Poetry Explication Project

AP Literature 2013 Carter

For the past few weeks, you have been reading and taking notes on the basic elements of poetry from our textbook, Perrines Literature: Structure, Sound & Sense. In order to get more practice explicating and analyzing poetry, you and a partner will choose two poems to explicate and teach to the class.

Project Specifications
This project will require both independent and partner work. Choose to work with someone who will help you be successful. The focus here should be on academics, not on CHS BFF drama.

Independently, please:
1. 2. 3. 4. read pages 46-51 from your textbook to review an example poetry explication paper and a poetry analysis paper. read the two poetry explication handouts (one from Duke University, the other from UNC). Pay particular attention to the Preparing to Write the Explication section on the UNC handout. review the Designing AP Passage Questions handout. write your own explication of ONE of the poems you and your partner choose. (THIS STEP WILL BE DONE AS YOU AND YOUR PARTNER PLAN AND DISCUSS YOUR PROJECT.) This essay should demonstrate your breadth of knowledge about poetry devices and structure, as well as your depth of thinking to produce a quality explication/analysis. a. This should be something that you write INDEPENDENTLY, even though you may discuss the poem in detail together. b. This explication should be no more than 3 pages and must explain the poets point/message/theme and address the techniques he/she uses to convey that message. (Address literary devices AND structural elements.) c. In your introduction, be specific and give basic context. You MUST identify title, poet, and the type of poem you are writing about: continuous, stanzaic, or fixed (if fixed, name the type). i. DUE DATE: Your paper is due the day you and your partner present. ii. Format: You should format according to MLA guidelines; however, I would like for you to REPRINT the poem before you begin your explication. While the rest of the paper should be double spaced, I would like for you to single-space the poem. Include line numbers as well. If you dont know how to do this on

the computer, do them by hand. Use the line numbers for parenthetical citations within the paper, like this (11-12). iii. Useful links: Sources that may help you write your poetry explication paper: 1. Purdue Owl: MLA Formatting Quotations: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/ (Use the / appropriately when citing lines from your poem in the paper.) 2. Poetry Terms: http://www.poeticbyway.com/glossary.html (There are MANY others. This is just one source.)

With your partner, please:

5. choose two poems to read, explicate/analyze, and then teach to the class. You must get approval from me before you can proceed to the next step. a. Caveats: i. Both poems must be of literary merit. While you may choose these poems, I must give you approval before you begin planning and working with them. If you need guidance, I will have a list of suggested poets for you in class. ii. One poem must have been written before 1900; the other must have been written after 1900. iii. You may not choose an overdone poem from your younger years as a student (i.e. The Road Not Taken). The poem should be fresh for the class. You may not choose a poem that has already been explicated in the textbook. The poems that are part of the introductory essays are off limits; choose poems that follow the Reviewing the chapter textboxes. explicate each poem and create teaching materials. This step will require some word processing, and there are no labs available for us at school. Try to plan so that at least one of you could bring a computer. I may have two to lend. a. Annotate on the physical poems (print copies for you and your partner, and show me that the two of you have annotated and discussed the poems). b. Create multiple-choice and short-answer questions for your poems. These can be done in any order: i. Create at least 4 AP-style multiple-choice questions and answers. The distracters or wrong answer should be good quality. ii. