Monday, November 29, 2010

Group Poetry Piece & Choosing your Coffeehouse Piece

Today, please complete both of the following tasks:

A. Complete a draft with your performance group (see post below this one) of a group poetry slam piece. The WRITING of this piece should be completed by the end of class. When you are done writing, get together with your group and BLOCK the poem. Add gestures, movements, decide on choral lines (lines spoken as a group), etc.

B. Decide what you would like to perform at the coffeehouse on December 8 at 7:00. Print this selection out and just like your speeches, prepare and mark it for performance.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Slam & Group Piece

Today, please complete your first draft of your slam poem. Please print out and add Slam Poem Draft to your heading.

If you finish early, choose 1-3 other members for a performance group. You will be writing and performing a group performance poem. To get an idea as to what to write, do the following:

In your group, take 2 minutes and list possible ideas for a theme or subject in your journal. After the 2-minute time limit, stop and share your lists with each other. Find common ground that the entire group would care to write about.

Each writer/performer must write at least one stanza of the poem. Of course the entire group can help write the details and provide suggestions or guidance. In performance, each member of the group will have a solo. Additionally, there should be a choral element to the piece (a repeated line that all members speak, etc.) Consider the use of sound effects and staging when rehearsing and preparing your performance.

The group piece is not due yet. We will work on it the week we return from Thanksgiving break.

HOMEWORK: Nothing. Unless you haven't completed your previous work. Please complete all late or missing assignments.

Coffehouse Dec. 8 at 7:00.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Slam Nation & Slam Poem #1 Draft

After the film, please complete your slam poem draft. This will be due next class.

If you have finished early, please find up to three partners (groups of 2-4). Together make a list of common interests, issues, problems, or subjects that you would like to write about. From this list choose one or more (you can combine in any creative way you see fit) to write a collaborative poem. We are going to work on this next class as well.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Slam poem #1 & Slam Nation

For the first period please work on your slam poem draft. Write. Write freely. Write relatively quickly. Try to avoid worrying about phrases and ideas. Just let words spill out of you for this first draft. Everything can be improved later. Writing is a process.

During period 2 and next class we will be watching a documentary called: Slam Nation, directed by Paul Devlin.

During this year you will be asked to write and film a documentary. Please watch this film and consider how the subject matter is revealed to you through interviews (journalism), performances, and various shots revolving around the NYC slam team. At the heart of the film is their quest (the slam team's) to journey (adventure) to the National Poetry Slam contest.

Famous slam performers and poets include: Saul Williams, Jessica Care Moore, Beau Sia, Taylor Mali, Patricia Smith, and Marc Smith.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Performance Poetry

Today, after our last Spoon River performances, please watch the following clips:

Slam Poetry Nationals
Poem #1

Poem #2

Poem #3

Poem #4


A Brief Guide to Slam Poetry

Taken from Poets.org.

"One of the most vital and energetic movements in poetry during the 1990s, slam has revitalized interest in poetry in performance. Poetry began as part of an oral tradition, and movements like the Beats and the poets of Negritude were devoted to the spoken and performed aspects of their poems. This interest was reborn through the rise of poetry slams across America; while many poets in academia found fault with the movement, slam was well received among young poets and poets of diverse backgrounds as a democratizing force. This generation of spoken word poetry is often highly politicized, drawing upon racial, economic, and gender injustices as well as current events for subject manner.

A slam itself is simply a poetry competition in which poets perform original work alone or in teams before an audience, which serves as judge. The work is judged as much on the manner and enthusiasm of its performance as its content or style, and many slam poems are not intended to be read silently from the page. The structure of the traditional slam was started by construction worker and poet Marc Smith in 1986 at a reading series in a Chicago jazz club. The competition quickly spread across the country, finding a notable home in New York City at the Nuyorican Poets Café."

Slam Poetry often uses topics or themes that are politically or emotionally charged. Slam poets often write with a social comment to make or share with an audience.

How can you be a poet for social change?

Brainstorming: Start with your journal. Make a list of things you believe, things that make you mad, or things that you feel go unnoticed by others, things that are important to you. Write for 5 minutes. Try to fill a page or two.

Now, look over your list and choose the topic that you feel may be the most interesting to an audience. Today, write a poem based on this chosen idea. This will be a first draft.

Finished early? Write a second poem. Go back to your first poem draft and add imagery (metaphor, personification, simile, symbol, figurative language, allusion, etc.)

Monday, November 8, 2010

Spoon River Run & Poetry Exercises

Today we will continue our performances of Spoon River. I am not here (as you can see) but that shouldn't stop you. Please prepare for the next 10 minutes (for those of you who haven't gone yet.) The substitute teacher will call on anyone left to go.

Please evaluate those students performing today. Stay off the computers and actually watch the performances (particularly those of you in the back of the room). Please hand in your critiques after all the performers have gone.

You may return your Spoon River books to the library after today.

When you are done, please complete your character monologue poems (if you haven't done so already). Print these out and hand in to my inbox if you have completed the poem exercise.

Finished? Try working on any of these poetry exercises:

1. David Lehman wrote a poem called “The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke.” Pick a similarly everyday pair – butter and margarine, hotdogs and hamburgers, peanut butter & jelly, etc. Write a poem about the pair.

2. In the poem “Words”, Dana Gioia writes: “The world does not need words. It articulates itself/ in sunlight, leaves, and shadows.” Think of other things that don’t speak, and write a poem about how these things express themselves. How does an apple, or a spoon, or a house communicate, etc? What might it say? Why should we listen?

3. Write a poem where every line of the poem begins with the same word or the same letter.

Friday, November 5, 2010

Spoon River Rehearsal & Poem Delivery

Take 20 minutes and rehearse. After you do this we will be performing these poems in front o' the class.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Spoon River Poem & Character Monologue Poem draft

Please prepare and rehearse your Spoon River poems during 3rd period.

Tips:
--Examine and read your poem carefully. Make sure you know and understand the poem. Look up unknown words in the dictionary.
--Bold or underline words or important phrases that you want to stress. Mark these on your script.
--Find the transitions from one part of the poem to another (just like a paragraph in prose). When you find this break mark your script with a double slash mark (//) to indicate a new idea. This is usually where tone changes, so make sure you note where this occurs on your script.
Use a slash mark (/) to indicate pauses or a good place to take a breath.
In the margins, indicate the tone of the speaker. Does the tone change?
Ask yourself: what does sadness, anger, or happiness sound like? What does self-satisfaction, boredom, or surprise sound like? Try to match your tone of voice with the attitude and voice of the character.
--What does your character look like physically? Give your character a pysicality--a physical gesture or facial expression. How does your character stand or hold his body? Does she stoop, or cringe, or wring her hands? Choose physical positions and gestures that help an audience understand what the character is feeling or trying to communicate.

Rehearse your poem when you have scored or marked it. You will need to turn in your poem draft at the end of class today and it should be marked up appropriately to show decisions regarding the above information. Starting next class, we will begin performing these poems in front of the class. Please rehearse and prepare.

During 4th period, please take the character you created a week or so ago during class (the one you put in your journal). Write a poem in the style of Spoon River (a character monologue poem) from the POV of your character. Your title should be the character's name. The poem should be in first person POV.

The Graveyard Book - Discussion Questions

  In your discussion groups, please answer 5 of the 10 discussion questions. Choose a member of your group to record your answers. Make sure...