Poetry, Poetry, Poetry

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. Write a poem based on this chosen idea. This will be a first draft.

Use period 3 to write your poem. If you finish early, you may try writing another poem on one of your other ideas, or view a few poems. During 4th period, we will stop what we're doing and screen a few of the performances in room 238.

When you complete your draft, please watch the following poetry slam performances:

Derrick Brown

• "A Finger, Two Dots, Then Me"
• "Meat Loaf"
• "Cotton in the Air"

Noah St. John

• "Snap Judgement"

Saul Williams

• Coded Language
• Ohm
• Telegram
• Said the Shotgun to His Head
• Explain My Heart (with music)
• Reparations (with music)

Taylor Mali

• How to Write a Political Poem
• Like Lily Like Wilson
• The the Impotence of Proofreading
• What Teacher's Make
• Totally Like Whatever
• I'll Fight You for the Library
• Tony Steinberg: Brave Seventh Grade Viking
• An Apple a Day is Not Enough (animated poem short)

HOMEWORK: Please compare any two of these poets and in a paragraph or two compare and contrast their performance styles. Consider the poet's use of volume, pacing, pitch, sincerity, eye contact, gestures, and body movements. This assignment is due next class as homework. There will be a unit test on chapters 1-3, communication, and performance skills on Thursday of next week. A review sheet will be made available to you next class.