Character Building and Poetry

When you focus on a character, you need to think about a couple of things:
FEELINGS
ATTITUDE
MOOD
1.Thinking about these 3 things will help you select words and phrases for writing.
2.Write down your thoughts
3.Look at your poetry rules
4.Think about what rules you want to use
5.Change your thoughts and create a poem

Then...
MASK your poem-
think about the opposite feelings, attitudes, moods
Write your thoughts down
Look at your poetry rules
Change your thoughts and create a poem

Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All

Fast cars on the road, being alone, wasps and bees, death, the unknown, illnesses, dark nights

Fast...fast...fast...cars
wasps
bees
(the really big ones!)
When I'm alone
facing the unknown
Illness strikes
(creates dark nights)
DEATH...
Nope! Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All

MASKING OUR POEM
smiles, hugs, love, babies, birthdays, weddings, anniversary, holidays, summers at the lake, chocolate, golf, cricket, gardening, flowers, good food

Choc-choc-chocolate (except the one with raisins)
good food
I'm not scared
hits-hits-hits- in cricket
seeds are planted
I'm not scared
then they bloom
fall in love
I'm not scared
weddings
enjoying anniversaries
I'm not scared
celebrating summers at lakeside cottages
with family, friends and babies
I'm not scared
hugs,
smiles,
LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME AT ALL
(inspired by Maya Angelou)

इ जुस्त लीर्नेद हाउ टू राइट थिस ब्लॉग इन हिन्दी! इ कैन'ते बेलिएवे हाउ अमजिंग थिस इस!
I just learned how to write in Hindi! I can't believe how amazing this is!

Voting Polls are open

Just an announcement to let you know that I have changed the dates for the voting polls...they are now open...Please remember to vote when you sign in.
Thank you

"Mask" your poem

Today in class we discovered how poems reveal a certain attitude and it's up to you as the reader to uncover this attitude.
In reading the book, I Will Make Miracles by Susie Morgenstern, we discussed the character's positive attitude. When looking at Ms. Papoff's poem about erasing AIDS in Africa we discussed the positive attitude.
She writes...
ERASE DISASTER

war, corruption, sickness, LIES

MAKE MIRACLES

trade shoes

walk in

HER FOOTSTEPS

HIS FOOTSTEPS

(try that on

for size!)

Then we discovered a new term..."Masking" a poem. When you mask a poem, you use tracing paper to write a poem in the opposite attitude of the original poem. You keep the same idea in mind when writing but you change the attitude. Ms. Papoff's poem, when masked takes on a very negative feeling...
CREATE DISASTER
ERASE miracles
Let sickness
SOAR
DESTROY
HOPE
DESTROY
LIFE

Masking a Poem...Revealing the opposite attitude and emotion...
Keep this in mind as we begin to REALLY dive into this unit!

Our contract

Some students are learning to create their own educational blogs. We want you to keep in mind the contract that you and your parent had to sign. It is found below:

Internet and BLOG Contract
Computer Etiquette
I, __________________________, will follow the following expectations with my TEL e-mail account and BLOGSPOT comments on-line:
I will use my initials to identify myself only. No full names.
I will not share personal information about myself online: address, name, birthday, email address etc.
I will post comments with polite words and mutual respect to my classmates and online community.
I will not create my own BLOG as part of BLOGSPOT at this time, I am not at the appropriate age.
I will use my account for school purposes only. No personal or social emails for this unit.
I will follow the Toronto District School Board on-line Code of Conduct at all times.
Signed, __________________________ Date:__________________________
Teacher: ____________________ Teacher-Librarian: _________________________

Also, if you do create your own blog, remember that there will be an amendment to the original contract that you will have to sign.

Love that Boy by Walter Dean Myers

Here's the poem that we read today in class:

Love that boy,
like a rabbit loves to run
I said I love that boy
like a rabbit loves to run
Love to call him in the morning
love to call him
"Hey there, son!"

If you would like to read more about Walter Dean Myers, you can visit his website at:http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/index.html
I wonder what Jack's poem is going to look like if it was inspired by this poem.
What does your poem look like with this inspiration? Your poem can also be called Love that____...think about it...

Two-Voice Poem by Mohadise Islami

We are Aboriginals. We are Explorers.

We believe in nature. We care about gold and silver.
And the creator.

We care about nature We care about power
Because it's alive. And wealth.

We both could live in this land.

You shall not cut down We build roads
our trees. And buildings in this land.

We have wigwams We have houses and
apartments

We both trade goods

What two voices do you hear?
How is this poem organized?

Voices in Poems

From Love that Dog by Sharon Creech p. 25
We were going for a drive
and my father said
We won't be gone long-
You come too
and so I went
and we drove and drove
until we stopped at a
red brick building
with a sign
in blue letters
ANIMAL PROTECTION SHELTER.

And inside we walked
down a long cement path
past cages
with all kinds of
dogs
big and small
fat and skinny
some of them
hiding in the corner
but most of them
bark-bark-barking and
jumping up
against the wire cage
as we walked past
as if they were saying
Me! Me! Choose me!
I'm the best one!

Poetry connects us to more poems

From Ralph Fletcher in A Writing Kind of Day

Poetry is like some
sugar-crazed teenager
who just got a license
but refuses to follow
the rules of the road.

