Mr. W's Blog

Check out this video to see some of the Survivor of the Poets presentations and which tribes won!

8th graders will be working in their tribes to create a map of the life of their poet. Include important places such as where the poet was born, raised, travelled, and died. Also include places that they wrote about–some of these places may not exist on earth. You can use traditional media to create your map, or use an online tool such as Google Maps. If you use these Web 2.0 tools you may need to create an account.

Use the rest of the lab time today to research and develop a presentation for a poem by your poet on Friday.

8th graders, don’t forget that this Thursday is our first Survivor of the Poets presentation day. One team will be voted off the island and one team will gain immunity, automatically bringing them to the third round. You need to have a copy of the poem for each student as you read the poem out loud, so if you need copies, please get them to Mr. Wenzel by Wednesday by 3:00.

Here is a description of the first challenge

Day One: Mood Music

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE

Perform your poem with lots of moody backgrounds.

Remember all the senses, and use

them to set the tone of the poem. Music,

scents, sound effects, backgrounds (painted

cardboard, etc.), balloons, food, tactile images

(poems written on sandpaper or fabric and

handed out), lighting effects like strobe or

slide projected backgrounds – all these

can

make your performance effective.

8th graders! There isn’t actually an assignment to upload on Moodle this week, but we are still going to the computer lab. You will be using this time to gather biographical infomation on your poet for Survivor of the Poets. Use the Poet Scavenger Hunt handout to record some of your information. You will want to be thinking about what symbols you will use on your Poet Pennant. You can also use this time to browse poems by your author. Don’t forget that everyone will be presenting four poems, so choose wisely!

Websites for the scavenger hunt:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

http://www.poets.org/

http://www.socsdteachers.org/tzenglish/literature_timeline.htm

Websites for browsing poetry

http://www.poetryoutloud.org/

http://www.poemhunter.com/