Found Poetry Assignment

For the found poetry assignments, we'll be taking several different approaches. Found poetry is, essentially, a collection of bits and pieces of other things put together for a poem.

The first found poem is due Monday, December 4. For our first found poem, you'll take samples from anything you've written for school. You can choose from multiple sources. Here's an example of a found poem put together from various lines of different blog posts I did for a class about teaching To Kill a Mockingbird:

Heart’s Race

Student discomfort, student defensiveness,

and my own worries about language and perspective-

I think of how it's a white man's story about race.

We've reintroduced "separate but equal."

I’ve enjoyed my students of color so much.

Somehow a barrier sprang up

that by adulthood, we would be separated from that option of mixing.

The bigotry was all supposed to be on the down low,

nuanced,

not spelled out in big capital letters

by a man, with the mouth of a megaphone
in order to keep and wield power.

For our second found poem, we'll be stealing lines from other students for a mash-up.

Imagist Poem Link

Here's the link to the guidelines for the Imagist poem. Imagist Poem

Arisia Sci-fi/Fantasy Short Story Contest

Here's a link to the contest. It's free to enter! Entries are due by December 1 and must be between 1000-3000 words. There are cash prizes available.
Arisia Contest

While You are Away at Hayride...

We wrote 300-500 words on setting (with voice). If you'd like to do them separately, you may write 300-500 on setting and 300-500 with voice.

MC link

MC link

Day of Poetry and Poetry Contest

Student Day of Poetry is coming up! This will be a fun event where you'll get to meet students from other schools, listen to poetry from professional writers, engage in workshops and watch/do open-mic for student poetry. I'll take the first 14 students (white-bus capacity) who pay their $10 and give me a completed permission slip.

The schedule:

8:00 - 8:30 poet and teacher check in
8:30 - 8:50 opening poetry performance

9:00 - 10:10 workshop 1 

10:20 - 11:30 workshop 2 

11:40 - 12:00 lunch 

12:00 - 12:30 performance 

12:30 - 1:00 student open mic

Here's link to Student Day of Poetry on December 7. Student Day of Poetry

Here's a link to the permission slip for the trip. I have printed copies available at school, also. Day of Poetry Permission Slip

Here's a link to the contest. Turn your entry in to me by 10/18. Poetry Contest Link

Emotion Paragraph

Choose an emotion, and write a few sentences that convey that emotion. You may not use the emotion word or synonyms for the word within your text. You should not use abstract terms, either. Use only concrete detail. Remember: make your verbs and nouns do the work. :)

Do not title the paragraph with the emotion word since we're going to guess in class.