Intro

Hello class and welcome to the poetry unit of your Junior English course. Poetry is a passion of mine, and I am thankful to have this opportunity to discuss poetry with you. During the duration of this unit, you will be given an opportunity to both learn about and write poetry. We will begin your poetry experience by examining the use of commonly used poetic devices in some well-known poems. At the midpoint of this unit, after your POETRY TEST, the focus of this class will shift from learning about poetry to writing poetry. Throughout the remainder of this unit you will be expected to engage in daily writing exercises and poetry workshops. At the end of the unit, you will submit a portfolio containing ten completed poems.

Now that you have some brief idea about what will be going on during this unit, please allow me to elaborate more upon the writing portion of this class. While the class is engaged in the writing portion of this unit you will be expected to keep a daily writing journal. The purpose of this journal is to develop your poetry. Everyday you will be expected to devote some time to your poetry writing. Writing can be an especially daunting task that is difficult to start. To aid you in your writings I will be posting daily writing activities for you to engage in. Please feel free to use my prompts or write whatever comes to mind.

While I seriously hate to do this, I will have to insist that you write at least 20 lines of poetry each day. I used to be a student once, and I am well aware that if I don't impose a standard there may be a few students submitting one-line or one-word poems. Writing poetry is just like an activity, it takes practice to become better.

It is my most sincere goal to help you all develop as writers. To aid us in this quest we will be establishing a writing community in this class. As part of this community, we will be engaging in a practice that many professional poets refer to as “work shopping”. When poets workshop a poem, they basically gather as a group and discuss a poem in-depth, oftentimes pointing out particular strengths and weaknesses present in the poem. Together we will view one another's poems and offer our fellow classmates constructive feedback.

Before we get started, there are a few things I need you to do.

First off you need to go to WordPress's website and sign up for a free blog. After you have created a your blog I will need you to email me the link.

Next you need to download the SharpReader. The SharpReader is an Rss aggregator(gator) program we will use during the poetry writing section. This program will allow you to keep track of your fellow classmates blog posts.

Finally you will receive list of your fellow classmates blogs from me via email. Take these blog addresses and enter them into you SharpReader.

If you have any question or problems during this setup please email me.

Thanks for your time. I look forward to working with you.