Kowit 53).

Now that students have broken the ice, have them try finding other passages that could be improved. Once they begin to get critical, they are likely to uncover the other weak spots they didn’t notice when they first started the process. They should circle them, too. Sometimes poets find that their real poem starts somewhere other than where their most recent draft began and the material in the first few lines is either unnecessary or better used elsewhere in the poem. Sometimes the most effective ending is several lines- or stanzas- earlier than the poem’s ending.At this point, the teacher can have students experiment with poetry. It is not important if they keep the additions they make, but you should tell them to look at their poems and do the following:-insert 1 example of simile and 1 example of metaphor- create a new, strong, evocative image in the middle of the poem- if the poem is written with longer lines, add a line break in a place that would work well- if there are too many line breaks, combine lines to see if the poem flows more effectively

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The teacher can then have students write a new revised version of the poem after these additions. Some revised poems may be funny, others may be severely improved! Students can also take some of the additions out and leave others in. The point of the mini-lesson is to get students to experiment with language they may not be comfortable writing in their poetry, and most of all: be creative.

7. The PortfolioIn order to keep the students organized, I suggest that students put their model texts in their reading/writing journal (a separate section of their binders). The students have two folders that I require to be in their binders, as well. One is a folder for writing that will eventually go in their portfolio. This folder will hold all rough drafts on one side and final drafts will be on the other side. Each final piece will be accompanied by a one- paragraph written explanation that defends the work as a finished piece.   8. Publishing The teacher should encourage and require students to submit their work to poetry contests, student writing publishers, and local school publications (such as the newspaper or literary magazine). You can submit your own as well, or provide a mini-lesson on submitting a poem for publication. The New Yorker usually advertises contests for writers to enter. Show your students how you gathered all of the instructions for submission and the process of submitting a poem to these contests (gathering the information, submitting the fee, filling in the forms correctly, etc.).

Students may want to consider submitting their poems for publication to www.poetryforge.org, www.scholastic.com, www.gigglepoetry.com/poetrycontest/ contests/html. The books Poet’s Market and The Directory of Poetry Publishers also have the names and addresses of hundreds of magazines that publish poetry. Poetry readings are another way to publish one’s work. Giving public poetry readings allows students to present the poems before a live audience, gaining valuable experience.

9. Reflecting on the Genre StudyAfter completing the lyric poetry assignment, students will be asked to reflect on the process of writing poetry. In a 1 page response, students will be required to answer the following questions:How did you begin writing your first original poem?What was the hardest part about writing poetry?Do you think poetry is easier or harder to write in comparison to prose?What are you most pleased with in your final portfolio?What would you continue to work on if you had more time?

10. Additional Sources for Educators

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Atwell, Nancy. In the Middle: New Understanding about Reading, Writing, andLearning. Maine: Hinemann, 1998.

Somers, Albert. Teaching Poetry in High School. Urbana, Illinois : National Council ofTeachers of English, 1999.

Additionally, webenglishteacher.com is a great site for adolescent-friendly poetry.

11. Lesson Preparing Students for New York State Regents Exam

A writing exercise to prepare students for the New York State Regents Examination in English would be a great thing to include preparing your students. The exam, which students take in their junior year, helps determine whether students receive a high school diploma. It is worth spending class time, then, to familiarize students with the types of essays they will have to write as well as the format of the test.

One of the essays that students are required to complete on the exam asks them to provide an interpretation of a “critical lens,” which establishes the criteria for analysis. In order for students to perform well on the exam, they must not only comprehend the meaning of the critical lens, but also be capable of citing two literary works to support their answers. To help students prepare for the exam, have them write a critical lens essay. Use the same vocabulary included on the exam so that students become familiar with these terms. Reinforce what students have learned in the genre study by requiring one of the texts to be a lyric poem. A sample lesson for preparing students for the critical lens essay appears below.  

Preparing for the Regents “Critical Lens” Essay

Give students the following handout and read it aloud:

 

The Regents exam includes an essay task in which you are given a “critical lens” and must interpret that critical lens using two literary works. This critical lens is a short statement that serves as the focus of your essay. Here is an example of a critical lens essay as it would appear on the Regents:  

Your Task:

Write a critical essay in which you discuss two works of literature you have read from the particular perspective of the statement that is provided for you in the Critical Lens . In your essay, provide a valid interpretation of the statement, agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it, and support your opinion using specific references to appropriate literary elements from the two works.  

