DIGITAL LITERACY ACTIVITY – A

FORTNIGHTS WORTH OF POETRYKevin Cummins 2010

Lesson Purpose This slideshow is designed to be given to teachers

and students. Each different style of poetry should be modelled to students in and then give them the chance to create their own.

Be sure to share the Poetry Rubric with your students also that outlines the elements of effective poetry.

We are doing two styles per day for students to read and write then expecting students to publish around 5 pieces of their best work at the end of the week. Do it at your own speed however.

Resources

I have pulled together a number of great poetry resources from the web including.

www.writingfun.com Poetry from the Heart www.edgalaxy.com

Poetry Rubric

Be sure to check these out

Different Styles of Poetry

Acrostic Ballads Clerihew Diamante Epitaph Free Verse

Haiku Limerick Monody Monorhyme An Ode Palindrome

Pantoum Quatrain Shape Sonnet Tongue Twister

Villanelle

Poetry Assessment Rubric

Criteria 4 3 2

Ideas and contentFocuses on an idea, feeling or experience.  Uses specific, concrete images.  May include poetic sound devices

Exceptional focus of an idea, feeling or experience.  Exceptional use of images. Includes many examples poetic sound devices

Adequate focus of an idea, feeling or experience. Adequate use of images. Includes some examples poetic sound devices

Inadequate focus of an idea, feeling or experience. Adequate use of images. Includes no examples poetic sound devices

  Sentence FluencyUses lines of varying lengths and a variety of sentence structures

Uses a large variety of varying sentence lengths and structure.

Uses some variety of varying sentence lengths and structure.

Uses no variety of varying sentence lengths and structure.

OrganizationUses a logical, effective organizational strategy.

Uses an exceptional logical and effective organizational strategy.

Uses an adequate logical and effective organizational strategy.

Uses an inadequate organizational strategy.

VoiceUses own unique style.  Writes honestly, as if the reader were right there.  Writes with confidence and enthusiasm.

Uses an exceptional and unique writing style.  Writes exceptionally honest, as if the reader were right there.  Writes with exceptional confidence and enthusiasm.

Uses an adequate writing style. Writes somewhat honestly, as if the reader were right there.  Writes with a standard amount of with confidence and enthusiasm.

Uses an inadequate writing style.  Does not make the reader feel a part of the text. Writes with minimal confidence and enthusiasm.

MechanicsGrammarSpellingPunctuationCapitalization

Text contains only a minimal amount of errors

Text contains several errors. Text contains numerous errors.

Acrostic Style Poetry Acrostic Poetry where the first letter of each line spells a

word, usually using the same words as in the title.

example: The Carousel

C  ontagious,A  biding charm,R  iding around,O  blivious of all,U  nder the carouselS  miling broad,E  xcitementL  asting forever.

The Ballad A short narrative poem with stanzas of two or four lines

and usually a refrain. The story of a ballad can originate from a wide range of subject matter but most frequently deals with folk-lore or popular legends.

They are written in straight-forward verse, seldom with detail, but always with graphic simplicity and force. Most ballads are suitable for singing and, while sometimes varied in practice, are generally written in ballad meter, last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming.

example: Jesse

Clerihew A Clerihew is a comic verse consisting of two

couplets and a specific rhyming scheme, usually aabb. The poem is about/deals with a person/character within the first rhyme.

example:Zach

Zachary is my grandsonwith whom I have much fun.He loves to laugh and smilehis face stretches for a mile.

Diamante Style

A Diamante is a seven-lined contrast poem set up in a diamond shape.

Line 1: Noun or subject Line 2: Two Adjectives Line 3: Three -ing words Line 4: Four words about the subject Line 5: Three -ing words Line 6: Two adjectives Line 7: Synonym/antonym for the subject

example: Weather

Rain moist, damp

dripping, splashing, reinvigorating cool, wet, clear, warm

shining, warming, heating bright, hot

Sun

An Epitaph An epitaph is a brief poem inscribed on a tombstone

praising a deceased person, usually with rhyming lines.

example:Buck Withers

Here lies the man named Buckhe just ran plum out of luck.He's buried here in the groundNow ya know where he be found

Free Verse Free Verse is an irregular form of poetry in which the content free of traditional rules of versification, (freedom

from fixed meter or rhyme).

In moving from line to line, the poet's main consideration is where to insert line breaks. Some ways of doing this include breaking the line where there is a natural pause or at a point of suspense for the reader.

example:The River's a Kaleidoscope

Late on a cool fall nightwhile sitting on the river bank

I noticed how the ripples cast a different texture to the setting sun

The colours of the skyjust right for this season

Red, orange, yellow, purple even a tinge of blueThe river seems to mix them

like a kaleidoscope Seems there is no end to beauty

as this endless array goes on and onThen the distant sound of the frogs and crickets

keeping time to this dancing spectacularThen my heart goes quiet my pulse slows down

I lay back to thank my maker

Haiku Poem Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed

Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons).

The 5/7/5 rule is rumoured to have been made up for school children to understand and learn this type of poetry.

example:The Monsoon

wrath of the monsoonlightning displays with heavy winds

here fast, gone faster

An Irish Limerick A Limerick is a rhymed humorous, and or

nonsense poem of five lines. With a rhyming scheme of: a-a-b-b-a

example:A Good Day

I love ta see the morning sun

that's how I tell the days begun.Birds all singing a happy songit tis the place where I belong.

