Friday, September 20, 2013
Poetry Presentations
What an adventurous week with poetry! Your task for this blog is to write an overview of the week, focusing on what you believe to be the most educational moment for you. Support your moment with evidence. Then, what is it that you learned from each group that helps you to know more and to understand more the interpretation of poetry? Be sure to show your appreciation and satisfaction in the presenters.
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Looking back at the past week it is incredible to think of all the material that was covered. We covered denotation and connotation, imagery, tone, sound and meaning, and simile and metaphors. This is a lot of information to cover in one week. The simile and metaphor section was a nice review from what I already knew. This is one of the more common devices. I really enjoyed this lesson because the video that was shown, and how it showed all of the similes and metaphors in everyday life. We all hear songs on the radio and mindlessly repeat these lyrics without thinking about how they are poetic devices. I found this to be interesting.
ReplyDeleteThe next section that we covered was denotation and connotation. I found this section to also be interesting. I knew what both of them were, but was not aware of what they were actually called. This section helped me understand what the devices names were. I think that everyone understands what the dictionary definition of a word is. This is called denotation, and many people would not know what the proper name for it is. Connotation on the other hand is a word that can have multiple definitions or meanings. This also is something that many people can pick out of a text, but may not know what it is called. I really enjoyed this section.
The next section that was covered this week was the presentation of Tone. This presentation was well done. I thought that the handout was helpful, and will definitely become a good resource throughout the year when returning to tone. I thought that the examples were very helpful. The video of Mary Poppins showed how tone can completely change the way the viewer thinks of the topic. Some very simple changes such as sounds and color change the tone in the video.
The penultimate presentation was the presentation on imagery. This was my favorite presentation because I thought that I learned the most. I knew what imagery was, but I was unaware of all of subsections of it. I found it interesting that there were 7 different types. I really liked how the poems were used as examples for each section of imagery. At times I did not think that there would be any examples of that section of imagery, but the examples always showed me that there were examples. Finally, I enjoyed how the final poem was used to tie everything together.
Finally, was my group’s presentation on sound and meaning. When I was preparing for my presentation I was surprised to see all of the things that I did not know. I never had heard of a phonetic intensive, but after I read about it I became for familiar with it and now can pick them out. The other section of my presentation that I found interesting was how letters can affect the meaning of the poem. They can make the poem either harsh or smooth.
Overall, I found this week to be very informative. I think that I learned a lot and now will be able to pick out these devices in poetry that I read.
Hey, Kraus!
DeleteIt was a pleasure being your partner during our presentation this week! I learned so much about the musical and sound devices of poetry just by doing a little research for our project.
From your blog, I can gather that you are becoming more comfortable with different poetic devices. That is so awesome because I think I'm in the same boat. It is really neat learning different devices (especially from other classmates) such as tone, connotations, metaphors, and imagery, and then discovering them while analyzing poems. It makes me feel smarter! haha! Great blog! I can definitely tell that you are becoming more familiar with the ways of poetry. - Cheesy Rachel
This week I feel like we covered so much! As Luke said we covered things such as denotation, connotation, imagery, sound and musical rhythm, and a lot of other things I really did not know about. But after one week I can confidently analyze a poem and actually know what I'm doing! I did not know a whole lot about each of these, heck I even got metaphor and simile confused. But by the end of the week I know some basic poetry devices that I can draw draw from memory on a important test.
ReplyDeleteThe day I learned the most from was probably on Thursday or Friday. Those two days the people that taught musical rhyme and rhythm, as well as imagery. The musical poetic devices was awesome, and it made me realize how many different poetic devices I've been missing when I read a poem. Some of the basic things that Luke and Rachel taught about that I was unaware of before were the simple concepts of masculine and feminine rhyme, as well as basic literary devices like alliteration and onomatopoeia.
