1. National Poetry Month
Purpose: to read, analyze, and reflect upon poetry in the month of April through the literary elements.
I will be collecting all of the reflections, questions, Notes, etc. from this unit at the end of the month, so keep this separate from your other assignments.

2. Marshall Davis Jones “Touchscreen”
You must answer this question: What are your feelings/reaction to this poem?
Select one of the questions to answer in your poetry journal.
1) What is poetry? How does this poem fit into that definition?
2) What is the dominant literary element in this poem? Why would it be the dominant literary element?

3. Look at the painting I selected.
PDN for Poetry Journal
Look at the painting I selected.
How does it make you feel? What elements make you feel that way?

4. Acquainted with the Night BY ROBERT FROST- What
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain—and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

5. Acquainted with the Night BY ROBERT FROST
Speaker: person who is talking in the poem (not necessarily the poet himself/herself)
Describe the speaker in this poem with two to three adjectives. Be specific.

6. Morning by Billy Collins- What images stand out to you in this poem
Morning by Billy Collins- What images stand out to you in this poem? What is their purpose?
Why do we bother with the rest of the day,
the swale of the afternoon,
the sudden dip into evening,
then night with his notorious perfumes,
his many-pointed stars?
This is the best—
throwing off the light covers,
feet on the cold floor,
and buzzing around the house on espresso—
maybe a splash of water on the face,
a palmful of vitamins—
but mostly buzzing around the house on espresso,
dictionary and atlas open on the rug,
the typewriter waiting for the key of the head,
a cello on the radio,
and, if necessary, the windows—
trees fifty, a hundred years old
out there,
heavy clouds on the way
and the lawn steaming like a horse
in the early morning.

7. Poem of the day: Introduction to Poetry Billy Collins- What do you notice about where the lines break and why?
I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

8. Make a pile of the journals to be collected.
Take out your notes from the week and your journals from the Catcher in the Rye unit.
Make a pile of the journals to be collected.
Take out an iPad and log into Achieve3000.
2 self-selected Achieve3000 articles first.
Make sure you have your independent novels today.

9. Achieve3000 articles this week
“Are Speedos Too Speedy”
“Sorry, We’re All Out of Free Land”
“Widening the Web”
“Better Schools for All– But How?”
“Plug-in Carts are Here”
Pay attention to what purpose the author has in mind and what makes the article nonfiction.

10. Independent Reading 20 minutes of independent reading.
Pay close attention to author’s purpose (what the author is developing) and what features make the piece fiction.

11. Author’s Purpose- What makes fiction different from nonfiction with regard to author’s purpose?

12. Poem of the day
“I Just Sued the School System”- recommendation from Autumn
Extended Metaphor:  is when an author exploits a single metaphor or analogy at length through multiple linked instances in a poem.
Question to add to your journal: What extended metaphor is happening throughout this poem? Why would the poet use this as a metaphor?

13. Where the Sidewalk Ends- Recommendation from Sydney
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

14. The Story-Teller - by Mark Van Doren
Trains climbed trees,
And soon dripped down
Like honey of bees
On the cold brick town.
He had wakened a worm
In the world’s brain,
And nothing stood firm
Until day again.
He talked, and as he talked
Wallpaper came alive:
Suddenly ghosts walked,
And four doors were five;
Calendars ran backward,
And maps had mouths;
Ships went backward
In a great drowse;

15. Constructed Response Practice
Identify and interpret the literary device used repeatedly in this poem. Use an example from the text to support your response.

16. Good Hours - by Robert Frost What phrase is repeated in the poem and to what purpose?
I had for my winter evening walk—
No one at all with whom to talk,
But I had the cottages in a row
Up to their shining eyes in snow.
And I thought I had the folk within:
I had the sound of a violin;
I had a glimpse through curtain laces
Of youthful forms and youthful faces.