Poetry & Description

Poetry A concise form of writing that uses imaginative language, rhythm, and often rhyme to communicate ideas and feelings. To make every word count, a poet carefully chooses language that is vivid, precise, and often musical, or pleasing to hear. Descriptive details create imagery that helps readers picture what something looks like or imagine its aroma, sound, texture, or taste.

Effective Poems A clear topic, theme, or controlling idea. A variety of poetic techniques, such as structural elements, figurative language, and sound devices. Structural elements, such as rhyme and meter. Figurative language, such as similes, metaphors, and personification. Sensory details that allow the reader to see, smell, hear, taste, and feel what the poet describes. Sound devices that create a musical or emotional effect

Forms of Poetry & Description Ballads: poems that tell a story and are usually meant to be sung. Ballads often contain repetition and have a simple, regular rhyme pattern and meter, or “beat.” Descriptive Essays: use imagery and vivid details to help readers imagine a person, place, thing, or event. Like all essays, they are made up of an introduction, body, and conclusion. They include forms such as eyewitness accounts or travel writing. Free Verse: poetry that imitates the rhythms of everyday speech. Freed of set rhythm and rhyme patterns, free verse uses figurative language and sound devices to convey ideas and feelings. Haiku: are three-line poems that originated in Japan. In a haiku, the first and last lines consist of five syllables, and the middle line consists of seven syllables. Classic haiku are usually about nature.

Forms of Poetry & Description Lyric poems: poems that express a speaker’s feelings about a particular person, place, thing, or event. Unlike ballads, lyric poems usually do not tell a story. Sonnets and free verse poems are types of lyric poems. Prose poems: regular text you might find in a story or essay, but use poetic techniques to create a memorable description of a person, place, thing, or event. Sonnets: 14-line poems written in a regular meter and pattern of rhyme. One kind of sonnet – the English sonnet – consists of three four-line stanzas and a final couplet, or two rhyming lines. In each stanza, alternating lines rhyme.

Mentor Text/Discussion Read aloud Sir Patrick Spens page 122 Read aloud Special Glasses by Billy Collins page 123

Student Model/Discussion Read Fire to Fight by Carmen Ramos on page 124 Provide examples of the following: A sentence that you can picture. A sentence where the image could be stronger. A word or phrase where you question meaning. Read Cat Dog by Jake Gomez

Feature Poem Assignment A ballad A simple rhyme pattern and regular rhythm. A narrative that tells a story, often an adventure or romance. A song-like structure, often with a refrain, or a regularly repeated line or group of lines. Free Verse Text written to mimic the patterns of natural speech No specific rhyme pattern No specific meter No specific length

Prewriting Topics: Completely written out topic bank on page 126. Nature or Important Person Event or Performance Art or Hobby Completely written out topic bank on page 126.

Prewriting: Narrow Your Topic/Audience Vivid poems contain specific details. Narrow your topic to make it easier to focus on precise details. Using the topic narrow sheet complete the following: Write the main topic of your poem in the top box. Move down the chart, narrowing your topic to help focus on specific details. Your last box should hold the details that will be your poems focus Example on page 127

Prewriting: Narrow Your Topic/Audience On the bottom of your graphic organizer sheet answer the following questions: Who will read my poem? What will my readers need to know to understand my poem? What poetic form would best convey the meaning to them? Why am I writing? Do I want to entertain my readers by making them laugh? Move my readers by making them see and feel what I saw and felt? Something else? What kinds of poetic techniques will help me fulfill my purpose? How can the poetic form help me fulfill my purpose?

Plan Your Piece Develop a Topic, Theme, or Controlling Idea Write a clear statement of your topic, theme, or controlling idea. Name the most important idea or feeling you want to communicate. Add your statement to the center of the graphic organizer. Develop Ideas and Details On the graphic organizer identify ideas, feelings, and sensory details related to your topic. Underline the ones that best fulfill your purpose. Should have a minimum of two ideas under each heading.

Poet’s toolbox Techniques used to make their ideas vivid and clear. Techniques highlight the topic and controlling ideas. Help describe emotions, feelings, and ideas.

Poet’s toolbox Figurative Language Writing that means something beyond what the words actually say. Simile: comparison using like or as The tea kettle is like an angry red dragon. Metaphor: comparison made by saying that one thing is something else. The whistling tea kettle is my alarm clock at Grandma’s house. Personification: human characteristics applied to non-human objects. The tea kettle whistled its familiar tune. Symbols Add depth and insight to poetry. An object that stands for something else. The tea kettle could symbolize the joy of spending time with Grandma

Poet’s toolbox Sound Devices Create a musical or emotional effect. Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of nearby words. Grandma poured perfect pots of tea. Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds in nearby words. The squeak of the tea kettle work me up. Consonance: repetition of consonants in the middle or at the end of words. Grandma would knead bread dough each week. Structural Elements Help build the framework for poetic language. Rhyme: repetition of sounds at the ends of lines of poetry. As big breakfast of eggs and ham Is part of a special morning with Gram. Meter: rhythmical pattern of a poem. It is determined by stressed syllables in a line. Some forms of poetry have specific patterns of stressed syllables. I love to spend a day with Gram. We bake our pies and make our jam.

Poet’s toolbox Graphic Elements Position the words on a page. Arrangement of words on a page Capital letters, line spacing, and line breaks.

Free Verse Characteristics Questions to Answer While Drafting Varied number of lines. Varied number of stanzas. No meter used; follows natural patterns of speech. Rhyme not often used. Poetic techniques may be used. Feeling or emotion conveyed. Vivid descriptions. How long do I want my poem to be? What sound devices will I use? What poetic techniques will I use? What feelings or emotions will I express? How will I make my descriptions vivid?

Start Writing Use your graphic organizer and topic narrow worksheets to start writing poem. Remember this is a free verse poem so refer back to the characteristics frequently. Refer to the rubric handed out on how you will be graded. Double check all elements are somewhere within your poem to receive full points. Due dates: Orange: January 4th beginning of class Black: January 5th beginning of class