5/6/24: Activity 1: Opening Journal Entry: Start with an Object. Make a list of ten objects that belong to someone you know (grandfather’s car, father’s pipe, brother’s drums, mother’s purse or necklace, friend’s room, etc.) Pick one object and describe it carefully using sensory descriptions (sight (colors, size, shape, etc), feel, sound, smell, taste) and/or metaphors/similes.Put it in a typical setting for the object and describe the immediate setting (the driveway, the ashtray, the basement etc.) Describe the owner using or wearing the object. Share what you wrote, a favorite line or the object. Activity 2: Two-Week Report Cards: It’s been two weeks. How’s it going? How am I doing? What’s working well? What don’t you like? What could we do better? What else can we do? Questions or comments about the website? The grading system? The class activities? Any suggestions? How do you think you are doing? Give yourself a grade, briefly explain your reasoning and hand or email me your response. Activity 3: View Presentation or Review Presentation Plans. Activity 4: Writing from Models: Litanies: Read the two litanies on the first page and make a list of the characteristics of a litany.  Then read the two on the back and generate other characteristics.  Write a litany of at least 14 lines.  Remember to borrow ideas from the models. Vary the list with serious and lighter subjects, and shorter and longer lines. If you’re stuck, begin with “I promise…” or “I remember…”  or “I don’t care about…” or “She said…” Share your poem, read a favorite line or the subject of your poem.

5/3/24: Activity 1: Opening Journal Entry: Start with an Object. Make a list of ten objects that belong to someone you know (grandfather’s car, father’s pipe, brother’s drums, mother’s purse or necklace, friend’s room, etc.) Pick one object and describe it carefully using sensory descriptions (sight (colors, size, shape, etc), feel, sound, smell, taste) and/or metaphors/similes.Put it in a typical setting for the object and describe the immediate setting (the driveway, the ashtray, the basement etc.) Describe the owner using or wearing the object. Share what you wrote, a favorite line or the object. Activity 2: Writing from Models: Litanies: Read the two litanies on the first page and make a list of the characteristics of a litany.  (Then read the two on the back and generate other characteristics.  Write a litany of at least 14 lines.  Remember to borrow ideas from the models. Vary the list with serious and lighter subjects, and shorter and longer lines. If you’re stuck, begin with “I promise…” or “I remember…”  or “I don’t care about…” or “She said…” Share your poem, read a favorite line or the subject of your poem. Activity 3: Two-Week Report Card (And check presentation plans) It’s been two weeks. How’s it going? How am I doing? What’s working well? What don’t you like? What could we do better? What else can we do? Questions or comments about the website? The grading system? The class activities? Any suggestions?

5/2/24: Activity 1: Write for seven-minutes about someone you admire. You might describe them or write about what it is you admire about them and how they have influenced you or you might show them in action being admirable. (Stories are always good.) Share your entry, one sentence, who you admire or what you admire about the person. Activity 2: Read the for odes (a poems of praise) and look for reusable poem ideas, form ideas and techniques. (OdeAssignment2Download) Visualize the object of your ode. (Don’t be afraid to be silly.) Write an ode to a person, animal, place or object that no one’s every written an ode about. Write a short freewrite about where do you want to be in five years. Ten years? Share and talk about what we might do now to help you get there.

5/1/24: Activity 1: Write for seven-minutes about someone you admire. You might describe them or write about what it is you admire about them and how they have influenced you or you might show them in action being admirable. (Stories are always good.) Share your entry, one sentence, who you admire or what you admire about the person. Activity 2: Read the for odes (a poems of praise) and look for reusable poem ideas, form ideas and techniques. (OdeAssignment2Download) Visualize the object of your ode. (Don’t be afraid to be silly.) Write an ode to a person, animal, place or object that no one’s every written an ode about. Write a short freewrite about where do you want to be in five years. Ten years? Share and talk about what we might do now to help you get there.

4/30/24: Activity 1: Write a seven-minute freewrite reflecting on either of these phrases: “Life is short. Stop wasting it.” or “Memento mori” (Latin for “Remember your death.” a reminder to intentionally think about your own death every day, as a means of appreciate the present and focus on the future). Activity 2: Read the Haikus and choose one to read aloud. (Haikus Assorted Haikus) Talk about the “rules” for haikus and low-kus. Write three short poems and share one. Shares? Write a short freewrite about where do you want to be in five years. Ten years? Share and talk about what we might do now to help you get there.

4/29/24: Activity 1: Write a seven-minute freewrite reflecting on either of these phrases: “Life is short. Stop wasting it.” or “Memento mori” (Latin for “Remember your death.” a reminder to intentionally think about your own death every day, as a means of appreciate the present and focus on the future). Activity 2: Read the Haikus and choose one to read aloud. (Haikus Assorted Haikus) Talk about the “rules” for haikus and low-kus. Write three short poems and share one. Shares? Write a short freewrite about where do you want to be in five years. Ten years? Share and talk about what we might do now to help you get there.

4/26/24: Activity 1: Write (a web, a list, a freewrite, etc.) for seven minutes about a favorite food. (Possible Questions: What is it? Where/when was the first time you ate it? Where do you eat it? Who prepares it? What does it look like? How does it make you feel? What does it taste like? Have you ever turned anyone on to it? What did they think?) Share your name and the name of the food you wrote about. Activity 2: Read and reread “My Physics Teacher” and This is Just to Say” (My PT-This is-MyTrigDownload) and generate a list of reusable poetry ideas, form ideas and techniques. Write a poems draft using at least one idea from each column. Share one line from your poem. Write a short freewrite about where do you want to be in five years. Ten years? Share and talk about what we might do now to help you get there.

4/25/24: Activity 1: Write (a web, a list, a freewrite, etc.) for seven minutes about a favorite food. (Possible Questions: What is it? Where/when was the first time you ate it? Where do you eat it? Who prepares it? What does it look like? How does it make you feel? What does it taste like? Have you ever turned anyone on to it? What did they think?) Share your name and the name of the food you wrote about. Activity 2: Read and reread “My Physics Teacher” and This is Just to Say” (My PT-This is-MyTrigDownload) and generate a list of reusable poetry ideas, form ideas and techniques. Write a poems draft using at least one idea from each column. Share one line from your poem. Write a short freewrite about where do you want to be in five years. Ten years? Share and talk about what we might do now to help you get there

4/24/24: Activity 1: Share one thing you like to do outside of school. Review the class procedures and expectations. Activity 2: Read “Homestead Park” (HomesteadPrkPoems), look for reusable poem ideas, form ideas and techniques and write your own poem using some of them. Write down where you’d like to be after your graduate and what you hope to be doing. Activity 3: Write down where you’d like to be after your graduate and what you hope to be doing.

4/23/24: Activity 1: Share one thing you like to do outside of school. Review the class procedures and expectations. Activity 2: Read “Homestead Park” (HomesteadPrkPoems), look for reusable poem ideas, form ideas and techniques and write your own poem using some of them. Write down where you’d like to be after your graduate and what you hope to be doing. Activity 3: Write down where you’d like to be after your graduate and what you hope to be doing.

Activity 2: Writing from Models: One Sentence Poems

1. Read the one-sentence poems and note the techniques the writer used to hold the sentence together and other techniques.
2. Generate a list of five ideas for a one-sentence poem.
3. Write a one-sentence poem of at least 14 lines. 
4. Use the grammatical tricks (lists with commas; extending or connecting words: and, or, when, but, which, until, however; punctuation: commas, dashes, semicolons, colons parentheses.; compound and complex  sentences) used in the examples

Share your one-sentence poem, a favorite line from your poem or the subject of your poem.