3-21/4-1 2008: Oral Presentations: Getting our feet wet

Lesson:
We practiced strategies for dramatic reading. Here are the basics:

Take Risks
Have a sense of humor
Be helpful (critique-don’t criticize)
Be willing to take critiques
Be respectful and sensitive of other peoples fears, concerns, and time.
Listen!
Practice

We then divided into groups for a choral reading. You can see your group and the poems for your group on the assignments page.

Homework:
Read your poem and analyze it.
Complete the performance history on the assignments page.

3-19/20 Truth and reconciliation

Lesson:
We discussed the Truth and Reconciliation process and discussed whether or not this was, in fact, justice.
If you were absent please read these two websites and then fill out the sheet on the assignments age labeled "Truth and Reconciliation"

Read these two websites first:
http://www.peaceworkmagazine.org/pwork/0599/0515.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/truth_and_reconciliation/203134.stm


HMWK:
TRC Worksheet (see assignments page)

3-17/18 2008 Sarafia continued

Lesson:
Final projects were turned in. Woohoo!
We finished the film Sarafina.

HMWK: None

3-13/14 Sarafina! and poetry

Lesson:
We went over the poem Soweto Road and started the movie Sarafina. If you were absent, and are able to, rent the movie Sarafina and watch the first half.

If you are at Churchill, use poetry buddy to analyze one more poem from the SOuth Africa Poetry sheet.

HMWK:
Work on final project

3-11/12 2008 Meaning in poetry

Lesson:
Today we turned in our This I Believe assignments and the train poems.
We practiced analyzing two poems in class. If you are not comfortable with analyzing poetry, you should come in during projects or another time to work with me on analyzing your first one. It can be a little tricky.

We practiced first with this poem by William Carlos Williams:

The Red Wheelbarrow

So much depends
Upon

The red wheel
Barrow

Glazed with rain
Water

Beside the white
Chickens

The basics to analyzing this are:
1. Read the poem once, then re-read it marking it up by highlighting, labeling, making marginal notes on: sound, form, meaning. Color-coding and making a key may be helpful.

2. Finally, make a conclusion about what the poem’s message seems to be. (Relax: there is not one “correct” meaning as long as you can give support from the poem that would be convincing and intriguing to reasonable people.)

3. Analyze this poem using the methods we talked about in class. Begin with your conclusion about the main message. Support this argument with examples you found.

Can you try analyzing "The Red Wheelbarrow". HINT! Don't go too deep. It is not a poem about South Afirca.

If you think you got that one try this one from a South Afircan writer, who wrote this during Apartheid. HINT! It is about SOuth Africa!:

Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang
(A Person Is a Person Because of Other People)

By holding my mirror out of the window I see
Clear to the end of the passage.
There’s a person down there,
A prisoner polishing a doorhandle.
In the mirror, I see him see
My face in the mirror,
I see the fingertips of his free hand
Bunch together, as if to make
An object the size of a badge
Which travels up to his forehead
The place of an imaginary cap.
(This means: A warder)
Two fingers extend in a vee
And wiggle like two antennae.
(He’s being watched.)
A finger of his free hand makes a watch-hand’s arc
On the wrist of his polishing arm without
Disrupting the slow-slow rhythm of his work
(Later, Maybe, later we can speak)
Hey, Wat maak jy daar?
-a voice around the corner.
No, just polishing baas.
He turns back to me, now watch
His free hand, the talkative one,
Slips quietly behind
--Strength brother, it says,
In my mirror,
A black fist

If you were absent, try analyzing both of these poems at home. Bring in your analysis to see if you are on the right track.

HMWK:
Our homework was to analyze the poem "Soweto Road". It can be found, with instructions, on the assignments page.

3-6/10 2008 Trick up yo' writing, fool!

Lesson:
We wrote and revised. It was rad.

If absent, complete a second draft of your "This I Believe" essay using the STAR method. Mark one place where you (S)ubstituted something else, one place you (T)ook out something, one place you (A)dded something new, and one place you (R)e-arranged something in your paper.
HMWK:
Final draft of "This I believe"
Final draft of Gumboots poem

3-4/5 Introduction to Poetry

Lesson:
We had a peer editor look at our rough drafts. If absent, please have someone edit your work before next class. Turn in a rough draft and a final.
We took a poetry pre-assessment. Make sure to pick one up next class. We went over poetic terms. If absent , please look up the following terms and find the definition and one example of each:
Alliteration
Assonance
Rhyme
Verse
Stanza
Meter
Rhyme scheme
Simile
Metaphor
Tone
Rhythm
Onomatopoeia
Figurative Language
Symbol
Personification

Look up trains and South Africa on the internet. Follow the directions for the train poem on the "assignments" page.
HMWK:
Rough draft of "This I Believe"
Train poem (see assignments page)

2-28/29 2008 This I Believe

Lesson:
We took a quiz on the story "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off". If absent, please make this up.
We discussed our own belief systems and how they are formed. We brainstormed topics for a personal essay about our beliefs based on the NPR program "This I Believe". If absent, please go to npr.org and listen to 2 essays from the "This I believe" program. It can be found at this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4538138

ONce you get the idea of these, try it yourself. The assignment can be found on the "Assignments" link.

HOMEWORK:
"This I Believe" rough draft due next class typed.
Work on final project