Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Essential Question: What is poetry?

1. Do Now: For those who were disappointed by the lack of rhyme in the haiku and other poetry we looked at yesterday, limericks are at the opposite end of the spectrum. They exist for rhyme. Write out the following limericks providing what you believe to be the proper punctuation. 

               With sonnets, as well as haiku, tanka, and naga-uta, punctuation may be part of the formula. All the poems that we have looked at this year use punctuation to pace the reader---to have us stop and smell the roses instead of speeding ahead.

* There was a young lady whose chin resembled the point of a pin so she had it made sharp and purchased a harp and played several with that chin.

*There was an old man in a boat who said I’m afloat I’m afloat when they said no uou ain’t he was ready to faint that unhappy old man in a boat.

1. What illustrations might accompany these limericks?

1. Try to imitate the form of these limericks by writing your own. Look at the examples given to model. First make a list of common features of all the limericks you see.

First words

Number of lines

Rhythm

Rhyme

1. In pairs, read any of the limericks aloud, stressing the rhythm and the rhyme. Notice the tone, established by the invariable narrative signal ‘There was...’  

What sort of expectations does a beginning like this set up in the reader/listener? How do the accompanying pictures match the texts?

5. Graffitti

They never taste who always drink;

They always talk, who never think

                                                      Matthew Prior

As charms are nonsense, nonsense is a charm.

                                                      Benjamin Franklin

1. In trying to answer the essential question: what is poetry? write a verse to the tune of any popular song---alternatively, analyze the lyrics of a song you are particularly fond of and discuss whether they can be called poetry or not, and why.
2. Exit Ticket: Fill-in the blanks of the following frame poem that we did in class last week. Maybe our discussions have left you with another idea about what “poetry” is or can be?

                        

                               A Poem About a Poem

by ___________________________________

Poetry is ______________________________________________

Poetry is like ___________________________________________

Poetry is about _________________________________________

Poetry is as important as _________________________________

Poetry is as pointless as __________________________________

Poetry means ________________________________________

Poetry is ____________________________________________

Homework: Part of the final will be a 150 word reflective essay. It would hurt if you thought about this before hand and made some notes to bring to class and use during the exam time?     

“Your task is to write a reflective essay about your growth as a reader, writer, speaker, and listener in 150 words or more. Your essay should include examples of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and collaborative (group) strategies you have used this year. You should also explain how those strategies helped you to improve your ability to read and comprehend challenging texts as well as write and present original texts.”

• Include strategies you have learned this year and how they might be effective 
• How might you meet new challenges and opportunities as a speaker, listener, and writer?

Monday, June 10, 2013

Essential Question: What is poetry?

I. Do Now: Describe, in writing, some quintessential natural spring occurrence in your experience.  

For example: The apple tree close to my back door is filled with blossoms. There is a bush outside our picture window that bursts with yellow blossoms and within a few days loses them. The asparagus tips emerge from a sunny spot in the garden.

1. Read: Haiku and Tanka. Read through the poetry as a whole group. Compose your own haiku using the above models. You should begin with the image that wrote about for the do-now. After you have done this, think of some spring or summer images. Try  to create other haiku, tanka, and naga-uta.

haiku: a seventeen syllable poem of three lines (five-seven-five)

tanka: a five-line poem, of which the first and the third lines have five syllables each and the others seven, making a total of thirty one syllables per poem.

naga-uta: long song, 5-7-5-7-5-7-7 (43 syllables or more).

On the first day of spring,

snow falling

from one bough to another

                                         Virginia Brady Young

Snowing...

the dentist

polishes my teeth 

                            Robert Speiss

Yukaze ya                        evening breeze...

mizu aosagi no                  water laps the legs

nagio o utsu                      of the blue heron

                                                   Yosa Buson (1716-1784)

Yanagi chiri                       willow leaves fallen

shimizu kare ishi                clear water flowing

tokoro-dokoro                    one place and another

Tanka 

at the roadside

clear water flowing

willow shade

thinking to rest awhile

have come to a halt

                              Saigyo (1118-1190)

Oh, don’t swat!

the fly rubs hands

rubs feet

                           Kobayashi Issa (1762-1826)

stuck in a vase

clusters of wisteria

blossoms hanging,

in the sick-bed

spring begins to darken

                                    Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)

Modern haiku sometimes ignores the 17 syllable form. It is described as a “bumpy” form.

recently wife died

grocer’s 

stacking greens

stacking onions

husband and daughter

                                     Kawahigashi Hekigoto (1873-1937)

Contemporary haiku:

the flavor

of the salt-pickled daikon

the moon and I

                            Fujimoto Kanseki

buzz

slap 

buzz

        Alan Pizzarelli

a tooth of gold

going out of the dentist’s office

the leaves fall

                     

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Essential Question: How have the strategies I have learned this year helped me to be a better reader, writer, speaker, and listener?

