1. Bellringer Sept 17 and 18
This will be submitted. Write your name and date on it at the top. You don’t need to write the question.
Students are given tests which measure their abilities quite often – the SRI, PSAT, DCAS (now SBAC)…
How do you think all these tests and their results should be used? Explain your opinion please.
P.S. – the tests aren’t going anywhere until the political climate changes and businesses start seeing employees coming out of school prepared to actually do their jobs with the proper reading, writing, and thinking abilities.

2. What you will turn in today
From last class
Poem for two voices with PARAGRAPH response
song assignment
From today
Bellringer and ticket out

3. Find three songs from the last thirty years about growing up.
Song Assignment:
Find three songs from the last thirty years about growing up.
Determine which song would fit into an anthology of poems which included “If” and “Fifteen” for both its style and its theme.
Write a forward (a paragraph which goes in front of the song) which defends the song’s inclusion based on the songwriter’s use of literary elements developing the theme.
DO THIS ON A PIECE OF LOOSE LEAF PAPER AND STAPLE TO THE COMPARE/CONTRAST HANDOUT

4. Preview: Drafting part of the unit project
You will have a total of 26 entries for this project by the end of the unit.
The first section covers 7 of those entries.
Lesson 1 - Letters A-G:
You must have:
1 - song analysis. Include a verse and the refrain (chorus) and analysis based on the lesson
1- original poem using the style elements from this lesson
1 - example of an entry using rhyme meaningfully
1 - example of an entry using personification
3 - entries of your choosing, but that reflect the components of lesson

5. Honors requirement
Each section of your project must have one or two entries which reflect on Song of Solomon.
These entries must show an meaningful interaction with the text.
I will be googling your entries to see if you are showing independent thought or if you are just regurgitating somebody else.

6. Modelling the unit project
A – Analysis of Song (I would analyze the song I used for the assignment. As a matter of fact, I might revise my draft of the assignment to make sure that I did analyze how the songwriter created the theme. )
B – Being Bowe (my attempt at using meaningful rhyme in a poem – you don’t have to have an A B rhyme scheme – it just has to use rhyme meaningfully.
My name wasn’t always Mrs. Bowe;
I once had a different identity.
The thought of changing it made me think “Oh no!”
But then I had a piece of serenity.
Changing my name didn’t change my face,
my thoughts, my likes, my hates.
Changing my name didn’t change my place
my car, my clothes, my fate.
I changed it to marry a man
who has proven rock solid all along
to marry this man, of whom I’m a fan
who has made my heart chirp a song.
So while my name wasn’t always Mrs. Bowe,
I’m glad today that it is.
It’s been 14 long years, as we both know,
and I’m glad that I took his.

7. C – Carrying on with the Dog (okay – this is supposed to be my original poem which uses elements from the lesson. I need to work on this draft a bit more to get in personification and some of the other elements.)
He carries on with the dog, frolicking and dancing
He carries on with the dog, jumping and barking
He carries on with the dog, leaping and shouting
They have so much fun that’s it difficult to tell
Which one is the dog and which one is the boy.
D – Daring Book of Mine. (Use of personification in an entry – not all your entries need to be poetry, but most of them should for this first section of the project. If you write prose, try to be poetic in your prose)
This daring book I am reading creeps into my mind when I’m least expecting it. The characters are so wrong! The plot seems so weird. The book leaps into my brain like a ballerina on the stage performing a grotesque move which seems impossible. It might be the author’s song this book is singing while it dances but the characters seems to lack both the wisdom and the love of the book it references. Song of Solomon – it should be a love poem. Song of Solomon – it should be wise. This book attacks my squeamishness, flaying open my sense of what people should do and shouldn’t. I recognize the honesty this book has as violence occurs and racism occurs and loving the wrong person occurs (all the time). Yet does such a lovely name belong on such a harsh book? It seems almost like a betrayal – at least, up through chapter 4 it does.

8. E – (I need to think about an E – maybe I’ll write an entry about this project and use more personification in it)
F – (I need to think about an F – maybe I’ll write an entry about how much fun it is to ride a motorcycle and use lots of imagery in it. Not drive a motorcycle, but ride one. No, I can’t drive a motorcycle yet.)
G – Growing up (hey – notice how I worked in repetition? Specifically ANAPHORA? And I tried to work in a balance with coordinating conjunctions?)
Even though I’ve finished my growing up a long, long time ago – well, maybe not that long ago – I feel like I’m still a kid. Just yesterday I was in 10th grade. Just yesterday I was in driver’s ed. Just yesterday I was graduating high school and college. Just yesterday I was standing in front of my first class ever, teaching something or other – it all kind of blends. So when do you master growing up? It’s more than just paying bills or shopping for food or cleaning the house. When do you feel like you’re the expert and that yes, you are the grown up. Perhaps it’s when you start having to be responsible for those who are younger or weaker than you. Perhaps it’s when you start seeing the patterns in life and recognize what is most likely going to happen next. Perhaps it’s when you realize that other people exist and have other perspectives and desires. Perhaps it’s when you recognize that the world does not revolve around you, no matter how much you wish it did.

9. You try it Individually and without talking
Choose one of the categories from the first part.
Write a poem about yourself, your life, or your thoughts on something.
Try modelling it after “If” or “Fifteen” if you are stuck for including literary devices.

10. PSAT – Oct 15
Here is your practice booklet. I only have enough to give the students who have 10th grade credit.
However, that won’t stop those of you who are working towards catching up!
Go to
Click on the link for PSAT practice.

11. You Try It! On the handout, try answering the questions.
If you get stuck, make a mark next to the words or concepts that have you stuck.
Wait quietly for your classmates to finish.
(so if you’re talking, I’m going to send you to time out)

12. Ticket out Write your name and today’s date on the ticket out.
What is one area for the PSAT that you know you really need to improve? What’s your plan for improving it?