English 10 Term One Project: Poet’s Worth Knowing

  As you know, our final project for the semester will be the completion of a web based literary magazine.  One of the sections of the magazine will be called ‘Poet’s Worth Knowing’ and it will be made up of your group’s articles on a poet you think is worth knowing.

Project description: You will be researching a poet of your choosing (the work you did in your poet logs will help you) to put together a web page “article”.  The article will be in the form of a web page and it will include biographical information on the poet, your reflections on their poetry, and one poem that you feel is the best sample of the poet’s work, or that you like best.

Project Outline -- This project has 4 parts:
1) Researching the poet you choose.
2) The creation of a web page “article”.
3) Oral presentation displaying your web page “article” and sharing your thoughts on the poet.
4) Essay (The completed biographical essay from the web page handed in for evaluation; paragraphs 1 – 6 below.  This will be evaluated separately as other essays).

Class Schedule for Completing Tasks 1, 2, 3 and 4:
March 3 – 5 – Homework: Decide on one poet from your completed logs and begin collecting biographical information from the internet, encyclopedias, books, etc.  Check out paragraphs one through six for details on what information to look for.
March 17-- Working in class to write the biographical essay.
March 18, 19 & 20 – Working in the lab to create the web page.  This will include how to make a web page, setting up a folder to keep your web page work, and typing your essay into the web page.
March  24 --27 – Oral presentations.

What information do I need for the biographical essay?
You are going to write a biographical essay on the poet you choose.  You should locate the following information, using books and/or the Internet, and organize it in paragraph form using your own words (no plagiarism please!):

Paragraph one (Introduction): Introduce the poet you will be discussing and why you chose them, make some comments on them as poets and explain why they are a ‘poet worth knowing’ (remember your audience).  Don’t forget your thesis; it should be one sentence that includes your topic (poet) and your opinion on him/her as a poet.

Paragraph two (Basic information): Poet’s given name, name they go by if different, birth date and birthplace, what poems/books/etc. the poet is best known for, their genre of poetry, and who their audience appears to be (teens, adults, children, etc.), their date of death, if applicable, and how they died.

Paragraph three (The poet’s background): When did they begin writing poetry? Where did they go to school? Are they well educated?  Are they married? Do they have any children? Do they write anything other than poetry?  Do they have any famous connections (with other poets, other writers, actors or actresses)? Did they have any life altering experiences (breakdowns, loss of loved ones, serious illness, etc.)? Are there any other interesting facts about them?

Paragraph four (The poet’s accomplishments): What is the poet’s most recently published/produced work?  What are the titles of some of their best works (books, albums, etc.)?  Have they received any awards for their work?

Paragraph five (the poet’s poetry): This is your final say on the poet.  Offer your own reflections.  What do you really think of the poet’s poetry?  What stands out most about this poet’s poetry/lyrics?  Does the poet use figurative language effectively? Imagery? Is the language itself (word choice) effective?  Is it the message of the poems, or the topics the poet chooses that is/are interesting? – BE SURE TO EXPLAIN YOUR THOUGHTS IN THIS PARAGRAPH IN AS MUCH DETAIL AS YOU CAN!

Paragraph six (conclusion): Wrap up your essay!  What final thoughts/reflections do you want to leave your reader with about this poet?  How might you motivate them to read this poet’s poetry? 

What do I put in the web page “article”?
I will teach you the basics of building a web page if you don’t already know.  What to include in this page is simple:

1) Type the essay you’ve written with all the information you’ve collected.
2) Include at least one picture of the poet, and images of any items related to the poet that might be interesting to your audience.
3) Include one poem that you feel is the best sample of the poet’s work, or that you like best.  With this poem include:  why you like it (You should comment on several of the following: imagery, figurative language, language of the poem in general, the rhythm or rhyme, topic, why you like the topic, why the topic is interesting, why you chose it over other poems).  This is a separate paragraph outside of the essay and is to be include below the poem.
4) Credit the sources you used to write your article.  A section of your web page should be called ‘Resources’ and must include the resources you used to gather your information.  These should be links to web pages you used and citations on the books you used, if any.  You can visit the following sites for help writing proper citations for the books you use  --                                  

http://www.noodletools.com/quickcite/   

http://www.easybib.com/

In addition, at the top of the page you should include the poet’s name as the title, an interesting sub-title if you want to be creative, and your name underneath as the author.

Web page specifics:  It should be nice to look at, easy to read (be careful when picking backgrounds and font colors – light colored, simple backgrounds are usually best), utilize different fonts in appropriate areas, appeal to your audience, and include graphics.

What do I have to do for the Oral Presentation?
Your oral presentation will consist of you sharing, with the class, the “article” you created.  Oral presentations begin March 24^th and run to the 27^th.  Your name will be drawn randomly and you will be assigned a number as to when you present. On March 20th you will submit, on a piece of loose leaf, the following information: your name, your presentation date, the title of the poet you chose, and the partner working with you to operate the computer during your presentation.

Presentation dates

March 24 – numbers 1 – 8               March 26 – numbers 16 – 22

March 25 – numbers 9 – 15              March 27 – numbers 23 – 30 and any carryovers.

How should I prepare for the oral presentation?
1) Make up cue cards to help you organize what you will say.  You do not want to be reading off of the screen; you want to be speaking to the audience (worth up to 5 pts.).
2) Practice eye contact, you may choose to look at the back wall, or a friend, or me.
3) Practice your voice – be sure to speak loud enough and don’t speak too quickly.
4) Organization is the best key to a good presentation.  Be sure you know what you’re saying and when.

How Will I be Evaluated?
The following evaluation form will be used to evaluate your web page and oral presentation.