Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Tone Poem & Spoon River

If you haven't yet done so from last class, please create a poem using a specific TONE. Pick an emotional tone for your persona and have that character speak, using appropriate diction, to create the tone you selected.
Here's an example of a poem that has a specific TONE. Try to figure out what TONE the speaker/persona is using:

"Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries" by Hugh MacDiarmid:
It is a God-damned lie to say that these
Saved, or knew, anything worth any man's pride.
They were professional murderers and they took
Their blood money and impious risks and died.
In spite of all their kind some elements of worth
With difficulty persist here and there on earth. 
After writing your draft, please select and sign up for ONE Spoon River poem that you would like to perform. If someone has already signed up for the character you want, please select your second choice. Write down your selection on the sign-up sheet.
Today, type that poem out and do the following to prepare it for your upcoming presentation:

Please prepare and rehearse your Spoon River poems during 3rd period.
  • 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, write 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 physicality--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.
Print out your poem with the marks you have made on it (slash marks, bolded words, italicized or underlined words, etc.)

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. Next class, we will begin performing these poems in front of the class. Please rehearse and prepare. 

Monday, October 29, 2012

Emotional Tones

Humans often communicate through tone. Here is a list of various emotions a human being can have. With a partner, read over the list and discuss how a person sounds when feeling this emotion. Additionally, what ACTIONS or body gestures does the person make when feeling this emotion.

For example: How does a person sound fearful? What happens to a person's voice when he/she is afraid? Also: what does a person DO physically when he/she is afraid? What facial expressions or gestures does the person use to convey this emotion?
  • Fear → feeling afraid. Other words are terror (strong fear), shock, phobia
  • Anger → feeling angry. A stronger word is rage.
  • Sadness → feeling sad. Other words are sorrow, grief (a stronger feeling, for example when someone has died) or depression (feeling sad for a long time). Some people think depression is a different emotion.
  • Joy → feeling happy. Other words are happiness, gladness.
  • Disgust → feeling something is wrong or dirty
  • Trust → a positive emotion; admiration is stronger; acceptance is weaker
  • Anticipation → in the sense of looking forward positively to something which is going to happen. Expectation is more neutral.
  • Surprise → how one feels when something unexpected happens
  • Calmness (not feeling excited; opposite of anger)
  • Friendship (Love), opposite enmity (feeling hate)
  • confident (having no fear)
  • Shame, opposite shamelessness (shame: how one feels about one's past bad actions or thoughts; shamelessness: one does not feel shame, but others think one should.)
  • Kindness (benevolence), opposite unkindness (kindness: when people are good to other people)
  • Pity (when people feel sorry for other people)
  • Indignation (feeling angry because something is not fair, such as undeserved good fortune)
  • Envy, jealous (pain when people have something that one wishes for oneself) 
  • wonder - surprise
  • amusement - opposite emotion: weariness
  • courage - opposite emotion: timidity or cowardice
  • pity - opposite emotion: cruelty
  • pride - opposite emotion: modesty- shame
  • closeness - opposite emotion: detachment
  • complaint/pain
  • patience
  • relaxed - opposite emotion: stressed
Writing Activity: choose one of these emotions and write a poem that specifically uses this emotion. Use specific words that suggest the emotion, but NEVER name or say the emotion in the poem. Let diction and word choice convey the feeling, rather than telling the audience what the persona is feeling.

This is what we mean when we say: show, don't tell in your writing.

Spoon River Reading

  • Please get into groups of 3-4.
  • Starting on page 48 in Spoon River, please spend period 3 reading outloud with your group. Take turns reading the poems. You should aim to complete the reading up to page 72.
  • For homework, please finish reading the book on your own.
For each poem, notice WHO the speaker is (the persona), WHY are the speaker is speaking (what secrets do they tell us?), and the tone and voice in their poem. (Those characters might appear later in the book)
 
During period 4, in the lab: Write a new poem using a specific voice. Consider the words you use (diction) to create a tone for your "character" or persona. The poem character should NOT be YOU! Use understatement, euphemism, rhetorical devices, or any connotation within your diction.
 
HOMEWORK: Please finish reading Spoon River on your own. Select 3 characters that you like and write down their names and the page # they appear on in your journal. We will use this information next class.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Spoon River, Voice, & Oral Interpretation

As we read Spoon River pay attention to how the author creates a voice for his personas.

Diction: word choice. Select words in your poem carefully to carry the most meaning. All words have a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning.

DENOTATION: The dictionary meaning of a word.
CONNOTATION: The implied meaning of a word based on how it is said or the tone used.

