DAY 01 - CYCLE 11 - SEMESTER 01: 11-30-09

HANDOUTS FROM TODAY:
You received two exam review guides:

• PART I: Contains information about what is covered on the exam, the skills on which you will be tested, and the format of the exam.
• PART II: Tips for how to study the stories and prepare for vocabulary.
• You also received a syllabus to take us through the end of the semester.
  

IN CLASS TODAY:

We continued with sentence diagramming, looking at articles, direct objects and attributive adjectives.



We covered introductory material for Poetry Out Loud.

WHAT:

Poetry Out Loud is a nationwide competition in which high school students recite (from memory) anthologized poems and are judged on their performances. The competition is run in a pyramid formation; after winning classroom competitions, students compete against other classroom winners of the sophomore class until three remain. These three sophomores will compete against the top three juniors. Two winners from this group of six may go one to represent USM in the regional competition. Each region will select three winners to go on to the state competition.

Winners at all levels are eligible for prizes.

SCHOOL PRIZES: To be determined.
STATE PRIZES: Each winner at the state level will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington (with an adult chaperone) to compete for the national championship. The state winner's school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry books. One runner-up in each state will receive $100; his or her school will receive $200 for the purchase of poetry books.
NATIONAL PRIZES: A total of $50,000 in scholarship awards and school stipends will be awarded at the Poetry Out Loud National Finals, with a $20,000 college scholarship award for the National Champion.

HOW MANY POEMS MUST YOU MEMORIZE?
To recite in the classroom and to the sophomore class 1 (this is the one that counts toward your English grade)
If you are one of the winners of the soph. class competition 2
If you are the winner of the school competition 3
State and national contestants will recite their poems in rounds, not consecutively, with each student reciting one poem in each round.

WHEN WILL POETRY RECITATIONS TAKE PLACE?
You must be prepared to recite before your class by December 7.

Sophomore class recitations will be done on January 6
The recitation assembly will take place in the middle of January.
Regional contests will take place in mid to late February
The State contest will take place on Saturday, March 13th in Madison.
The National contest will take place on April 26th and 27th in Washington D.C.

WHERE MUST I FIND A POEM?
All poems MUST come from the online anthology at the Poetry Out Loud website: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems/

HOW WILL I BE JUDGED?
In the classroom, you will be judged by your peers and your teacher. You will be evaluated on the following elements:

• Physical Presence
• Voice and Articulation
• Appropriateness of Dramatization
• Level of Difficulty
• Evidence of Understanding
• Overall Performance
• Accuracy

Please visit the following web address for full details about each of these criteria: http://www.poetryoutloud.org/students/checklist.html

********************END OVERVIEW*******************
After we discussed the overview of the Poetry Out Loud project, we looked at a video so you could see the contest in action.

CLASS NOTES:

No class notes for today.

HOMEWORK FOR NEXT CLASS:

1. Find a poem to memorize on the Poetry Out Loud website
2. Print it out
3. Join the class wikispace.  There is a link at the top of this page.