January 15

Humanities 8

Today we started with silent reading.  The remainder of the class was dedicated to finishing off the poetry anthology assignments, which are due on Monday!!!

English 10

Today as always, we started class with silent reading.  We reviewed poetry analysis and students were asked to write out the following list of strategies to keep in their folder.  Next we discussed glossing.  Students looked at an example of glossing and were asked to figure out the theme or main message of the poem Sadie and Maud.  Glossing simply means to identify your thinking/analysis of the poem by pointing out significant words, literary device etc.  We discussed how the strategies helped to figure out the meaning of the poem.  For the last few minutes of class students were asked to look at the poem Hockey and to try to gloss that poem in an effort to deduce the theme of that poem.  

Strategies for Analyzing a poem

1. Read the poem a few times. 
2. Pay careful attention to the title.  It often links to the theme of the poem.
3. Identify words you are unfamiliar with.  Consult a dictionary or use context clues to decode meaning.
4. Identify words that are emphasized in the poem.
5. What feelings are associated with the words chosen?  Are they silly, somber, cheerful, humorous, argumentative etc.
6. Are there any objects that may be symbols (representative of a more abstract idea or concept)?
7. Identify who the speaker might be.
8. What is the setting?  Time, place etc
9. Are there any clues indicated by the form?
10. Are there any literary devices that need to be reviewed?
11. Pay careful attention to the end of the poem.  It often links to the theme of the poem.  

Hockey

The ice is smooth, smooth, smooth.
The air bites to the center
Of warmth and flesh, and I whirl.
It begins in a game ...
The puck swims, skims, veers,
Goes leading my vision
Beyond the chasing reach of my stick.

The air is sharp, steel-sharp.
I suck needles of breathing,
And feel the players converge
It grows to a science ...
We clot, break, drive,
Electrons in motion
In the magnetic pull of the puck.

The play is fast, fierce, tense.
Sticks click and snap like teeth
Of wolves on the scent of prey.
It ends in the kill ...
I am one of the pack in a mad,
Taut leap of desperation
In the wild slashing drive for the goal