Creative Writing Lesson Plan

“Perhaps then, someday in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. ” —Rainer Maria Riike, Letters To A Young Poet.

Welcome to Summer 2013 Creative Writing!

NOTE: YOU WILL SEE DOZENS OF ENTRIES ON THIS SITE ABOUT LITERATURE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. ONLY THOSE WITH THE CATEGORY “Creative Writing Summer 2013″ ARE REQUIRED FOR THIS CLASS. THE REST ARE RECOMMENDED READING.

This video shows, as one commenter said, how “poetry (like all art) is subjective… I may like Disturbed, you may like Lady Ga Ga, he may like Jack Johnson, she may like Bethoven. None of it is wrong. It’s art. An expression that can not be measured except by how it moves you. (or doesn’t move you).”
_____
Be sure to review the syllabus for this class. It can be found by CLICKING HERE or by using this link: http://youngpeoplespavilion.com/summer-2013-creative-writing-syllabus/
A few important reminders:

* Check this website regularly for class updates and material. If you have a question such as: “I missed class, can you tell me what we did and what is due?” … this website is the spot to find your answer.

Recommended Reading: Letters to a Young Poet, by
Rainer Maria Rilke

* Click on the “Creative Writing Summer 2013″ category below this post, and all class lesson plans (posted as of that date) will come up.

* This site will also be used for updates and announcements.
* Each class will include a 10 point “What I have learned in this class” assessment.
* All writing that will be graded must be submitted to me as a Microsoft Word Document. We will have time in class for you to transfer work from your flash drives.
* We have chosen certain texts that exemplify the craft of creative writing. If at any time a student/parent objects to any material used, I would be more than happy to accommodate by working together with all parties to choose an alternate text.
_____
In class today:
Class overview and syllabus review
Introductions
What is Poetry?
VIDEO: “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman (See: Summer 2013 Creative Writing Videos)

Assessments:
1) What I have learned in this class  (10 points) Due by end of class period 6/10/13.
2) There will be a quiz on Literary and Poetry Terminology  (25 points). It will be short answer and multiple choice. Given in class Wednesday, 6/12/2013.
3)  FIRST WRITING ASSIGNMENT: Write your own poem: (50 points). Due Friday, 6/14, 2013. (See: Summer 2013 Creative Writing Assignments)
_____
What is poetry?
SOURCE: http://www.poetry.org/whatis.htm
Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. It consists largely of oral or literary works in which language is used in a manner that is felt by its user and audience to differ from ordinary prose.

It may use condensed or compressed form to convey emotion or ideas to the reader’s or listener’s mind or ear; it may also use devices such as assonance and repetition to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poems frequently rely for their effect on imagery, word association, and the musical qualities of the language used. The interactive layering of all these effects to generate meaning is what marks poetry.
Because of its nature of emphasising linguistic form rather than using language purely for its content, poetry is notoriously difficult to translate from one language into another: a possible exception to this might be the Hebrew Psalms, where the beauty is found more in the balance of ideas than in specific vocabulary. In most poetry, it is the connotations and the “baggage” that words carry (the weight of words) that are most important. These shades and nuances of meaning can be difficult to interpret and can cause different readers to “hear” a particular piece of poetry differently. While there are reasonable interpretations, there can never be a definitive interpretation.

Click in this link http://www.poetry.org/whatis.htm to read more, including 

Nature of poetry

Sound in poetry

Poetry and form

Poetry and rhetoric

History of poetry

VIDEO: “Literary Devices” (See: Summer 2013 Creative Writing Videos)
TERMS:
1) figurative language
2) simile
3) metaphor
4) personification
5) hyperbole
6) alliteration
7) onomatopoeia
8) assonance
9) consonance
DEFINITIONS
1) communicates ideas beyond the ordinary, literal meaning of words
2) compares unrelated nouns, usually using the words “like” or “as”
3) an implied comparison that does not use the words like or as
4) giving human characteristics to inanimate objects, ideas, or animals
5) an exaggeration for the sake of emphasis, not to be taken literally
6) repetition of the initial letter or sound in two or more words in a line of verse
7) a word that represents or imitates natural sounds
8) the similarity or repetition of a vowel sound in two or more words
9) the repetition of final consonant sounds within a line of verse
HERE ARE A FEW EXAMPLES:
1)

• Alright, the sky misses the sun at night.
• Hear the mellow wedding bells. – Edgar Allen Poe
• Out of reach, I pull out with a screech.
• I move fast like a cheetah on the Serengeti.
• Her head was spinning from all the new information.
• The toast jumped out of the toaster.
• I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
• The Sea lashed out in anger at the ships, unwilling to tolerate another battle.
• The Redcoats are coming!
• I’ve told you a million times to clean your room!

2)
 A Red, Red Rose
O My Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June;
O My Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare thee weel, awhile!
And I will come again, my luve
Tho’ it ware ten thousand mile!

Robert Burns
1759-1796
Here are examples of  similie poems by Denise Rodgers:
Link: http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-simile-poems.html
3) One of the most prominent examples of a metaphor in English literature is the All the world’s a stage monologue from As You Like It:

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances; — William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7^[1]

This quote is a metaphor because the world is not literally a stage. By figuratively asserting that the world is a stage, Shakespeare uses the points of comparison between the world and a stage to convey an understanding about the mechanics of the world and the lives of the people within it.

_____

ThinkWave.com will be used for grading.