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Critical Lens: “All literature shows us the power of emotion. It is emotion, not reason, that motivates characters in literature.” – paraphrased from an interview with Duff Brenna

Guidelines:

Be sure to:

•  Provide a valid interpretation of the critical lens that clearly establishes the criteria for analysis

•  Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it

•  Choose two works you have read that you believe best support your opinion

•  Use the criteria suggested by the critical lens to analyze the works you have chosen

•  Avoid plot summary. Instead, use specific references to appropriate literary elements (for example, theme, characterization, setting, point of view, etc) to develop your analysis

•  Organize your ideas in a unified and coherent manner

•  Specify the titles and authors of the literature you choose

•  Follow the conventions of standard written English  

You must choose one of the lyric poems we read in class as one of your literary works.

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Works Cited

Atwell, Nancy. In the Middle: New Understanding about Reading, Writing, andLearning. Maine: Hinemann, 1998.

Burke, Jim. The English Teacher's Companion. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2003. Cooper, Charles R., and Lee Odell. Evaluating Writing. Washington, D.C.: National

Council of Teachers of English, 1999.

Dixon, Chris Jennings, and Kathleen Blake Yancey. Lesson Plans for Teaching Writing.Urbana, Illinois : National Council of Teachers of English, 2007.

Dunning, Stephen , and William Stafford. Getting the Knack: Poetry Writing Exercises.Urbana, Illinois : National Council of Teachers of English, 1992.

Estess, Sybil , and Janet Mccann. In A Field of Words. Upper Saddle River: PrenticeHall, 2003.

Flynn, Nick. A Collection of Poems. New York: Random House Publishing, 2006.

Hamilton, Ian, ed. The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry in English.New York :Oxford University Press,1994

Heard, Georgia. Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School.

Kowit, Steve. In The Palm of Your Hand. Gardiner, Maine: Tilbury House, Publishers,1995.

O'Connor, John. Word Playgrounds. urbana: national council of teachers of english,1999.

Peterson, R. Stanley. The Craft of Poetry. Philadelphia: The Macmillan Company, 1970.

Somers, Albert. Teaching Poetry in High School. Urbana, Illinois : National Council ofTeachers of English, 1999.

Soven, Margot Iris. Teaching Writing in Middle and Seconday Schools. Boston: Allyn &Bacon, 1999.

Tsujimoto, Joseph. Teaching Poetry Writing to Adolescents. ERIC Clearinghouse:National Council of Teachers of English, 1998.

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Appendix A 

Auden, W.H. “Stop the clocks, cut off the telephone” Brooks, Gwendolyn “a song in the front yard” Bishop, Elizabeth “The Fish” Booth, Philip “First Lesson” Bukowski, Charles “me against the world” Dickinson, Emily “Could I but ride indefinite” “The Sky is Low” Espada, Marin “Niggerlips” Flynn, Nick “Cartoon Physics, part 1”Frost, Robert “The Road Not Taken”, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” Hall, Jim “Maybe Dats Yowr Pwoblem Too” Hamod, H.S. “After the Funeral of Assam Hamady” Heaney, Seamus “Digging” Hughes, Langston “Dream Variations”, “I, Too”, “Harlem” “Po' Boy Blues”Joyce, James “I Hear an Army” Kenyon, Jane “Otherwise” Kunitz, Stanley “The Portrait” Mazziotti, Maria “Arturo” Millay, Edna St. Vincent “Spring” Neruda, Pablo “The Drowned Woman of the Sky”, “Waltz” Oliver, Mary “The Kitten”Ortiz, Simon J. “My Father’s Song”Parks, Gordon “The Funeral” Plath, Sylvia “Ariel”, “Cut”, “Daddy,” “Wintering” Pound, Ezra “Salutation” Riche, Adrienne “Poetry”Robinson, Edwin Arlington “The Dark Hills”Rossetti, Christina “Uphill” Rilke, Rainer Maria “Solitude,” “You who never arrived” Sexton, Anne “The Bells,” “Cinderella” Shakespeare, William “Sonnet 130” Snodgrass, W.D. “Snow Songs” Wallace, Ronald “You Can't Write a Poem about McDonalds” Walker, Margaret “Memory”Wilbur, Richard “The Writer” Yeats, W.B. “Those Images”

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Appendix B

Mini-lesson Ideas for a Lyric Poetry Unit

o Connecting with Poetry outside the Classroom

Many students do not know that poets are alive and writing poetry on a daily basis. For some students, it may be beneficial to read them what poets say about poetry, the process of writing poems, and living life as a poet. You could show them photographs of poets so they know what poets look like, and they can compare their poems to the poems of professionals. You can even show them videos of poets reading their poetry or being interviewed. This type of connection lets students feel that they’re part of a larger community of real poets who are respected in the world.

o A Language Center, developed by Georgia Heard

You might have students who would be interested in setting up a language center on a bulletin board in your classroom. Instead of waiting until they write poems, you can have students collect words they like from the beginning of your study and arrange them on a bulletin board. The words can be beautiful, interesting, amazing, or simply vivid. The words can inspire students to picture images in their mind, express something in a surprising way, or even evoke a memory.

o Cracking Open Words

An important, but sometimes difficult, part of writing poetry is being able to “crack-open” overused and abstract phrases, and sentences to find more accurate and vivid images inside. This could be an important part of the drafting or revision stage- depending on when your students need it. On a large piece of paper or overhead projector, write generic sentences and places an equal sign next to each one. Writing with images takes practice! Make sure the sentences you write do not give any picture, but say things like: It was a nice day. Have students describe and write what they see in their own minds on the same piece of paper next to the equal sign. An example of a good descriptive phrase would be something like: “Sunlight shining on the back of my neck as I swim in the ocean like a dolphin.”

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Appendix C

Name:___________ Date:_________Journal Rubric Ms. Neri

9-10Entries contain predictions, comparisons, contrasts, reactions, questions, opinions, response. Summary is limited to explanations necessary for the reader to make sense of the entry. Evidence from the text is used to support opinions. Entries are in paragraph form. Journal is complete and legible.

7-8Entries contain predictions, comparisons, contrasts, reactions, questions, opinions, response. Summaries are is not limited to explanation of original thoughts. Little evidence, other than the student generated required answer, from the text is used to support opinions. Some paragraph structure is evident. Journal is complete and legible.

5-6 Entries contain predictions, comparisons, contrasts, reactions, questions, opinions, response. Summaries are more prevalent than original thoughts. Entry lacks textual evidence. Entries consist of several sentences. Journal is complete and legible.

3-4Journal consists of summary. Few entries contain original thoughts extended from the text. Incomplete journal. Frequent grammar and spelling errors. Entries are brief sentences.

1-2Entries are too brief to contain complete summaries or extensions. No evidence from the text(s) is used. Incomplete journal. Mechanical problems are severe enough to cause comprehension problems for the reader. No new vocabulary is included.

0Incomplete journal. Incomprehensible because of language structure, spelling, and/or penmanship.

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Appendix D

Name:__________ Date:_______Lyric Poetry Writing Assignment #1 Ms. Neri 

Task: We have read quite a few lyric poems together, and now it's your turn to create one of your own! As you know, great poems use figurative language in order to capture attention and get a response from readers.  

Objectives: These poems will give you the opportunity to be creative and self-expressive. They should reflect your understanding of lyric poetry and figurative language.  

Audience: Anyone who likes lyric poetry, but specifically, your classmates. See below.  

Publication: Your poems will be published in a class anthology. We will decide the title of this anthology as a class, and students will be allowed to submit artwork. We will also, at the end of the unit, be having a “Poetry Slam.” You will have the choice of reciting a lyric poem we have not read in class (but approved by me) or reading one of your own poems. We will also be submitting our poems for publication, and you will be able to choose where your poem should be submitted.

Guidelines: Your poem must include the following: __At least two metaphors and similes. __A strong usage of images: they are present and work to aid the reader is visualizing the poem through the use of sensory details. __An effective use of line break. __An effective use of stanza breaks. __At least 200 words. (You can, if you like, write several short poems that equal 200 words) __Meet the class definition of lyric poetry. Lyric poetry explores emotions, personal experiences, or ideas. It lacks a fully developed plot. The voice in the poem can be the poet's or can be the voice of someone else. ___It is written as a first-person to someone else (I-You), a first-person reflection, an apostrophe, or as a meditation lacking first-person pronouns. ___A self-evaluation and explanation of your final draft. __Correct spelling and punctuation where appropriate.   Poems must be typed, single space, using Times New Roman 12 pt. font.

 

Deadlines: Draft 1 is due________________. Draft 2 is due________________. Final draft is due______________.

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Appendix E Rubric for Poetry Assignment #1

Categories/ 6 point scale: 6 – Excellent ContentFully describes and develops emotion, experience, or imageEstablishes and maintains a point of viewMeets the criteria of a lyric poem as discussed in class Form Makes effective use of stanzas and line breaksPoem meets word requirement Language Makes use of required amount of similes/metaphors, and imagery Contains vivid sensory details Conventions Virtually free of mechanical errors

5 – Good Content Describes and develops an emotion, experience, or imageEstablishes and maintains a point of view Meets the basic criteria of lyric poem as discussed in class Form Makes logical use of stanzas and line breaks Poem meets word requirementLanguage Makes use of required amount of similes, metaphors, and imagery Contains sensory details Conventions Exhibits few mechanical errors     4 – Satisfactory Content Describes an emotion, experience, or image, but lacks development Establishes and maintains a point of view Meets most of the basic criteria of a lyric poem as discussed in class Form Makes logical use of stanzas and line breaks Poem meets word requirement Language Makes use of similes, metaphors, and imagery Contains a few sensory details Conventions Exhibits occasional mechanical errors that do not interfere with comprehension    

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3 – Promising Work in Need of Revision Content Describes an emotion, experience, or image, but lacks development Establishes a point of view but fails to maintain this point of view throughout the poem Meets some of the basic criteria of a lyric poem as discussed in class Form There is no logical pattern to stanza or line breaks Poem meets word requirementLanguage Makes little use of similes, metaphors, and/or imagery Contains very few sensory details Conventions Exhibits occasional mechanical errors that interfere with comprehension     2 – Needs Major Revision Content Poem does describe or develop an emotion, experience, or image Fails to establish a point of view Meets few of the basic criteria of a lyric poem as discussed in class Form There is no logical pattern to stanza breaks or line breaksPoem is less than required amount of words Language Does not make use of similes, metaphors, and/or imagery Contains no sensory details Conventions Exhibits frequent mechanical errors, making comprehension difficult     1 – Unsatisfactory Is not written in the form of a poem, fails to meet the minimum requirements of the assignment

 

 

   

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Appendix F

Peer Review Questions

 

Name_________________________________________

Poet's Name_____________________________________

Consider the following questions. Offer encouraging and helpful answers. Be positive!

1. Does the poem include at least one metaphor and one simile? Does the metaphor and simile fit with the rest of the poem?

 

2. Does the poem make strong use of imagery?

 

3. Does the poem make an effective use of line breaks and stanzas? Which line breaks are effective and why? Are there any sections which can be divided into separate stanzas?

   

4. Does the poem meet the class definition of lyric? Which of the four types of lyric is this poem (from our class definition of lyric)?

 

5. What suggestions for revision would you make?

 

6. Are there any spelling or mechanical errors?

 

7. What is your favorite aspect of this poem?

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Appendix G

Mini Lesson in Using Figurative Language

A. Create effective similes- striking and apt comparisons- by filling in the blanks in the following sentences. Your solution might be a single word or a short phrase, or it might be a lengthier, more complex description:

1. In his rage my father would bang on the wall like a __________________.2. Among her new in-laws, the young wife was as nervous as ______________.3. I paced the room as restless as a ____________________________________.4. Like a _____________________, his smile suddenly collapsed.5. It was the old sycamore in the front yard, swaying like a _________________.

B. Now create evocative images- strong descriptive language- to complete these sentences.

1. I loved the _____________ of the wash on the line in the summer morning.2. I was afraid of his ______________, his drunken, ungainly walk.3. I will not forget the ____________ of your lips, your skin’s ____________, or

the ____________ of your eyes.4. She wished to draw me deeper into the _______________ of her life.

C. In three or four sentences that sparkle with linguistic invention, describe:1. a rundown house2. an old table, desk bicycle, car, or truck3. a particular potted plant4. someone working in a kitchen or garden5. a small incident seen in the street or in a store

Make your descriptions come alive using precise charged language. The goal, of course, is to describe each item accurately, vividly and engagingly.

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