Poetry Writing

Week 1: Introduction to Poetry Writing

• Understand the rules and policies of the course, and expectations of you as a contributing member of our learning community
• Begin to build community by sharing important information with your teacher and classmates about yourself and your school, and by collaboratively creating guidelines for interactions throughout the course.
• Develop your skills for navigating the course environment and using the various course tools
• Identify and discuss reasons for reading and writing poetry.
• Reflect on your background knowledge, writing process, strengths, and goals for the course.
• Employ a variety of strategies to explore a poem's meaning.
• Write a poem of introduction.

Week 2: Sharing Our Voices

• Discuss how poets use style and performance to reveal their individual voice.
• Give specific feedback in response to a peer's poem.
• Analyze how a poet's use of lines, stanzas, and line breaks affect meaning.
• Use the technique of webbing to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a poem that shows your voice.
• Identify and imitate a poetic technique in a self-selected poem.

Week 3: Expressing Emotion

• Use evidence from songs to illustrate the similarities and differences between poems and songs.
• Analyze how a poet's use of rhythm, rhyme, and repetition affect meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of freewriting to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a lyric poem that expresses an emotion.
• Draft a poem of choice.
• Select and share two poems for peer review.

Week 4: Describing a Place

• Provide constructive feedback to peers about their poems.
• Analyze how a poet's use of word choice and imagery affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of visual representation to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a poem that describes a place.
• Reflect on feedback, goals, and strengths.

Week 5: Defining Ideas

• Use text evidence to justify your interpretation of a poem.
• Analyze how a poet's use of figurative language affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of brainstorming to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a poem that defines an abstract idea.
• Draft figures of speech to describe elements of day-to-day life.

Week 6: Narrating an Experience

• Select and discuss poems with a variety of perspectives on a thematic concept.
• Analyze how a poet's use of narrative elements affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of a story map to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a poem narrative poem.
• Draft a poem of choice.
• Select and share two poems for peer review.

Week 7: Celebrating What We Love

• Provide constructive feedback to peers about their poems.
• Analyze how a poet's use of the ode form affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of listing to prewrite a poem.
• Draft an ode.
• Create a poetry collection of found poems, original poems, and visuals based on a thematic concept.

Week 8: Portfolio and Reflection

• Discuss how the literary merit of poetry can be determined.
• Compare and contrast the ways poetry can be used to explore common thematic concepts.
• Revise poems to final drafts.
• Reflect on feedback, goals, the writing process, and roles of poetry.

Week 9: Sharing Perspectives

• Discuss varying perspectives on the role of poetry for individuals and society.
• Analyze how a poet's use of the sonnet form affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use a self-selected prewriting technique to brainstorm a sonnet.
• Draft a sonnet.
• Identify and imitate a poetic technique in a self-selected poem.

Week 10: Observing Life

• Discuss the significance of word choice in poetry.
• Analyze how a poet's use of haiku form and concise word choice affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of keywords to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a haiku or concise poem.
• Draft a poem of choice.
• Select and share two poems for peer review.

Week 11: Connecting Disciplines

• Provide constructive feedback to peers about their poems.
• Analyze how a poet's use of tone and description affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of categories to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a poem that connects to another discipline.
• Prewrite a poem by writing in response to an artwork.
• Reflect on feedback, goals, and strengths.

Week 12: Exploring New Methods

• Discuss how an author's unconventional choices impact the meaning or effect of a poem.
• Analyze how a poet's use of unconventional form or mechanics affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Choose a prewriting technique to brainstorm a poem.
• Draft a poem that uses visual aspects of form or unconventional mechanics to express meaning.
• Draft a found poem based on a peer's response to an artwork.

Week 13: Celebrating Diverse Voices

• Share a poem that represents an important perspective and discuss what can be gained by that perspective.
• Analyze a poet's style and how that style affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of questioning or observing to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a poem that presents a perspective.
• Draft a poem of choice.
• Compare and contrast the mood and theme of a poem compared to an artwork.
• Select and share two poems for peer review.

Week 14: Creating Change

• Provide constructive feedback to peers about their poems.
• Select poems to include in a portfolio presentation
• Analyze how a poet's use of persuasive techniques affects meaning and aesthetics.
• Use the technique of research to prewrite a poem.
• Draft a persuasive poem.
• Revise poems to final drafts.

Week 15: Portfolio and Presentation

• Reflect on learning, strengths, goals, and the writing process.
• Present a collection of poems with a rationale explaining your intentions.
• Provide positive feedback on the poetry of your peers.
• Address the course essential questions and learning objectives using examples from a variety of course experiences.