The Junior/Senior High Poetry Residency:

My sessions with older students follow a plan that tries to create a unified body of work. To this end, I present the poetry module as a series of steps, each covering a different kind of writing, primarily poetry. In a perfect world, my poetry unit can be done in about six days. Along the way, students learn by doing. As they write journals and poems, they learn about poetic kinds, concision, images and structural considerations. Here is my Six-Day Plan to the Joy of Writing Poetry:

Day 1

– overview of the project, examples from my poetry, with discussion of background for each

– discussion of narrative, and of the journal as a literary kind

– concepts of tone and point of view

– the importance of sensory imagery to establish immediacy in prose

– Assignment: a one page journal entry, based on a personal experience that had impact, emotionally or socially; the language must achieve concrete immediacy, through sensory detail

Day 2

– review of journal entries (overhead transparencies, if possible), note especially the presence of any lines or images that may have greater possibility for strong images in a poetic expression;

-- -- lesson and discussion regarding “suites” of poems, with examples from haiku using hypertext links

-- Assignment: create a suite of hypertext-linked haiku, the links based on theme or image; choose a key word that will link one haiku to the next, and that second one to the final one. The effect should be of a unified, and circular structure.

Day 3

-- review of first drafts of “haiku suites” (best viewed in actual htm browser window, to see how this will look when mounted on the school web page.

– discussion of the difference between prose narrative and poetic narrative

– discussion on moving from the images found in the journal entry and the haiku poems to a narrative or incidental poem, still based upon the journal entry

– Assignment: a narrative poem, based on the journal entry (guidelines: 10 to 20 lines long and a maximum of 10-12 syllables per line; establishing context, speaker pov and tone, plot development, theme; emphasis on concision, good line breaks and good oral reading rhythm or cadence)

Day 4

– review of drafts of narrative poems (with transparency examples)

– discussion of difference between narrative and lyrical poems

– examples of lyrical poems and the use of rhyming and rhythm

– Assignment: a lyrical poem, based on journal entry, about an emotion or idea

– 14 lines long, maximum of 10 syllables per line

– optional: attempt at rhyming or rhythm (simple, such as iambic); this can be difficult

– must use at least two kinds of figurative language: simile, metaphor, symbol or personification.

– poet cannot name the abstraction or idea directly in poem, but may do so in title

Day 5

-- REVISION DAY !

-- time to review and exchange writings; make changes for best expression

-- review of haiku suites

-- discussion of publication possiblities, including in-house and internet publication

Day 6

-- Publication Day

-- each student prepares a web page which mounts the various writings that have taken place with this project. Savvy student “websters” can help get the site started. Teacher mentors or other monitors check for acceptable standards of publication on the internet.

Future Writing Advice for Students: As you write your individual poems, keep a log or commentary (another journal!) that notes the patterns you see emerging. Try grouping the poems in different ways, to see what emerges. Attempt to write some poems as a challenge, to enhance the patterns that you discover. If a poem doesn’t fit the pattern, simply place it in an “attic” of material for later use.

In the meantime, send the individual poems out to magazines. Publication in this format will give you the incentive to keep writing, while you perfect your vision for a longer collection of poetry.