My favorite presentation was the one on Imagery. All of the presentations were well taught, but this one particularly stood out to me. The seven types of imagery was the sole moment in the week where I learned the most. I don't know why, but the gustatory and auditory and the visual types, as well as the rest of the types, stood out to me. When we read that poem at the end, that I think was by Robert Frost, but I'm not sure, all of the senses just jolted out and I found them easily.
When we went to the denotation and connotation section, I'll have to admit that I had no clue what I was getting myself into. Then when we got into the class a bit more I was finding them in poetry left and right. Analyzing the connotation was really interesting, because it opened a whole new line of thought in the poem. As for the metaphors and similies, I now have it absolutely straight that a metaphor does not use like or as, while a similie does use like or as. I couldn't get those two straight until this week. As for our tone section, Michaela found that awesome Mary Poppins video that looked like a horror movie. I think that and our sheet of words about tone and mood were really educational.
Ill admit, for the three hours of class time we had, a lot of very useful information was packed into those minutes. But now I can really analyze a poem, no matter how confusing, or even how long it seems. Yes I had to say it. But all of the presentations were well done.
Matt,
DeleteIt truly was a pleasure to have you as a partner for our presentation and I agree that Thursday and Friday were great learning experiences. I feel that I learned a lot from both presentations on Thursday and Friday. I also feel like I am getting closer and closer to owning many more poetics devices. Analyzing poems is defiantly becoming easier, thanks to all of the great presentations. Great blog!!
Matt,
DeleteI'm so happy you liked our presentation! It was actually really fun to sift through the different poems to help illustrate the various types of imagery so I'm happy you were able to enjoy it and learn from it. I loved your presentation also. As I said in my blog, it tackled a subject I was never comfortable with before, and was extremely helpful.
I have to agree denotation and connotation are daunting subjects to tackle, as some poems it is very easy to pick our what it is the author is alluding to, while other poems seem rather difficult. I still struggle sometimes with connotation in particular, but I believe we are all well on our way to owning a great deal of poetic devices.
Nice job, Matt!
I thought that I learned a lot this week. This is probably due to the awesome presentations that we had throughout the week. The amount of material that we covered was very vast especially in the short amount of time that we had. After this week I feel that I am starting to make progress in owning these literary terms. Some of them we already own which is due to the presentations this week.
ReplyDeleteThe most educational moment this week was probably when Danielle and Megan presented imagery. I already had some idea as to what imagery was due to class last year when we briefly covered it. However, I was completely unaware that there were so many different types of imagery. I did know the general definition of imagery, but I did not know about kinesthetic or organic imagery for example. I think that I learned a lot from this presentation because we learned the different types of imagery and then had a good example poem to find the use of this literary device. This was very good practice and I learned so much by actually picking out the literary device. I thought that the poems that were chosen were very good examples, which made it very easy to understand these different forms of imagery.
I also learned a lot from Rachel and Luke's presentation. I found the video of putting the poem into a song to be particularly interesting. The music was very beautiful and really showed where the different breaks were in the poem. The pace of the song showed where the poem slowed down, which was very helpful in breaking up the poem. I also found the different types of rhymes, the masculine and famine rhymes to be especially interesting. I had no idea that there so rhymes even existed in poetry. This presentation was also very well done, I am very glad that we were provided with a worksheet with our new literary devices. I am sure that the paper will come on handy some day soon. The poems that were chosen for this presentation were also very good examples of our new literary devices. The practice on these defiantly helped me to learn more about them and even a few of the easy ones.
I also learned so much from preparing my own presentation. I already had an idea about tone through English class last year. However, I learned so much more by going through various articles and papers on tone ad mood. I learned how to differentiate tone and mood, which was a learning experience for me because I thought that the two terms had the same definition. I learned that tone and mood are extremely similar but, tone identifies with the poet while the mood of the poem identifies the reader's feelings toward the poem. I learned how just a couple of words and phrases can set the whole tone and mood for the poem. I also learned how music can have an affect on the tone of the poem.
