Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Word Intolerance


Today:  Work on Similes in the Poetry Packet

Homeword
F and H - Wed
D and C - Thursday

Guidelines

Write a poem - the story of the word you put on the "Wall of Intolerance"
Use as many poetic devices as you can - maybe do these on rewrites
Be honest; be brave; use the model of the spoken word poets we have watched

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Poetry and Beyonce' "Lemondade"


TODAY:

I will take you through the annotation for meaning of BEYONCE'S new song

"FREEDOM"


LET'S WATCH THIS POEM - and THANK SEHAR FOR FINDING IT FOR US!!



You will turn in your assignment - poetry in music - remember what you must do for this assignment:

Choose a favorite song - one that speaks to you - print out the lyrics and answer the following questions:

YOU MUST ANNOTATE DIRECTLY ONTO YOUR PRINTED PAPER

  • What makes this poem compelling?
  • What is the theme/message/meaning of the poem?
  • What makes this song a poem (consider poetic elements/devices also called figurative language)?

I will, of course, ask some of you to share your favorite poems.

WE WILL PUT FORTH GREAT EFFORT TO WORK ON OUR POETRY PACKETS
So make sure you bring your packets to class.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

What Kind of Stories Must Be Told


TODAY:

We are going to dive right into the poetry packet - step-by-step - to make sure you have an understanding of:

Onomatopoeia; Personification; Alliteration; 
Assonance; Simile; Metaphor and the concept
of Abstract vs. Concrete



TWO OF THE MOST ESSENTIAL OF ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

"WHY WRITE POEMS?"

"WHAT KIND OF STORIES MUST BE TOLD?"  
The poetry of protest against human injustices



The Death of Emmett Till 


Was down in Mississippi not so long ago
When a young boy from Chicago town
Walked in a Southern door
This boy's fateful tragedy
You all should remember well
The color of his skin was black
And his name was Emmett Till
Some men, they dragged him to a barn
And there they beat him up
They said they had a reason
But disremember what
They tortured him and did some things
Too evil to repeat
There were screaming sounds inside the barn
There was laughing sounds out on the street
Then they rolled his body down a gulf
Amidst a blood red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide
To cease his screaming pain
The reason that they killed him there
And I'm a-sure, it ain't no lie
'Cause he was born in black-skin barn
He was born to die
And then to stop the United States
Of yelling for a trial
Two brothers, they confessed
That they had killed poor Emmett Till
But on the jury there were men
Who had helped the brothers commit this awful crime
And so this trial was a mockery
But nobody there seemed to mind
I saw the morning papers
But I could not bear
To see smiling brothers
Walkin' down the courthouse stairs
For the jury found them innocent
And the brothers, they went free
While Emmett's body floats the foam
Of a Jim Crow southern sea
If you can't speak out against this kind of thing
A crime that's so unjust
Your eyes are filled with dead men's clay
Your ears must be filled with dust
Your arms and legs
They must be in shackles and chains
And your mind, it must cease to flow
For you to let our human race
Fall down so God-awful low
This song is just a reminder
To remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today
In that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan
But if all of us folks that thinks alike
If we gave all we could give
We could make this great land of ours
A greater place to live


Bob Dylan - The Death Of Emmett Till Lyrics | MetroLyrics 



"The Death of Emmett Till"



A few other poems to be heard!







Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Reflection Essays are Due and a Little Poetry

ANYONE FEEL LIKE THIS

TODAY:
1)Make sure that your essays are in ONE NOTE in your own folder labeled
HOAISJ REFLECTION
2)We will write a class poem about a subject of our choice (pain, love, friendship, etc)
2)Let's make some progress on your poetry packets - WHERE ARE YOU


 

Monday, May 2, 2016

A Poem and some choices

LA Blocks C & D

Dear sub and students:

Please begin the day with a Spoken Word poem 


QUESTION FOR BRIEF DISCUSSION:  WHAT MAKES THIS A DYNAMIC SPOKEN WORK POEM?
Think - structure, pace, tone, passion, personal experience, its universality, and the use of poetic/literary devices (creation of rhythm, rhyme, repetition, etc.)

The students are all in different places, doing different projects.  They have 3 choices:

1)    They may use part of the time to organize their Language Arts contribution to their portfolios in preparation for the student led conferences.  All of their LA work is in folders by my desk.

      2)   They must turn in their Humans of AISJ reflective/informational essays on Thursday.  They can use this time to fine-tune their work, which means;
a.     reading the essay aloud to fix any errors in organization and conventions
b.     work with a peer to fine tune the essay based on feedback
c.     They can get feedback from me, but they must send the essay in a MS WORD document because I cannot access their work on One Note from home.  They can send it as an attachment to my email address dmoreau@aisj-jhb.com 

 3) Or, they can work on their poetry packet (they are all at different places), which provides an overview, examples and exercises to better understand the fundamentals of figurative language.  REITERATE the necessity for them to READ EVERY WORD AND FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE EXERCISES – they must not skip sections as this packet is meant to build on understanding – their ability to do this with or without help will tell alert me to their understanding. They can work with a partner – but they must stay focused.  Don’t hesitate to split up the groups that are fooling around and getting nothing done. As they get into more complicated figurative language, they will have questions – please help as best you can.  Or have them email me.

So, they have work to do and should not waste time.
It is imperative that you walk around and check in with the students so that you:
1.     know what they are doing and their accomplishment goals during class time.
2.     Know they are staying on task and not wasting valuable time.

3.     If they ask to go outside, they must stay within site the classroom for easy check-ins. 

Sunday, April 24, 2016

                    
Today we will accomplish work in our Poetry Packet - let's see where you are. But first,
           a poem.




 Today I will also take a few minutes remind you of what I am looking for in your Reflective Essay