Do Now: Part 1: Student Survey (Periods 5,6, & 7) (8 minutes)

Part 2 (8 minutes):

In a notebook entry, think about the play performance you will be presenting next week during our finals day. In addition to showing your polished video presentation to the class and doing a peer review in response to each video, you will write a “metacognitive” essay about your experience with this play project and this year’s curriculum. Yesterday’s and today’s do-now pose questions that might be the core of that writing next week, and you are encouraged to use the answers you have written for these to formulate a better essay next week.

metacognition: the ability to know and be aware of one’s own thought processes; self reflection.

Answer the following:

1. How did you grow or change as a result of our recent play project or any of the other projects that we have worked on this year? Identify several and explain how you might apply that experience to real-life in the future.

2.How have you grown as a speaker, performer, or as a collaborator in a group setting?

3. What future plans do you have for using some of the things that you may have experienced or become better at through this year’s curriculum? 

Example: Through our recent video projects I have learned a lot about using video as a means of expression and sharing. I plan to become better at using some of the tools that I only had time to experiment with or watch others use more effectively than I can now. I plan on making a blog that includes some of my video documentation of different things, including my work on creating an historical ice harvesting event. This included the use of old tools and equipment while demonstrating the individual work involved in this one-time third largest industry of Maine’s past.

II. Last minute checks

• One copy of your video on more than one group member’s laptop. I have a thumb drive for those who would like to turn in their projects today.
• There is a list of other things that were on yesterday’s handout that you might review before handing in your video.

III. Baz Luhrmann’s interpretation of Romeo and Juliet (34 or 42 minutes).

While watching the last part of the film you are to identify the use of camera angles and movement, lighting, music, costume and other stylistic devices on the graphic organizer on the back of this handout.

Make-Up Work Opportunities

Directions: This make-up must be approved by the teacher before doing it.The response to one or several of these tasks will have to exhibit some effort in order to receive a passing grade and much effort to receive high grades. There will be a late penalty of ten points attached to this work, as this is work in lieu of missing assignments. Complete sentences and paragraphs are necessary. Do your best work.

1. As was pointed out, and was cinematically portrayed by Zeffirelli a bit amusingly, the loss of both Romeo and Juliet really hinged on one man and a mule. The message sent by Friar Lawrence to Romeo about Juliet’s deception of appearing dead to escape marriage to Paris was fatally delayed by Friar John, a messenger, and his mule. Simply, Balthasar, Romeo’s servant, sees Juliet being put in the Capulet crypt and tells Romeo she is dead. With no message from Friar Lawrence to explain the situation, Juliet appears to be dead to Romeo, and he kills himself at the perceived loss of his young wife.

Write Friar Lawrence’s letter to Romeo ( the one that didn’t get to Romeo on time). Describe the plan to help Romeo and Juliet as the Friar would have written it. 

2.A casting director is responsible for selecting the right person to portray each character in a play or movie interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. Choosing the right actor is a complicated process. It involves finding a person with the right age, personality, looks, speech patterns---even gestures and voice. 

    

    Imagine that you are selecting characters for Romeo and Juliet. Choose two modern-day actors to portray the lovers. Explain why the actors fit the characters in the play.

    You may prepare a poster or chart with pictures of the actors. Then on this chart, list the traits shared by the actors and the characters in the play.

3. Friar Lawrence could be considered responsible in some way for the deaths of these two teenagers, Romeo and Juliet. As a legal aide for the firm of Joe Borenstein Law Offices (located in Verona, Maine) you have been given the job of collecting evidence in a criminal trial and civil suit against Friar Lawrence. 

• Come up with a list of witnesses that would offer incriminating evidence against the Friar. Why would they serve your case?

• What testimony could they give that would serve in a case against him proving that he was responsible for the deaths of these two minors.