All in all I learned a great deal of information this week. I thought that my classmates did an excellent job presenting their literary devices. Every presentation was unique and defiantly helped me to learn more about their subjects. Great job everyone!!
Michaela,
DeleteI think that you are absolutely right. Everyone’s presentations were extremely informative this week. Yours was definitely helpful to me. I also think that everyone learned quite a bit from their own presentations. I think that we all had an idea of what we were teaching, but had no idea the extent of the subject. It was so interesting to explore a subject more in depth. I am also glad that you learned something from Danielle and I. I think that your presentation this week was really helpful. Nice job!
Michaela,
DeleteFirst off, you were an awesome partner and I have to agree when you say all of the presentations were very well done. I learned a lot from them also! That song that Rachel and Luke showed also taught me where there were breaks in the poem, and it helped visualize imagery, as well as mood and tone. So now that I think of it, that song actually summed up the week pretty good. Nice blog Michaela!
Oh my goodness! To quote Mrs. Messineo, “We are getting so smart! I can feel it!” Haha! But it’s absolutely true. I feel like I am slowly climbing the ladder of poetry genius thanks to the wonderful poetry presentations of my classmates.
ReplyDeleteAgain to quote Mrs. Messineo I think that I am beginning to “own” some poetic devices. It’s an awesome feeling! Thanks to Michaela and Matt I feel more informed about the tone and mood of a poem, and a special thanks to Danielle and Megan for enlightening me on all the different types of imagery. Who knew that there are so many different types of imagery in poetry? I also feel confident that I am pretty comfortable with the musical and sound devices of poetry, thanks to the research I performed in preparation for Luke and my presentation. I do not want to sound arrogant, but my “ah-ha!” educational moment this week actually occurred while I was preparing for my own presentation.
While I was looking up some musical devices and such on the lovely Internet, I decided to look at any poems that were turned into songs. Sure enough, I discovered Rufus Wainwright’s “Sonnet 29” rendition. I was immediately enamored. As soon as I listened to Wainwright’s melodic voice singing the lyrics to Shakespeare’s sonnet I got chills. In that moment, I realized that poetry is beautiful and rich in meaning. It’s not just like an ordinary novel with thousands of words or a newspaper article, but it is more similar to music in the way that it flows because of its musical device and other devices as well. I realized that so many elements, such as musical devices, connotations, tone, and imagery, make up poetry, and they are the components that provide a poem with meaning and musicality. All in all, my love for poetry was deepened.
I want to thank the two groups who did a wonderful job of teaching different poetic devices to me.
First off, I will express my gratitude to Michaela and Matt for their presentation and for passing out those handy tone and mood packets. I have already put mine to use. Just having a visual of all the different words that could describe the tone of a poem really helped me in our assignment that night on determining the mood of my own poem. I also really enjoyed the Mary Poppins videos. They were an entertaining and effective way to demonstrate how specific words can really determine the tone, and how contrasting moods can be sometimes. The only part of your presentation that I was not super thrilled with was lack of interaction. It would have been nice to have a handout or something to fill out to make sure that I understood how to analyze and determine the tone of a poem. Other than that, excellent presentation!
Megan and Danielle, I feel like an imagery genius! Seriously! I adored how you two explained each type of imagery with a different poem. They were so interesting, and they definitely made the definitions of each type of imagery clearer. Your presentation was fun because it engaged my senses. It was neat to see how imagery is not always just about the visual side of poetry. I also respected that you used a PowerPoint to show each definition. I do not have much criticism on your presentation except that maybe we could have ate some cake or something, just to clarify the definition of gustatory imagery. Hehe! Fantastic presentation, Dani and Megz!
Lastly, I would just like to thank everyone for being so attentive during Luke and my presentation. I know it probably was not the most exciting, but I hoped you learned and OWNED some of the musical devices of poetry. It was a pleasure teaching you!
