McCleskey Poets!

Hi again!  We were so busy in February that I forgot to post in the BLOG!

In February we did a novel study of "Nothing But the Truth".   The students seemed to particularly enjoy the parts of this novel that were written as dialogues and that we read as impromptu plays in class.  We have some real budding actors and I'm looking forward to our drama unit coming up closer to the end of the year.

Right now the students have a poetry project that they are working on.  They are supposed to have 8 different types of poems written in rough draft by end of class today (Friday 3/16).  Over the weekend, they are required to type up the poems and bring them to school on Monday, ready to be illustrated.  The final project requires that they have a booklet with a cover.  Here is a list of the types they may choose to write:

Haiku*, Tanka*, Shaped Verwse, Diamonte, Cinquain*, Free Verse, Quatrain*, Limerick*, Acrostic, Didactic, Ethere, Song Poem, Part of Speech Poem*, ABC Poem*, Name/word Poem*, Nonet, Clarity Pyramid, Couplet*, Autobiographical poem

* means they must have two poems of this type, since they are so short (except Tanka and Haiku, which require 3)

Check out www.kathimitchell.com/poemtypes.html for extra help with some of the types and look at www.gigglepoetry.com for fun. 

So far I have been really impressed with some of the great poems the students are writing.....we have a new literary magazine at McCleskey and I plan to encourage many students to submit their work to be published in the magazine!

After we finish our poetry unit, we will be working intensively on CRCT practice.  Drama units and another novel study are on the horizon after CRCTs in April.