Understatement, euphemism, and other rhetorical strategies may be used to affect a poem's diction. Speaking to your elderly grandparents uses a different diction than speaking to your "homies". We change our diction depending on who we are talking to.

Voice: The character or "speaker" speaking through the poem. Also called the "persona". Just like an actor, a writer tries to create a character whose "voice" we hear when reading or listening to a poem.

Tone: Often the attitude of your speaker or the voice. Identified in a poem by diction.
  • Tone can be formal or informal depending on the diction a poet uses.
  • Tone can be ironic, sarcastic, serious, pedantic, full of awe, friendly, fearful, silly, drunk, hyperbolic or any other type of feeling depending on the voice a poet selects.
  • Tone can be positive or negative or neutral. Selecting one of these tones can or should affect your diction.
For each poem, notice WHO the speaker is (the persona), WHY are the speaker is speaking (what secrets do they tell us?), and the tone and voice in their poem. (Those characters might appear later in the book)

In the lab: Write a new poem using a specific voice. Consider the words you use (diction) to create a tone for your "character" or persona. The poem character should NOT be YOU! Use understatement, euphemism, rhetorical devices, or any connotation within your diction.

HOMEWORK: Please complete the reading of Spoon River. Choose 3 "characters" that you would like to work with and bring these choices with you next class. We will be working on memorizing and preparing the poem for performance.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Poetry Exercise (Word Bank) & Spoon River

Today, let's take 20 minutes to do the following:
Creating a word bank for poetry
Go to the following website:
Read poems #1-5. As you read, choose 3 words from EACH poem and make a list. (The best way to do this is either in your journal – where you will get credit; or you may keep a word document open and minimized on the bottom of your screen to collect the words).
Choose interesting or “powerful” words—words that draw YOUR attention; the best 3 single words in the poem. Avoid phrases.

Once you have a list with 15 words (3 words per poem x 5 poems = 15), use your word bank to create a poem of your own.
• You DO NOT have to use all 15 words in your poem.
• Your poem should make sense. Try to avoid sentence fragments. (Consider your character, setting, theme, conflict, etc. to help write a story...yes, even poetry has a story.)
• You may include as many OTHER words as you’d like. You may also lengthen or shorten words or change their tense (from past to present, for example).
After our exercise, we will take a trip to the library to pick up Spoon River. When we return, we'll start reading it as a class.

Spoon River is a collection of internal monologue poems by American poet Edgar Lee Masters.

As we read this collection, please note that each poem is "spoken" using the voice of the speaker. Certain characters speak seriously, in a, pardon the pun, grave manner. Other characters have a humorous or sarcastic tone to their "voice."

Each character is assumed to be dead and talking from the grave about his/her life. After reading the collection, feel free to try this technique yourself.

Journal Options (on-going deadline: you may do these exercises again and again thorughou):
1. Go to a cemetery. Record the names on gravestones. Imagine who this/these person or persons are. What meant the most to them? What kind of personality did they have? How did they live? How did they die? What did they do for a living? Who did they love or dislike? What was the most important object/idea/person to them? What do they most regret? Use these questions to create an internal monologue.

2. Look through a phone book. Record some names of people you don't know. Imagine who these people are. What meant the most to them? what kind of personality do they have? How do they live? How will they die? What do they do for a living? Who do they love/dislike? What means the most to them? waht do they regret? Use these questions to create an internal monologue.

3.Write several of these poems. Then put them together. At least two of your characters should know each other and reference the other character(s). See SPOON RIVER poems for examples.
 HOMEWORK: Please read Spoon River. As you read, pay attention to how the author creates a voice for his personas. For each poem, notice WHO the speaker is, WHY are they speaking (what secrets do they tell us?), and other characters they name in their poem. (Those characters might appear later in the book)

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Internal Monologue Poem Draft

Please watch the following poems. These all have a SPEAKER, a PURPOSE, and a specific AUDIENCE. For each poem, consider who is the speaker, who is the speaker talking to (the intended audience), and the reason WHY the speaker is speaking.

1. The Lanyard by Billy Collins
2. Do Not Stand At My Grave
3. Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa

When we write poems, we need to remember:
A. Not all poems are about the poet (while this is common, it is better to consider the SPEAKER in the poem to be a PERSONA: a character the writer uses to explore a human feeling, subject, or event.)
B. Poems use imagery: figurative language, metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, detail
Using the character sheet from Monday's class, please use it and the details you created as the SPEAKER or PERSONA for your poem. This character should be someone fictional, perhaps BASED ON YOU, but NOT YOU specifically! Turn in your character design sheet with your poem draft by the end of class today.