Rachel,
DeleteI completely agree with you that we are getting smart. I personally feel that we all have learned so much from this week's lessons. Not only was it fun to teach the class for day but it was also a great learning experience for us. I think that everyone did a fantastic job both being teachers and students this week. Rachel I found your presentations and Luke's to be very well done. I do feel like I own some poetic devices because of your presentation. Great Job teaching and great blog!
Rachel,
DeleteIts good that through your presentation you were able to have such a revelation. I think I am sort of waiting for that moment when I begin to feel comfortable enough with poetry to really love it like I do books. I like poetry, but I am still slightly intimidated by it, though I believe this week helped relieve that. I'm happy you found your love for it!
I glad you found our presentation helpful! I'm happy we were able to be of some assistance. Next time, I'll bake a cake so you can get a taste of gustatory imagery with a negative connotation. No one should taste my cooking!
I agree that Michaela and Matt's Mary Poppins videos were an extremely humorous way of portraying the effects that Tone and Mood have on a piece. Their hand out I feel will be extremely useful in the future and they certainly gave me a clear understanding of conflicting tones within a piece.
Lastly, I would like to commend Luke and you on your presentation. It was extremely creative and you were brave for taking on such an unusual topic. Wonderful job!
Here we are a decent chunk into the school year, and I already feel like we have learned so much! It is amazing, but I actually feel like I know something about poetry.
ReplyDeleteThis week we started with Matt and Michaela teaching us about tone and mood. I just want to say that you guys did an amazing job with your presentation. I love the tone and mood packet you gave us. It is like my new best friend. I have seriously looked at it all week, so thank you so much for that. I also thought that the Mary Poppins videos were a good visual aid. I didn’t even think that movie could ever be made into a scary movie, but somebody did it. Those contrasts were actually really helpful though. I didn’t realize how such simple things could affect the entire mood so much. I think I always kind of knew, but it never occurred to me how easily something can be changed like that. The presentation was definitely an eye opening experience for me.
After Michaela and Matt, we had our presentation on imagery. I thought that it was going to be really difficult to teach it for a full class period because I thought that imagery was pretty cut and dry. Well I was extremely wrong. I was so shocked to find out that there are seven different types of imagery, I mean who knew. I thought that at most there would be five because there are five senses. That would make the most sense, but then to find out that there were two other ways to define imagery was amazing. I looked at Danielle and was like did you know that there were seven kinds? I was actually glad to find that out because then I felt like I was learning something really new along with everyone else.
The final presentation this week was Luke and Rachel. They had a focus on musical devices and meaning. I had no idea that certain letters were used to make the meaning harsher or softer. I would not even begin to think that possible, so that was really interesting to me. I also thought the discussion of rhyming was interesting. I only thought of rhyme as a one dimensional device used in poetry. In my mind something rhymed or it didn’t. I thought that Luke and Rachel did a really good job on their presentation. Even though I complained about their handout just a tad it was really helpful. It made me actually focus on the different sorts of rhyme so that I could truly come to own them.
I would say that my most educational moment this week would have to be Rachel and Luke. I have no musical inclination except listening to it, and I definitely don’t think that that counts. I knew nothing about music could be brought into poetry, but now I do. I learned a tremendous amount from that presentation. I especially liked Rufus Wainwright singing “Sonnet 29.” It was absolutely beautiful to listen to. The rhyme that can be found in that poem really helps the flow along, giving it a more musical quality. I also liked learning about having a harsh and soft meaning. I had no idea that that could be changed by having words starting with a specific letter. I found that to be extremely insightful. The handout with all of the definitions was good as well because I probably would have forgotten all of the definitions of those words by fifth period. When my mind is racing definitions tend to be filed away somewhere where I never find them again, and my mind was all over the place on Friday. I think that this presentation was really well done.
I would just like to conclude with a brief thanks to both groups for their presentations. I really hope that Danielle and I were effective in teaching you about imagery.
