Welcome! February 21th, 2016 Tuesday Do Now Find your seats! If you don’t remember where you sit, ask me. Grab a chromebook and log in. Open your Poetry Portfolio and begin working. No journal today – I want you to have as much time to work on your portfolios as possible 

Happy Slam! Even if you’re not finished editing your poems, worry about that later. For today, focus on your slam plan, because we’re going to have our slam after lunch! Here’s what you need to do for the first half of class. Write your slam plan. You can answer the prompts in paragraph or numbered form – however you want to organize it is fine.  Unless you have your poem memorized, you’ll probably need to re-write your poem on a sheet of paper to read from. When you rewrite your poem, you may want to make certain words larger than others to indicate volume, circle or underline phrases you want to emphasize, mark any pauses, ect. Practice! With a partner or by yourself, the best thing you can do to ensure a solid performance is to practice Make sure you write your name on a project outline and give it to me before lunch

Poetry Slam Be polite. Absolutely no talking while someone is performing – doing so will result in points taken off your performance grade. Clap after each performance – performing is difficult and each performer deserves your support  Don’t complain or hesitate when your name is called. EVERYONE has to go – it will be okay! If everyone takes five minutes of convincing to perform we won’t have time for everyone. If you take longer than three minutes to get on stage, I’ll have to move on to the next performance and you’ll get a zero – sorry!  We have to keep the slam moving. Most importantly, make sure you don’t forget your poetry plan! Include those pauses, volume changes, and emphases. You made that plan for a reason – use it!