Far from school without the nun.

A Monody A monody is a poem in which one person laments another's death.

example:Isabella Rose

Deep within your broken heart,she will always be that part.

Isabella Rose has gone away,to join our Lord on this here day.

The angels in heaven welcomed her,as life on earth goes by in a blur.Now when you say a little prayer,

Isabella Rose will be listening there.

So amidst the stars up in the sky,the brightest one will catch your eye.And you will know that she is there,

even if no one around is aware.

A Monorhyme A Monorhyme is a poem in which all the lines have the same

end rhyme

2 examples:My Dream  ~   A break from life

I was sitting in my chairwanting to become a millionaireIt won't happen I'm well awarebut I still think its very unfair

I have even said a little prayerbut I don't have that special flairAnd my bodies in great despairI think I look more like a pearBut at least I still have my hair

and a table to play solitaire

An Ode

An Ode is a poem praising and glorifying a person, place or thing.

example:To become a Leprechaun

A Palindrome A palindrome, by definition, is a word, phrase, verse, sentence, or even poem

that reads the same forward or backward. It stems from the Greek word palindromos: palin, meaning again, and dromos, meaning a running. Combining the two together, the Greek meaning gives us, running back again...

The carefully placed words form the same sentence, whether it is read forward or backward. For example, 'Mirrored images reflect images mirrored' which includes a word in the center as a reversal point for the sentence or even the poem.

example: Sunrise Mornings

fresh and clear makes sunrise spectacular

with birds chirping - GLORIOUS -

chirping birds with spectacular sunrise makes

clear and fresh mornings.

A Pantoum The pantoum consists of a series of quatrains rhyming ABAB in which the second and fourth lines of a quatrain

recur as the first and third lines in the succeeding quatrain; each quatrain introduces a new second rhyme as BCBC, CDCD. The first line of the series recurs as the last line of the closing quatrain, and third line of the poem recurs as the second line of the closing quatrain, rhyming ZAZA.

The design is simple:

Line 1Line 2Line 3Line 4

Line 5 (repeat of line 2)Line 6Line 7 (repeat of line 4)Line 8

Continue with as many stanzas as you wish, but the ending stanza then repeats the second and fourth lines of the previous stanza (as its first and third lines), and also repeats the third line of the first stanza, as its second line, and the first line of the first stanza as its fourth. So the first line of the poem is also the last.

Last stanza:

Line 2 of previous stanzaLine 3 of first stanzaLine 4 of previous stanzaLine 1 of first stanza example: Sunset on the Ocean

Quatrain Poetry A Quatrain is a poem consisting of four lines of verse with a specific rhyming scheme. A few examples of a

quatrain rhyming scheme's are as follows:

#1) abab#2) abba -- envelope rhyme#3) aabb#4) aaba, bbcb, ccdc, dddd -- chain rhyme

example: The Fall . #1

I love the mountains in the fall,as the leaves begin to turn.Like decorations for the ball,it makes my heart just yearn.

#2 Fall colors seem to transcendwith yellow, orange, and browns.It'll soon cover all the townswith a warm and hearty blend.

#3 The cool crisp autumn air there's nothing that can compare.To this color filled wonder landwhat could ever be this grand.

Shape Poetry Shape Poetry is also called Concrete Poetry

Shape is one of the main things that separates prose and poetry. Poetry can take on many formats, but one of them most inventive forms is for the poem to take on the shape of its subject. So if the subject of your poem is a tree, then the poem's lines would be written so that the poem appears to take on the shape of a tree.

Designing your own shape poem can be simple and fun, but try not to pick anything that would be too difficult at first.

example:Halloween

A SonnetA lyric poem of fourteen lines, following one or another of several set rhyme-schemes. Critics of the sonnet have recognized varying classifications. The first, the Italian sonnet, is distinguished by its bipartite division into the octave and the sestet: the octave consisting of a first division of eight lines rhyming

abbaabba

and the sestet, or second division, consisting of six lines rhyming

cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce.

On this twofold division the octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, an historical statement, a Vision of the idea. The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query, solaces the yearning, realizes the vision. Again it might be said that the octave presents the narrative, states the proposition or raises a question; the sestet drives home the narrative by making an abstract comment, applies the proposition, or solves the problem.

The English (Shakespearean) sonnet, on the other hand, is so different from the Italian (though it grew from that form) as to permit of a separate classification. Instead of the octave and sestet divisions, this sonnet characteristically embodies four divisions: three quatrains (each with a rhyme-scheme of its own) and a rhymed couplet. Thus the typical rhyme-scheme for the English sonnet is

abab cdcd efef gg.

The couplet at the end is usually a commentary on the foregoing. The Spenserian sonnet combines the Italian and the Shakespearean forms, using three quatrains and a couplet but employing linking rhymes between the quatrains, thus

abab bcbc cdcd ee.

example:An English Style Sonnet

A Tongue Twister Tongue Twisters are made up of lines that are hard to

say fast.In other words, the poem ties your tongue into knots.

example:Hard Money

Steaming sands simmer, standing in some sunlike silver sea shell stands selling by the sea shorewhile sleek slithering snakes successfully scramblemaking melted matted monkey muscle money

Villenelle Poetry A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem

consisting of a very specific rhyming scheme: aba aba aba aba aba abaa.

The first and the third lines in the first stanza are repeated in alternating order throughout the poem, and appear together in the last two lines.

example:The Mogollon Rim