Happy New Year! OH. I guess we did that two days ago. Well, it’s a new year for us. Let’s get some learning done.

Do Now What is poetry? Have you ever written a poem of your own?

Information  Journals due by Friday - prompt and freewrite  18 Days until Midterm - counts for 10% of the 2 nd M.P. Grade - covers everything for the first half

Journals 1. Many people make new year resolutions; what do you plan to do in 2011? Explain. (20pts) 2. Free Write (10pts)

Abscond - (v.) To run off and hide Synonyms - bolt, skip town Antonyms - stay, remain

Access - (n.) The right to enter (v.) To obtain or achieve Synonyms - (n.) admission, entry (v.) approach Antonym - exclusion

Do Now What is poetry? Have you ever written a poem of your own?

Some rules for Poetry:  Poems don’t have to be boring!  Poems don’t have to rhyme.  Poems can be any length.  Poems can be about ANYTHING!

Tony Went to the Bodega but He Didn’t Buy Anything By: Martin Espada Tony's father left the family and the Long Island city projects, leaving a mongrel-skinny puertorriqueño boy nine years old who had to find work. Makengo the Cuban let him work at the bodega. In grocery aisles he learned the steps of the dry-mop mambo, banging the cash register like piano percussion in the spotlight of Machito's orchestra, polite with the abuelas who bought on credit, practicing the grin on customers he'd seen Makengo grin with his bad yellow teeth. Tony left the projects too, with a scholarship for law school. But he cursed the cold primavera in Boston; the cooking of his neighbors left no smell in the hallway. and no one spoke Spanish (not even the radio). So Tony walked without a map through the city, a landscape of hostile condominiums and the darkness of white faces, sidewalk-searcher lost till he discovered the projects. Tony went to the bodega but he didn't buy anything: he sat by the doorway satisfied to watch la gente (people island-brown as him) crowd in and out, hablando español, thought: this is beautiful, and grinned his bodega grin. This is a rice and beans success story: today Tony lives on Tremont Street, above the bodega.

Some Questions to think about…  What is a bodega?  What obstacle(s) was Tony faced with?  What words can we use to describe Tony?  Why do you think Tony returned to the bodega?  How did this experience change or add to his identity?

Time to try your own poem  Complete the worksheet - this is information needed to do your poem  After completing the worksheet - create your poem - may use the computer - may hand draw items on paper