In verse please write a internal monologue poem. Length is up to you. Title your piece the name of the character. Use the poems you read or listened to as models. Use your character sheet to provide details in which you identify the speaker, the audience, and the speaker's goal (i.e., WHO, WHY, and To WHOM (your audience)). Print this out and turn in by the end of class today.

HOMEWORK: I will be collecting your journals during class (Friday). Please leave these with the substitute at the end of class.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The Internal Monologue Poem

Today, let's attempt an internal or dramatic monologue poem. 

What is it?

Internal Monologue Poem: a specific character or speaker is speaking to a specific person or persons (audience) for a specific purpose (motivation or speaker's goal) at a specific time and place. In other words, think of a situation where your character (not YOU, but your character) is speaking for a reason or purpose.

Here are some famous examples of internal monologue poems. Note that these speakers are writing about themselves as objects or in the 3rd person in some cases (the action is going on in the person's head, such as in the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock about an aging lonely guy who can't bring himself to speak to women)

As you watch each video and read each poem, on your index card identify the following information for each of the poems (that's a total of 5):

1. Watch and read the poem for WHO: who is the speaker in the poem most likely?
2. Watch and read the poem for PURPOSE: WHY is the speaker talking most likely?
3. Watch and read the poem for AUDIENCE: TO WHOM is the speaker speaking most likely? Try to be specific with this: not just "to us" but WHO in the character's life would the character be speaking to in this situation?

Record your answers on the index card. After viewing check your answers with a partner. Discuss your findings. Hand in your card by the end of 3rd period.

Internal Monologue Poems:
Now it's your turn. You will create a MADE UP character. Someone fictional, perhaps BASED ON YOU, but NOT YOU! Fill out the handout character sheet. Hold on to this sheet. You will turn it in with your poem draft.

If you complete your character design, please complete the following task:

In verse please write a internal monologue poem. Length is up to you. Title your piece the name of the character. Use the poems you read or listened to as models. Use your character sheet to provide details in which you identify the speaker, the audience, and the speaker's goal (i.e., WHO, WHY, and To WHOM).

During 4th period, we will conclude our speeches.

HOMEWORK: I will be collecting your journals next class (Friday) We will not see each other on Wednesday due to testing.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Rehearsal & Speeches

During 3rd period, please rehearse and prepare your speech. During 4th period we will be going next door (room 238) to deliver our speeches.

Listeners: please complete the feedback forms for each speech. Hand in these sheets by end of class for participation credit.

HOMEWORK: There is no homework for this weekend.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Coffee House Reading Performance! Creative Writing Retreat!

We will be performing our Coffee House reading (a requirement for this class) on November 15 at 7:00 in the Ensemble Theater. This is a requirement for all Freshmen creative writing majors.

Please share this information with your parents so that they can attend.

Also, there is space available for the Creative Writing Retreat on October 20 from 1:00 to 5:00 at the Hopkins Point Lodge in Mendon Park. Please bring your family. Lunch will be served. For more information please contact creative writing parent Diana Carter at blueloon@rochester.rr.com.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Writing and Preparing Your Speech

Please use 3rd period to write your speech.
  1. After you write your speech, proofread and print out.
  2. Divide the speech with your partner. Decide who will deliver what parts of the speech.
  3. Paste your work onto index cards that you can use for your notes.
  4. Highlight important key points in your speech; Slow down during these highlights when you deliver your speech.
  5. Rehearse with your partner. You may use our lab or the classroom next door (a238).
During 4th period (or after you complete the steps above), we will begin rehearsing speeches.

Effective speech is largely based on knowing well what you wrote. Being familiar with the words you used and how to pronounce them are helpful. In addition,
  • sincerity (you've got to believe and mean what you say)
  • effective volume (if we can't hear you, then there is no point in communicating)
  • eye contact (helps gain feedback from your audience)
  • effective pacing (slow down during important points, speed up during non-important points or digressions)
  • effective gestures and posture (physical communication is helpful to communicate an idea)
can help make your speech more effective and interesting.

In your pairs "rehearse" your speech. Deliver your speech to one another, taking turns. The listener should give you feedback about effectiveness. What parts of the speech are weak, vague, or badly delivered? Where does the listener stop listening in the speech? Does the opening of the speech effectively hook or interest the listener? Critique each other.

