This document contains the agenda for an English class. It includes: - Discussing participation points and forming groups to work in. - Analyzing haiku poems in groups. - Learning about blank verse form through a lecture and example scanning exercise. - A guided writing activity where students write a 10 verse color poem in blank verse form. - Homework of posting the color poem, reading sonnets, and studying vocabulary terms.

1. EWRT
30
Class 2

2. AGENDA
Groups and Participation
Points
Discussion: Haiku
Terms 6-10
Lecture: Blank Verse: Form,
Meter, and Structure
Guided Writing (Color Poem)

3. Participation Points
Hint: this is not participating!

4. All participation points must be
earned in class
 You will earn some points in teams during discussion.
 You will earn some points in teams for reading your original
work.
 You will earn some points in teams during vocabulary
games
 You will earn some points for attending writers’ workshops
 There may be other opportunities to earn points.
 If you are not in class, you cannot earn points.

5. 2. The teams will remain the same through the
discussion, reading, workshops, and vocabulary
of one project.
3. You must change at least 50% of your team after
each project is completed.
4. You may never be on a team with the same
person more than twice.
5. You may never have a new team composed of
more than 50% of any prior team.
1. We will often use teams to
earn participation points.
Your teams can be made
up of 3 or 4 people.

6. Points will be earned
for correct answers to
questions, meaningful
contributions to the
discussion, and the
willingness to share
your work. Each team
will track their own
points, but cheating
leads to death (or loss
of 25 participation
points).
Answers, comments,
and questions must
be posed in a
manner that
promotes learning.
Those who speak
out of turn or with
maliciousness will
not receive points for
their teams.

7. At the end of each
class, you will turn in a
point sheet with the
names of everyone in
your group and your
accumulated points for
the day.
It is your responsibility
to make the sheet, track
the points, and turn it in.
Sit near your team
members in class to
facilitate ease of group
discussions

8. Your Poetry
Group!
 Get into groups of
three or four. (1-2
minutes)
 If you can’t find a
group, please raise
your hand.
 Once your groups is
established, choose
one person to be the
keeper of the points.
 Write down members’
names
 Turn in your sheet at
the end of the class
period.

9. In your groups: 5-6 minutes
 Review the first five vocabulary words.
 Be prepared to offer definitions
 Read your Haiku to each other.
 Identify the conventions you used in your haiku
 Prepare one or two to read aloud to the class

10. The Review
Green sheet
Syllabus
Website
Terms 1-5

11. What are the traditional
Conventions?

12. Conventions of Haiku
the line and syllable count
the use of a word that marks a
season
 the “phrase and fragment” style
(the description and reflection,
usually marked with punctuation).

13. Volunteers to Read!
What conventions do you recognize?

14. Terms 6-10

15. 6. Blank verse
A line of poetry or prose in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
Shakespeare's sonnets, Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, and
Robert Frost's meditative poems such as "Birches" include
many lines of blank verse. Here are the opening blank verse
lines of "Birches": When I see birches bend to left and right /
Across the lines of straighter darker trees, / I like to think
some boy's been swinging them.
7. Meter
The measured pattern of rhythmic accents in poems. An iamb is
an example of meter.

17. 9. Metaphor
A comparison between essentially unlike things without an
explicitly comparative word such as like or as. An example
is "My love is a red, red rose.”
10. Simile
A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike
things using like, as, or as though. An example: "My love is
like a red, red rose."

19. Blank Verse
 Blank verse is a form of poetry, obviously. What sets it
apart from all the other forms is that blank verse does
not rhyme. The meter is usually iambic (a pattern of
unstressed syllables followed by stressed), and
pentameter ( a line consisting of five feet). A line of
blank verse would go like this:
 Detroit Detroit Detroit Detroit Detroit
OR
 I watch the rolling hills fly by my eyes
 Though, technically, all lines are supposed to be exactly
iambic, sometimes it doesn't want to quite work out that
way.

