Poetry Out Loud!

For the next two week's we're gonna do something a bit different - something some of you might have done with your English classes in recent years - something some of you saw performances of but never did yourself - something that might be completely new to some of you - Poetry Out Loud!

Find out more here: Poetry Out Loud

Here is the schedule for the next two weeks: Poetry Out Loud calendar

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Dear Juniors,

Welcome back! Happy start of second semester!

Today, we begin the Poetry Out Loud experience!!! For the rest of this week and next week, our entire focus will be Poetry Out Loud, a national poetry recitation competition. 

Yes, that’s right; each of you will recite—from memory—a poem as part of this Junior English class’s contest to determine which one of you will compete to be the DHS champion! From there, the winner will move on to the state level - two years ago, DHS had the state runner-up!

To start, complete the following assignment:

1. Go to the  Poetry Out Loud website. Check it out - browse around a bit - see what it is all about.
2. Go to the Find a Poem section. Your goal is to choose three potential poems to work with for this project.  You are welcome to search through the poems however you'd like. You may want to identify poems by looking through the poets listed and reading poems by poets you’ve heard of or are familiar with.
3. Find THREE poems from the expansive list of approved poems on the Poetry Out Loud website that you would be willing and/or interested in reciting in the competition. Be sure you’re happy with all three.
4. Create a Word/Google document. Cut and paste each of the poems into this document (be sure to include the title and poet of each poem). And, below each poem in this document, write a short explanation naming what you like or find interesting about the poem.
5. Then, print a copy of EACH of the three poems. Be sure to bring these to class tomorrow.

First Semester Final

Here is a link to the exam:  First Semester Final

Native Son - thoughts about Bigger and his world - start of Book 2

Welcome back!

Today in class we tried to recap where we are in the novel by reflecting on our thoughts about observations about Bigger and the society in which he lives.

Here is a brief version of what we discussed:

Bigger:

• Morals - has a sense of right / wrong (possibly a confused one)
• Unsure how he feels about Mary's death
• Sees himself as "lower" than others
• Why didn't he flee? Why does he go back to the Daltons?
• How does he view his actions / see himself?
• Bigger is constantly thinking about race
• Bigger does not think about the Daltons / Mary / what her death means to them
• Uses race to justify his actions
• What will he do next? 
• (some expressed feeling a sense of sympathy for him at this point of the book)

Society

• Complex attitudes about race
• Differences between white and black perspectives
• Bigger fears what whites might think about / do to him
• Bigger's group of friends - what do they mean to him?
• What is the role of the Daltons?
• Actions in terms of race - how to white people act in a black setting and how do blacks act in a white setting?
• How much knowledge do the whites and black have about each other? How ignorant are they? How curious are they?