Use your time to go over your speech again and again. Do this until the bell rings. Seriously, the more time you practice, the better you will be prepared. Don't goof off or throw away this opportunity. Work until the end of class!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Speech Writing

Just like an essay, there are 3 parts to a speech:

1. The introduction: open your speech with a hook to interest your audience. Consider what would be interesting or important for your audience to hear. Do not ask your audience a question that you expect them to answer. Instead, provide a fact, tell an anecdote, start off with something surprising or interesting, even a related joke.
For example: "Many people are not aware that something common in their house might kill them. But every year over 500 people die in the U.S. from carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and initially non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect. In my speech today I will tell you what carbon monoxide is, how it might affect your health, and how you can prevent it from killing you."
2. the body: this is the section of your speech where you will provide us with the details and a description of the four questions you must answer in your speech: what is it? where does it come from or what is its history/culture? why is it important? How does it affect us or how is this topic relevant to our lives? You should back up your answers with expert fact and statistics or evidence from your research. Tell us where you got your information! The best speeches transition easily from one point to the next in an orderly and logical way that the audience can easily understand.

3. the conclusion: summarize your main points of your speech. If you can leave the audience with something to consider.

Today, you will be writing a short speech (about 2 pages, double-spaced) on your chosen topic. Here's what you need to do:

1. Narrow your topic. You and your partner only have up to 5 minutes to speak. Once you have learned something of your topic, you want to select the most important or interesting information about your topic and write it using effective and clear language.
2. You want to essentially answer the following questions:
  • A. what is your topic? What information does your audience need to know about it? 
  • B. where does your topic come from or what is its history/culture? 
  • C. why is your topic important?
  • D. How does it affect us or how is this topic relevant to our lives?
3. Complete your research by the first class period. You need reliable sources (at least 3 cited webpages) and create an MLA formatted "works cited" page. See previous post for a model on how to set this up. Use your reliable sources to add logic and support your personal opinions.
4. With your partner today, please write your speech. Take a few minutes to read the advice about speech writing below. Use the tips discussed therein in your writing.

Speech writing is not easy. A speech writer needs to know what his/her goal is. Luckily, most speeches come in only a few types. Some speeches are used to inspire or inform, others are used to persuade, introduce, or entertain. Your presentation and speech is an informational one. You are answering: 1. What is it? 2. Where does it come from or what is its background? 3. Why is it important? 4. How does it affect us (the audience) or why should we care?

Speech Writing Techniques & Vocabulary: When writing a speech, a speech writer uses what is called Rhetorical technique or Rhetoric.

Rhetoric is broken down into three distinct tactics to persuade or inspire a listener or reader.
1. Logos (logic): this is the logical, sense argument inherent in the speech. Logic appeals to our rational mind. It makes us think and in thinking, we understand how one thing causes another. Listen for facts or statistics, listen for examples, listen for the word "think" or "consider". When you hear these type of words, that's the speech writer telling you that he/she is using logos. Good speech writers are subtle.

2. Pathos (heart/passion): this is the heart-felt argument in the speech. Pathos appeals to our feelings. It makes us sympathize or consider the argument for how it can affect us as listeners or readers. Listen for personal accounts, personal challenges, listen for words like "imagine" or "feel". Listen for the speaker to sympathize with his/her audience. Listen for testimony (opinions from famous role models). Often a speaker will use second person POV to help create pathos.

3. Ethos (confidence/strength of character): this is the speaker's skill and confidence that what he or she is saying is important, relevant, or necessary for a listener or reader. A good speaker sounds like he or she KNOWS what the issue is all about, that the subject is well researched and the speaker is knowledgeable. Also, watch the speaker's eyes, his posture, the way he stresses his words, the way he delivers the speech. Is there anaphora in the speech (a repetition of a phrase or statement)? This builds pace and stresses the important parts of an argument.
These three rhetorical techniques, by the way, are also used in essay writing. Next time you write an English paper or Social Studies paper, try using rhetoric to create your essay.

Check here for further tips on writing and delivering speeches!

By the end of class today, you will want to:
1. Complete your speech writing
2. Once you have written your speech (about 2 pages, double spaced), print out a copy of your speech. Check your work for grammar errors before you print.
3. You want to divide up the speech between you and your partner. Decide who is going to deliver what part of the speech. Both partners must deliver a portion of the speech.
3. After deciding who will deliver what part of the speech, cut the speech up using scissors.
4. Paste or tape your speech onto index cards.
5. Use the cards to rehearse your speech. Practice your speech delivery by reading your note cards to your partner. You will have time next class to continue practicing.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Informational Speech Project

For our next project we are going to deliver a short informational group speech to the class. Please follow each of the following steps CAREFULLY. READ this post first, before asking me about what we're doing:
1.Take no more than 2 minutes to brainstorm in your journal a list of topics that you'd like to learn more about or topics that interest you.
2. After brainstorming you will be given a few minutes to stand and move about the room. Please do not stay seated! Find another person in the room who has at least ONE of the same topics written in their journal as you did. Once you find this person, stick with them and sit down.
3. After every student has found a match, please sit.
4. From the lists you generated, choose one subject with your partner. This will be your speech topic.
5. Once you have decided on a speech topic with your partner, spend some time today finding out:
  • A. what is it? 
  • B. where does it come from or what is its history/culture? 
  • C. why is it important?
  • D. How does it affect us or how is this topic relevant to our lives?
As you surf the web, search for answers to those four questions.

