Assigning excellence (?/!)

Joel Garza, Modern Lyric Poetry
Five questions
Explanation:
First, choose a poem from the text. Next, read the poem carefully and take notes on it—in the book, in your notebook, somewhere. Finally, answer each of the following questions. For this assignment, then, don’t worry about a title, don’t worry about an intro, don’t worry about a conclusion. Just read, think, and interpret.

The questions:

1. What are the effects of this poem’s structure?

2. What are the effects of this poem’s rhyme scheme?

3. What are the effects of this poet’s narrative voice?

4. What are the effects of this poem’s imagery?

5. What’s something you noticed about the poem that I didn’t ask about (meter, allusion, tone, subject, argument, grammar, whatever), and why should I care about that element of the work?

Purpose:
I am challenging students to identify and explain the effects of several poetic techniques and devices, one by one, as they appear in a single poem.

Creativity? Monica: Maybe for the next assignment, return to the same poem and change one of the elements—make a sonnet a haiku, undoing the nature imagery and make it, say, legalistic imagery.
Empathy? Tony: Well, empathy can become a sort of detour. Empathy shouldn’t be shoe-horned into every assignment. Monica: Maybe in looking at one of these poetic facets, especially in poetry, the students can’t help but react empathetically.
 
Monica Bullock, Sixth Grade
Mystery Theater
Explanation:
After writing a biography report (fourth grade), the students are grouped with three or four other students who have researched different historical figures. As a group, the students must construct a play depicting each of these famous people, without naming each of these famous people. The audience is invited to pay close attention in order to determine who is who. Examples: JFK, MLK, Lincoln.
Purpose:
In order to shape character, the students must comprehend the reading they do. They put into practice conflict, characterization, suspense, dialogue, resolution.

Creativity? Each year, the plays are completely different because the subjects and the combinations of the subjects are different.
Empathy? They’re embodying other people fer chrissakes! Jeez, come on.
Rigor? They are lengthy. They are each seven to ten minutes long. Each student is responsible for his/her own character—they have to bring the character into the action. There’s no hiding on this group project.
 
Tony Adler, Fifth Grade
Creation myths
Explanation:
The students live myth throughout the winter—the play, the reading, etc. Each student crafts a creation myth about anything s/he chooses. Examples: the greenness of grass, earthquakes, volcanoes, the earth.

Purpose:
To expose students to a variety of writing genres. To explain the importance of myth generally. To advance their creative writing ability, while working through the writing process (invention, drafting, outlining, revising, etc.). Most importantly, perhaps, this is fun. Many students, by means of this project, are drawn into writing for fun.

Creativity? There’s a lot of structure, yet there are very specific goals. Still, they get to accomplish these goals in any way they’d like. Mindful of the ancient models, each student must first choose an object to depict, then imagine the beginnings, the motivations for such a thing to come into being.
Rigor? While using the myth tradition as a backdrop, they have to maintain a story structure, an internal logic and a resolution. Plus, for fifth graders, this is their longest written project of the year—some run to twenty pages!
Empathy? Students gain empathy for the philosophical/poetic urge. Ancient people explained their world imaginatively, from the ground to the heavens.