20.  Scansion is the act of marking a poem to show the
metrical units of which it is composed. It means any
attempt, by signs, to indicate the beat of a line of
poetry and to mark off the division of feet.
Each team will scan one verse of the poem “Mending
Wall.” When you are done, write it on the white board.
(5-7 minutes)

21. http://poemshape.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/robert-frost-iambic-
pentameter-mending-wall/

22. 1. Read the verse out loud and see if you notice a particular rhythm in
your first reading.
2. Count the number of syllables in each line, and write that number at
the end of the line. Do you see a pattern in the number of syllables?
3. Put an accent mark (/) over any syllables that absolutely have to be
stressed. The way you can figure this out is by trying to say the word
several times, each time exaggerating a different syllable. ("AR-tist" or "ar-
TIST”). Put a "u" over the unstressed syllables.
4. Once you see a pattern (for example, unstressed, unstressed,
stressed; unstressed, unstressed, stressed . . . ), mark a vertical line
between each unit of the pattern. Those are your "feet.”
5. Read the poem aloud again, this time really accentuating the words
you have marked as "stressed." Does it sound right?
6. Count how many feet each line has. It will probably be one of these:
Monometer (one foot), Dimeter (two feet), Trimeter (three feet), Tetrameter
(four feet), Pentameter (five feet), or Hexameter (six feet).
7. Copy your scanned verse onto the board.

23. Guided Writing
Hearing Colors: A poem in blank verse

24. Pick a color to write about.
Then, assign qualities to your color. I know this is a stretch, but try to
imagine the color with your other senses.
These qualities will help you connect your color to abstract ideas and
events and describe it through alternative mediums.
 Soft or hard
 Wet or dry
 Big or little
 Loud or quiet
 Natural or man-made
 Smooth or textured
 Happy or sad
 Hot or cold
 Dense or porous
 Spring fall summer or winter
 Thick or thin
 Slippery or sticky
 Inside or outside
 Funny or serious
 Old or new
 Cheap or expensive
 Plain or ornate
 Common or uncommon
 Casual or formal
 Energetic or relaxed
 Realistic or fantastic
 Strong or frail

25. Questions to consider in
writing Verse One
If your color were music, what kind would it be?
Who would play it and where would you hear it?
Which song would it be?
Why or how does this music reflect your color?

26.  The color red is the shameless, sexy
 Salsa rhythm of racy Cubanos
 And Puertorriqueños; fast Timba—drum
 Beats: passionate, hungry, fervent, alive.

27. Verse Two
If your color were dance it would be which?
Who would dance it and where would you see it
done?
Describe the movements of the dance.
Why is this dance like your color?

28. Verse Three
If your color were a smell, it would be which?
Where would you smell it?
What does it remind you of?
How is this smell like your color?

29. Verse Four
If your color were a food it would be which?
Where and when would you eat it?
How does it taste?
How does it remind you of your color?

30. Verse Five
If your color were an event it would be which?
Specific example
When do you go there?
How is your color like your event?

31. Verse Six
If your color were a place it would be what or
where?
Describe it.
When do you (or other people) go there?
How is your color like your place?

32. Verse Seven
If your color were a person, who would it be?
Where would you see this person?
Describe this person.
How is your color like the person?

33. Verse Eight
If your color were an animal, which would it
be?
Where would you see this animal
Describe the animal
How is your color like the animal

34. Verse Nine
If your color were a game, what kind would it
be?
Which one in particular?
Who would play it?
Describe the game.

35. Verse Ten
If your color were a book, what kind would it
be?
Which one in particular?
Who would read it?
Describe the theme, plot, mood, or purpose.

36. Ending
Finish the poem with one or two more
lines!

37. Blank Verse: Conventions
Once you finish writing your poem, put
it into blank verse.
This means each line will have ten
syllables or five iambic feet.
It should not rhyme!

38. Consider other conventions
 Simile:
A figure of speech in which things are compared using the
words “like” or “as”
 Metaphor
A figure of speech in which things are compared by stating
that one thing is another
 Alliteration
Repetition of words with the same beginning sounds

39. Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like the objects or
actions they refer to
Assonance:
Identity or similarity in sound between
internal vowels in neighboring words.
example: hot dog

40. Remember
 Once you have completed your verses, you can
eliminate one or two or even three if they are not
working in your poem.
 You can add other verses that help you describe your
color.
 This guided writing is set up as quatrains (four lines
per verse), but you can change that if you would like.

41. Homework
Post #2 Blank Verse: Color Poem
Reading: Sonnets
Study Terms 1-10