When you find your answers, make sure you cite the website, author, speaker, or writer of your source. This is called gathering sources. You will need at least 3 sources that you write up on a works cited page to turn in when you deliver your speech.

You should work with your partner and divide tasks. Try breaking down a topic into parts that make up the whole. Or give each member of the group a question to answer (what is it, for example? or why is it important?) Before the end of class come back together with your partnership and discuss further action that must be taken.

By the end of THIS class, you should have completed the following:
1. Chosen a partner
2. Chosen a topic
3. Researched a topic (gathered at least 3 sources)

With time remaining in class, you may also:

A. Begin writing your speech together with your partner.
B. Use the research and sources in your speech.
C. Create an MLA works cited page for your speech.

Next class we will complete these steps (a, b, c) and also prepare for our speech delivery to the class. More information about how to do that is coming up.
Q: How much time do I have to present?
A: Please keep your presentations between 2-5 minutes. As long as you've explained what it is and why it's important, we get the idea. Realize that very, very short presentations may not be thorough enough. I want to see high school grade work. Any project that goes beyond 5 minutes will be cut off and given a penalty to its grade. Any presentation that is not at least 2 minutes in length will receive the same penalty.

Q: When is the presentation due?
A: We will deliver the speeches on Tuesday of next week. (Oct. 9)

Q: How am I going to be graded?
A: Your presentation will be graded on how informative the project is, what it communicates, how prepared you are in presenting the speech, your physical presentation with attention to volume, pacing, ennunciation, energy, effort, & eye contact, and how well done the research was. Remember that along with the presentation, you are required to turn in a works-cited page (in MLA format)

Q: So what is research? Isn't that just copying someone else's work and passing it off as mine?
A: No. Please record any sources that you use for your presentation/project. Write down website addresses and authors of these sources to include them in your works cited page. In your speech or during your presentation, it is important for you to cite the sources you use. If you borrowed an idea from someone, give them credit for it. For example: According to..., or _____ writes/states...., or In a comment posted by..., or writer/critic/author/artist/musician/reporter/etc. suggests/writes/states/mentions/posits/argues/believes, etc.
ANY REFERENCE TO SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE/LANGUAGE THAT IS NOT COMMON KNOWLEDGE MUST BE CITED OR GIVEN CREDIT.

How do I set up a works cited page for:
MLA Format
 If you have further questions, please ask.

Listening: The Finer Points

Please take notes on the key concepts of this topic. Keep your notes in your journal for easy reference.

Why do we have to learn to listen?

Well, listening is, just like writing, a skill. There is a big difference between LISTENING and HEARING.
  • Listening is active. It requires your brain to process symbols, words, sounds.
  • Hearing is the reception of sound. It requires that you can receive the sound. A deaf person cannot hear or her reception of sound in order to hear is not working. Deaf people use other ways in which to communicate.
When teacher say: "are you listening?" we often misunderstand and think they mean "did you hear me?" Yes, we say, all the while not paying attention to WHAT the teacher is saying. This happens with parents, brothers/sisters, neighbors, and all sorts of strangers too. It is the root of many conflicts and problems in our society.

If we don't understand a message a sender is sending to us, we often blame the speaker. But SOMETIMES the problem is with us, the RECEIVER. If we are not listening, we cannot blame the speaker. It takes two to communicate: the sender and the receiver!

WHY SHOULD I CARE?
Learning to listen carefully allows us to:
1. Avoid misunderstandings
2. Get along better with others
3. Learn
4. Be more successful in school and on the job
But there are barriers to listening. It's not easy to do all the time. Here are some of the common barriers of effective listening:
1. Distractions
2. Daydreaming
3. Being close-minded
4. Overemphasizing the source
5. Listening to only what is easy to understand
In order to avoid these obstacles or problems, we need to:
1. Prepare to listen
2. Expand our vocabulary
3. Apply the message to yourself or your life
4. Pick out central ideas or details
5. Provide feedback by looking at the speaker and giving the speaker feedback cues
6. Remember what we hear
It is courteous to be an effective listener. Rude people (people who often think of no one but themselves) tend to have poor listening skills. Learning to be a good listener is one of those important skills you learn in school and its use in life is essential to your success.

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...