1. Notebook, open to RR#6 Writing utensil Poetry packet While I’m stamping homework, chat with your group; what’d you write about in your RR?

2. Text-Based Questions What makes the poem’s speaker unique? Is s/he reliable? Why is the photograph itself significant? Why is the type of tree important enough to speculate? What message is communicated to the reader? Elements of prosody? How about meter? (We have to ask.) Critical Literary Theory Look at this text through an eco-critical lens; what are you able to take larger notice of? Humor me; try using gender studies.

3. Split a piece of paper into four quadrants. Choose a slip of paper from your table’s bag—don’t let anyone see what it says! You have 3 minutes; use all of your senses (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) to describe what’s on your slip, but not the noun phrase itself. Make the reader feel like s/he is in the space with you! Repeat process with four different slips of paper/noun phrases, until all four quadrants have been filled.

4. Share out, Rally-Round-Robin* style. For each piece you share, your group has to try and guess what your noun phrase was. If someone guesses what you wrote, you each get a point! :D The person with the most points…wins. *In Rally-Round-Robin, you take turns sharing in a “round” or circle. Like a tennis rally, your goal is to go quickly and keep the ball, or in this case conversation, going. So, you need to be on your a-game and be ready to guess after your classmates have finished sharing!

5. And, it also taught you a lot about a term on your vocabulary sheet: IMAGERY. Go back to the pieces your group members wrote. Which ones were the best. What made them so wonderful? Why were they the favorites out of all the ones you produced?

6. Imagery helps a reader see, hear, smell, taste, and touch everything a poet or author describes in his/her work. Really amazing imagery can often be the difference between poems we can connect with and those that fall short.

7. Whole Class: “This is a Photograph of Me” Where do you see examples of imagery? What at they doing for your as a reader? What might happen if they were removed? Shuffled? Exchanged for lines that accomplish other purposes? Table Groups: Choose any poem to discuss (that we’ve read). (Suggestions: “So much happiness” and “The Windhover” Where do you see imagery? What is its purpose? How does this imagery help you make meaning?

8. Study for your quiz. (Yes, it’s tomorrow. For real.) Read and annotate: “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes (Fun fact: It was his 113 th birthday yesterday!) “Promise of Spring” by Elaine George Write: RR #7 and RR #8