• The poem’s basic content
1. What is the context of the poem? Identify the speaker(s) and any background information that would help explain the poem’s basic message.
2. How are the thoughts organized?
3. Does the poet contrast any ideas? Does he/she juxtapose any for effect?
4. What feelings does the speaker reveal? How are the feelings communicated?
5. What meaning does the poem have on the literal level?
• The poem’s figurative level
1. Does the poet use any emotionally-charged words?What effect do they have?
2. What images stand out? How do the images help to convey the poe’s main idea?
3. Are any of the images used as symbols? What do they represent?
4. Are any of the actions described in the poem intended to be viewed as symbolic? What do they represent?
5. Is the poem limited to a specific situation, or does it comment on life in general? What comment does it make?
6. What is the significance of the poem’s thoughts or theme?
• The poem’s main purpose
1. Is the poem mostly concerned with comunicating thoughts?
2. Does the poem tell a story or present a dramatic situation? Does it amuse or entertain? Does it succeed?
3. Is the poem an explanation or exploration of feelings?
4. Does it aim at persuading the reader to believe something? What?
5. Does the poem attempt to shock the reader into a realization? Is it effective?
6. Is the poem commentint on a problem in our society? What is it saying?
• The poem’s tone
1. What feelings is the speaker expressing?
2. What words or images convey those feelings best? Why?
3. Are there any sounds in the poem that help to communicate the speaker’s attitude? Which? How do they help?
4. Does the poem’s rhythm relate to the feelings being expressed? How? What is the effect?
5. Have the details of the poem been especially selected to convey the speaker’s attitude? How have they been limited? Is it effective?
• The poem’s use of words, sounds and rhythm
1. Which words are repeated? Why?
2. Have any words been isloated or given special emphasis? What effect was the poet trying to achieve?
3. What use does the poet make of imagery? What patterns link the images together?
4. Does the author give any special emphasis to any single image? Which one? Why?
5. Are there symbols in the poem? Where? What do they mean?
6. How do the images and symbols help to establish the poem’s meaning?
7. What use does the poet make of sounds? How do the sounds in the poem add to its meaning?
8. How would you descibe the poem’s rhythm? Does the rhythm slow down, speed up, or change at any point? Why?
• The poem’s structure
1. What type of poem is this? Why did the poet shoose this type?
2. What pattern of rhyme did the poet use? How does the pattern of rhymes add to the impact of the poem?
3. Are the lines of the poem arranged in a special pattern? What purpose did the poet have in choosing that pattern?
4. Does the poem have a consistent meter? What type of meter? How many feet are in each line?
5. What rhyme scheme, if any, did the poet use?

This exercise will enable you to organize your thoughts and gather some preliminary notes on your subject. If the assignment requires you to include some of the critic’s views as well, this is the point at which internet research should be done. Unless the assignment specifically asks you to give only your toughts, you will find research helpful, even if it is not required. Commentary on your subject will be listed on the net in several ways. Here are some possibilites:

1. enotes
2. Wikipedia

As you read through the critics’ comments, take care to note all the biographical information for each arcticle as you go. This will assist you in creating footontes and bibliography, and will allow you to locate the article quickly should you need to refer to it again. Check with your teacher regarding the format you should usse when compiling your footnotes/bibliography.

Consider the outcomes we’ve tried to achieve.

Enhancing the artistry of communication has been a strong technical focus. Skills mastered include using online blogging tools, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, even graphical enhancements using Photoshop or audio/video podcasting tools have been included where time permitted and initiative taken. Participation on an online forum has generated a myriad of useful tips/reminders, questions/answers. There will be no speadsheets on the final, the use of Word will be necessary for English 30.

Each course has been structured around Focus Questions and related questions: English 10, English 9.

Emphasis on social networking, peer review/support/criticism has been critical for developing critical thought and reflection for writers defending an idea.

Each course has a reading list: English 10, English 30. Not every title has been studied intensively(or at all), but the proportion of attention paid to those pieces that were studied in class deserve the same level of attention on the final. Of course, those who choose additional literature from the list to focus on in the final deserve to have that initiative rewarded as well. If you choose to focus on Shakespeare, your audience gets tougher, I’ve noticed.

An English 30 paper looking at how the images/symbols/archetypes of Sophocles and Kingsolver relate to personal freedom to would be intriguing. Why not an English 10 paper discussing the threat of fanaticism by comparing the speeches of Mark Antony, Joseph Strorm, and Eamon De valera? What does Søren Kierkegaard have to do with every page you’ve ever read or written?

Extras, everyone should be able to link to Wikipedia for literary terms, difficult vocabulary, or just the odd or eccentric idea; can anyone incorporate the Hayflick Limit into their paper? Everyone has seen video and heard an mp3, but are any daring enough to Podcast their final essay? A carefully edited U2 mp3 snip, an embedded flash video of Ophelia Simpson, a slideshow?

The only limit is to abide the first line of every rubric you’ve ever attached to any assignment:

I _________________ honestly declare that the work is what I have done. In circumstances when I have quoted a certain authority, I have clearly indicated what is a quote and the author.

A Blogger’s Code of Ethics contains truths far older than the phenomenon of blogging.

English 30s will have no access to internet, filesharing, etc etc. English 10s can have it all.

The life which is unexamined is not worth living.
- Plato

Write a story in which a protagonist undergoes a transformation in the search for self. Have your character encounter basic questions about his/her identity.

Consider using the following images:

Guidleines for the exercise:

1. The encounter can be real or imaginary, but at least should be plausible — no meeting between Cousin Ed and Genghis Khan
2. The family member, not the famous person, should of course be the protagonist of the poem and it is his or her consciousness that the poem should try to enter or understand.
3. The writer of the poem should be an effaced presence, understanding the inner workings of the family member’s mind but seeing the family member as a character referred to in the third person (“my father” and not “Dad,” in other words).
4. The famous person can be anyone in politcs, entertainment, or the arts; JFK to Mel Gibson, Emily Brontë to Madonna
5. Since the exercise tends to demand a fairly complex profile or portrait of the family member in question, it is best suited to longer poems — at least 30 lines.
6. Submit completed poems via trackback

1. Use pencil crayons to draw a picture of your mother’s kitchen.
2. Put the oven in it, and also something green, and something dead.
3. Write a poem about your mother’s kitchen.
4. You are not in this poem, but some female relation – aunt, sister, close friend – must walk into the kitchen during the course of the poem.
5. Completed poems, with a suitable image(72 dpi, png, lightbox), should appear in your blog and trackback here.

A lesson on single point perspective. Hint: Tiles need an extra diagonal, too.