4. For the music lovers and afficianados among us. Many composers have been inspired by the story of Romeo and Juliet. For example, Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, and Gounod wrote music based on Shakespeare’s play. Leonard Bernstein, a 20th century American composer and famous conductor of the New York Philharmonic for 40 years, wrote the score of that 1961 classic West Side Story, that we saw part of in the auditorium. When that broadway show was made and subsequently made into a film that was considered  an updated version of the play.

  

    Find at least two musical pieces based on Romeo and Juliet. In writing, explain how the music matches the events and mood of the play. Explain the feelings and emotions the music creates for the listener. If possible, arrange to play some of the music for your classmates.

5. Design costumes for the actors. Do research for information on the kind of clothing worn by men and women during the 1300s in Italy. From authentic sketches and descriptions, draw models of dress during that period. You can make illustrations or even paper doll replicas of people in different costumes. Explain these costumes thoroughly in writing. 

6. Imagine you are a reporter for the daily newspaper Verona Daily News. It is the morning after Romeo and Juliet’s double suicide. Your task is to cover their tragic deaths in a three-paragraph news story. 

    The following is a model for organizing your report:

     First paragraph: Begin your article with a brief firsthand report of the actual events. What happened? Where? When? To Whom? How? Mention only the most important facts.

     Second paragraph: Give more details about the event. Who discovered the bodies? What did that person observe? Who told the authorities? What steps have the authorities taken to investigate the deaths?

      Third paragraph: What information has been gathered about the two who died? What led up to the deaths? Who are the survivors?

       Be sure to provide a striking headline for your news story.

7.Write a three-paragraph essay based on one of the topics below. Come up with an opinion and a set of ideas to present. Select the topics you you feel strongly about.

Follow this design or form for your essay.

First paragraph: State your feeling or opinion. (This is your central idea or your thesis). Be sure to give the name of the play and its author in this paragraph. Make your introduction lively so that your reader will want to continue. This will be a short paragraph, probably about three or four sentences.

Second paragraph: Give some proof or examples that support your opinion. This paragraph should be about five or six sentences long.

Third paragraph: Now summarize your argument and restate your thesis in a strong and new way. This paragraph should be four sentences long.

Topics:

a. The Prince is concerned with the five tragic deaths of young people in Verona. It is his job top decide the fates of the people involved. He says some will be pardoned while others will be punished. Taking on the role of the Prince, decide who gets pardoned and why and who gets punished and why for the deaths. Explain how you will sentence each person. Should the offender be punished or pardoned?  

b. Choose one of these themes that have been associated with Romeo and Juliet and explain what you learned about the topic from the play. Use evidence from the play to explain your ideas.

• the power of love
• the importance of acting with caution and reason
• the effects of fate or chance
• the effects of prejudice and bigotry

   

Monday, June 3, 2013

Essential Question: What are the essential features of an effective drama and/or dramatic performance?

Read the following thoroughly:

I. Do Now (8 minutes): Write your response to the do-now and your subsequent notebook entry on the back of this handout. Notebook Entry: Identify and explain the following. Specific details are best. Complete sentences are necessary.

1. Identify and explain four ways we have examined drama, Romeo and Juliet, this trimester.


2. Identify and explain four ways in which examining several interpretations of the same literary work, a play, might influence our own present project of performing a play and videotaping it.

II. Group Work: Embedded Assessment: Play Performance

The teacher will be circulating to each group today and request to see some of your videotaped product.

1. You should be finishing up your videotaping of your play performance at this point.
2. In editing your video, you should use music, color saturation, instant replay?, accelerated action or slowed down motion, drop in backgrounds and settings, and other tools to make your production more entertaining. 
3. Remember that your individual grade will be evaluated from the quality of your notebook and your performance.
4. You should create a notebook entry today and date it. You are documenting what you are doing to complete the play product as well as identifying things that you anticipate doing. The submitted “notebook entries” will be individually graded using the homework/class work rubric and averaged together to arrive at a numerical grade, so do quality work to boost that grade (for example, for today’s do-now).
5. Write your name, theater company name, and date on all notebook entries.
6. Always consider your behavior when you are working outside the classroom. Do not interrupt or disrupt other classes. You are working on your projects and not fooling around, as there will be less class time to work on these this week.
7. Please use your time wisely.

Homework: You are working on this group project and individual notebooks for a Thursday, June 6 deadline. 6th Period has until Friday, June 7th.