It races out of control
then jams up the traffic by
going reeaaaaal slooooooow.
It turns up the music so loud
you can't sleep at night.
I can't figure out how it Decides
to capitalize certain Words.
Punctuation? Ha! A joke!
Won't use complete sentences.

And why does it refuse to
stay
on
the
line?

The most annoying thing?
Poetry won't shut up.
It embarrasses everyone
by telling the truth.

What does this poem make you think of? Do you agree with this poetry view?

Let's Practice!

From Rukhsana Khan's Roses In My Carpet
"It's always the same. The jets scream overhead. They've seen me. I'm running too slowly, dragging my mother and sister behind. "

Remembering our poetry rules so far...
1. Anything can be a poem
2. You have to make short lines

Let's turn the above sentences into a poem...

Rukshana Khan visits our school!

Rukshana Khan shared her book, Roses in my Carpet with us. She also gave us some great advice about writing. She said, "The key to being a good author is to imagine what it feels like to be someone else...to know all of their prejudices and beliefs, likes and dislikes...This took me 10 years to figure out." Think about this in our poetry...the voice of the poem, the perspective of the poem. Please visit her website at:http://www.rukhsanakhan.com/

Computer Literacy

What a wonderful first class we had together! We spent a lot of time figuring out computer literacy terms and I thought that we could post them here to remind us of what they are. Here is what we discussed so far...
Digital Natives: born with computers
Blog: on line electronic writers' notebook
DP: display picture
Terms:
Post a comment
Clip an image
search a blog or an engine
Computer etiquette (manners)
Hits
Rules for Posting
1. Do not post your full name, use initials
2. NEVER give out personal details (e.g., phone, email, address, birthday etc)
3. NEVER include pictures of you or plagiarize images. You may use image only if you have permission- use a program that is licensed by our school

Integrating Masks and Poetry

Ms. Papoff will be integrating what you are learning with different areas of the curriculum. In this post, she will be tracking your learning in the classroom.

I Will Make Miracles

Think about this book that we read aloud. What attitude was presented? Whose voice did you hear? What were the feelings? If you could make miracles happen, what miracles would you make?
Now, think about the opposite voice, feeling and attitude. What would the book be called then? Use tracing paper to cover rewrite this information.

Two Perspectives

Read book, Life Doesn't Frighten Me At All by Maya Angelou.http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/life_mayaangelou.htm Whose voice do you hear? What does this person look like? What does this person feel?
Now...imagine the opposite...What voice do you hear now? What does this person feel like? What does this person feel? Take a look at how a poem can be created through the inspiration of another poem.http://pbskids.org/arthur/games/poetry/poems/998937.html

The poem now takes on a different meaning...It will now be called Life Does Frighten Me A lot- what would frighten you? what would frighten the voice you decided to be? Using your knowledge of poetry rules, reformat a page in this book

Poetry Rules

Poetry Rules from Love That Dog

Here are the poetry rules we are learning about from Love That Dog
1: Anything can be a poem
2: You just have to make short lines
3: You can leave white space
4: Poems can have a beat (same syllables per line)
5: You can get ideas for poems from nursery rhymes or other things that you know
6:You can show brackets to show someone is whispering in the poem
7: Poems can be visualized
8: Poems can be short or long
9: You can use punctuation to show different expressions
10: Poems can be a list of questions or answers
11: Capital words emphasize the word
12: Poems can be personal (reveal feelings)
13: Poems can have different voices
14: Poems do not have to rhyme
15: An important word can be by itself on a line
16: Choose a really powerful title
17: Different voices should look different in the poem
18: The colour of the paper helps to tell the poem
19: You can use sound effects in a poem
20: Words can take on the shape they represent
21: If you want to use an idea from a poem, you should write Inspired by _______(poet's name)
22: Similes are important (like or as)

Different Voices, Different Perspectives

Imagine the voice of Jack has changed. It is now going to be one of the following:

(a) a girl

What would the poem sound like from her voice? What would her feelings be?

(b) the teacher

(c) a pencil

What would the first entry look like? What would it sound like?

Love That Dog

To begin our study together, we will embark into Jack's "I hate poetry" world. http://www.sharoncreech.com/novels/01.asp By reading this book aloud, we will devise poetry rules that we can then use.
Let's begin...
Read the first two entries of this book:
http://www.sharoncreech.com/excerpt/01.asp
Whose voice do you hear?
What feelings do you hear?
What is the attitude you hear?
Describe what Jack looks like
What is his perspective?

Welcome

For the next three weeks, in the library, we will be studying poetry together. We will examine poetry rules, we will read poems aloud and then write our own poems.
Based on your knowledge of Ancient Civilizations, we will explore poetry through the voice, perspective, feelings and attitudes of people living in those times. The voice, perspective, feelings and attitudes of those individuals can be seen as masks. Masks can transform us into different people and different times. We will understand that we use masks today as well. We travel through our life wearing different masks with different people. Consider your mask...who are you? who do you become? who do you wish to be? Learn to understand yourself, be comfortable and proud to take off your mask and explore through poetry, the special person you are. Through the use of this blog, we will record our journeys together. When using online info, we must remember to abide by TDSB policy and rules.http://tdsbweb/pandp/ppdocs/docs/R/PR572.pdf