Writing 2 Haiku
Two weeks to finish
Pencils, essays, books, stories
Coming to an end
With only two weeks left in the semester, I found myself at a loss today; I could not come up with a clever or thoughtful Quick Write idea. My solution? Let the students decide it for me. Our three options today were to write about 1) summer plans; 2) the person on the right or left; or 3) God in your week. Some had enough time to write about more than one.
Our Words of the Day were words that spell another word when spelled backwards. This kind of word is called a Semordnilap, which is "palindrome" spelled backwards. (Remember, palindromes are words that are the same forward as they are backward, i.e. mom, dad, tot)
Desserts backwards is stressed. (In other words, when you get stressed, you should go back for desserts!)
Yob (a rowdy youth) backwards is boy
Avid (having great enthusiasm; greedy) backwards is diva.
Ogre (an ugly imaginitive creature) backwards is ergo (therefore).
Rebus (not a Semordnilap) is a representation of a word using pictures or symbols. Emojii might be good examples of these.
Students handed in the final drafts of their Evaluation Essays. I look forward to reading these. They've chosen such interesting topics. Our final essay is an Essay Re-Write. For this essay, they have the chance to improve one of their previously written essays. We listed the essays that they have written this year: Personal, Process, Extended Definition or Classification, Comparison/Contrast, Mystery, Problem/Solution or Cause/Effect and Evaluation. They've been very hard workers! For this final essay, they should consider looking for ways to write better sentences, to add more information and details, and to strengthen their thesis statements. The final draft of the previous essay will be considered the rough draft and should be handed in next week with the re-write.
We read through some more of the assigned poetry. Some poems take some deep digging to find all the various meanings, but some are more clear and straightforward. Today we spent time on Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poem "Solitude."
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go.
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all.
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life's gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a long and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
In addition to reading poems, the students will write 3 short poems for next week. I gave them a handout the explains the haiku, diamante, and cinquain. A haiku is a Japanese poem that is formatted according to a syllable structure. The other two poems are short, non-rhyming shape poems.
The next two weeks, in addition to Quick Writes and some final grammar work, will focus on our Poetry Jam. I divided the class into 3 "Teams" who will compete together. Each team member should have 3 poems that he/she has selected to present. The teams will present as a group, and the others will score them using a rubric. The categories are Level of Difficulty, Memorization, Physical Presence, and Dramatic Quality. An extra point is given if the poem is an original. Students can choose poems from their books, poems from other books, or poems they've written. Poems from other sources and original poems must be at least 8 lines long.
Note: Below I've listed some links to some good, Christian spoken word (a.k.a. poetry) artists
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Essay Re-Write
-- Choose 3 poems for the Poetry Jam
-- Write 3 poems: a haiku, a diamante, and a cinquain
Links for this week:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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