Megan,
DeleteNice summary of the week. I agree with you that the school year is going by fast, but we have learned so much. We are already half way done with the first quarter. I also found the Marry Poppins video educational. It showed the contrast between the two tones. I really enjoyed your presentation becuase it taught me something I never knew. Nice job Megan.
Megan,
DeleteYes, you were effective in teaching imagery. VERY effective. I had no clue that there were 7 different types, and like I said in my blog, they just stick out to me. Luke and Rachel did have a very nice handout, and using that for a reference is going to be a blessing. Overall a well done blog!
First I'd like to thank all of you for the lovely presentations this week! I think we all did a great job and I know I learned a lot!
ReplyDeleteThe first presentation of the week, bravely conducted by Matt and Michaela (M&M!), was on tone and mood. I found this presentation particularly helpful. For some reason even last year I was always afraid to declare a definitive tone when asked to on a piece. However, Matt and Michaela's presentation made it clear that a poem, or any literary work for that matter, does not have to be forced into a box unnecessarily. Rather, it is very possible for a poem to have many tone shifts. This was illustrated very well through the poems they used as examples (which were both very good). The "Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost beautifully portrayed this exciting revelation. I have always loved the poem but never looked at it as closely as I did during that presentation, finally realizing the shift from a generally happy poem, to one which shows traces of mournful regret and curiosity at the life not lived or the choice not taken. Learning this made doing the poem analysis that night much easier, and I purposefully chose a poem with a great deal of tone shifts to practice my new found skill. Thank you, Matt and Michaela!
I would say this was the presentation that acted as the most educational moment for me. Tone and Mood is such a commonly referred to literary device, and my understanding of it was so weak, that I was able to walk away from class the day of their presentation and fell I had learned a great deal that would be useful in identifying devices in literary works of all genres.
The next presentation was Megz and and I. I personally learned a lot by creating this presentation. As I'm sure I have already mentioned, I only thought there were five kinds of imagery, but came to find that there were seven. Admittedly, imagery is sort of a "common sense" subject. I probably should have figured that it was considered "imagery" to describe emotions or movement, but I didn't. This presentation also exposed me to a wide variety of poems because pretty much every poem possesses imagery in at least one form or another, if not more. So, I hope you learned as much as I did. You were a glorious partner, Megz!
And the grand finale belongs to Rachel and Luke. Their presentation was on sound and rhythm. Where as Matt and Michaela's presentation was a topic I always felt I had struggled with in the past, Rachel and Kraus' presentation discussed a topic I had never really considered previously. It was an extremely interesting presentation, to finally learn all of the technical terms for audible devices I had always enjoyed before, but never specifically identified. I also learned a couple of new types of devices (actually a lot) that I had never heard of before. My favorite was the masculine and feminine rhyme because of what was pointed out to us in Sonnet 29. I found it so incredibly fascinating that when the tone of the poem shifted to one of fond remembrance, the rhyme that Shakespeare chose to employ was a feminine rhyme. Who comes up with this genius? It's incredible and really was a good example of how the use of musical devices can not only make the poem more pleasing to the ear, but can also contribute to the meaning of the poem overall! I was extremely curious to see how Rachel and Kraus executed a presentation on this unusual topic and you both did marvelously. Plus, that musical rendition of Sonnet 29 was a wonderful end to the week.
Thank you all again for the presentations. It was a rather productive week I feel. I think we can start to "own" some literary devices!
Danielle,
DeleteI would like to start this comment by saying that it was wonderful to have you as my partner on this project! Now down to business. I think that it is interesting that tone and mood was your most educational. Like you said tone is a scary thing because it is hard to declare a definitive tone. I also liked your discussion of Luke and Rachel's presentation. Nice job!
Danielle,
DeleteI agree with you that the presentaion on tone and mood was very educational. I felt the same way about tone before the presentation, but now feel that I can declare tone well. I really enjoyed your presentation becuase I thought that I learned a lot of new things. Nice job Danielle.