Poetry Quest: First Stop

WhyPoetryWhat

Overview 

Start a poetry notebook. Take notes on the ideas you learn about poetry (see GRADE). Write your own poems modeled after the examples at the site. Help each other, work by yourself, or with your team. Be prepared to share new poetry ideas. 

Directions: 

A fast and fun quest--start a notebook and follow the directions at the link below. Exceptions: Some of the links do not work, so follow the directions on this page for Limerick and Sand Dunes -click here for exceptions. Click the link below to start your Poetry Quest:

http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/pages/samwhypoetrmi.html

POETRY NOTEBOOK GRADE

Keep track of your progress--100 total points possible--by keeping a notebook with ten sections that includes your work based on the Webquest.

The sections are:

1. Ten line rhyming poem--10 points

2. Children's Poetry and Image Posted in classroom--10 points

3. Call to Poets (John Glenn)

Questions--5 points

Hero Poem--5 points

4. Koigi wa Wamwere

Reading to class--4 points

Connection to self--4 points

List of feelings--2 points

5. Limerick and Share--10 points

6. Sand Dunes

Answers to questions one and two--5 points

Haiku (3 Haiku)--5 points

7. Reluctance

List--3 points

Share copies and Explanation--5 points

8. Unicorn

Reasons--3 points

Poem--5 points

9. Beawulf

Answers to questions one and two--3 points

Timeline--5 points

10. Conclusion

What did you learn?--5 points

What part did you connect to the most?--5 points

Explain how you are more connected to poetry now than you were before (how have you grown in your understanding/appreciation of poetry?)--6 points

Except when you get to:

• Limerick Rules, you will need to check your two English books and read the Encarta notes below:

  Limerick (verse), a humorous verse form, the subject of which is often nonsensical but the structure of which is strictly prescribed. This definite pattern consists of five anapestic lines (see Versification). Lines one, two, and five contain three metrical feet, and rhyme; lines three and four contain two metrical feet, and rhyme. Originally, limericks were delivered orally and served as commentaries on manners and behavior. The most famous of all limerick writers was the English painter and humorist Edward Lear. The following, from his Book of Nonsense (1846), illustrates the genre.

   

  There was an Old Man of the Coast

  Who placidly sat on a post;

  But when it was cold,

  He relinquished his hold,

  And called for some hot buttered toast.

   

  The term limerick (from a refrain in a popular song of the day) was first applied in the late 1890s to Lear's verse.

   

   

   

  "Limerick (verse)," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

• Sand Dunes, use the picture and definition of a sand dune below (note bibliographical reference--Encarta); then read the definition of Haiku Poems (also see your two English books).
• 

  •  

    Bruneau Dunes State Park

    Sand dunes are hills or ridges of sand formed by strong winds. Bruneau Dunes State Park in Idaho, pictured here, contains sand dunes reaching 140 m (470 ft), some of the tallest in North America.

    Pat O'Hara Photography

    "Bruneau Dunes State Park," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

     

  Sand Dune, a hill of loose sand formed in areas such as deserts and lake- and seashores where winds are strong and tend to blow from one direction. Dune fields-areas covered with sand dunes-occupy thousands of square kilometers in the deserts of North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and Central and East Asia.

  Movement of sand grains by the wind causes dunes to grow in height as well as to migrate. A growing dune may travel as much as 30 m (100 ft) in a year. Seen from the air, dune shapes vary from crescentic to ridgelike (Desert); however, all dunes are asymmetric in cross section. The side facing the wind is always longer and less steep than the side opposite. Thus, ancient dune deposits that were buried and have become changed to sandstone display an asymmetrical layered pattern, called crossbedding, that reveals their windblown origin.

   

  "Sand Dune," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

  Haiku Poem

  Haiku is a type of Japanese poetry that has seventeen syllables and just three lines. It is a short poem that captures a moment in nature.

   

  Line 1 Five syllables

  Line 2 Seven syllables

  Line 3 Five syllables

   

  Examples:

   

  A bitter morning

  Sparrows sitting together

  Without any necks.

   

If you find authors for Limerick and Haiku, you may look up the authors and their work at:

http://www.bartleby.com/index.html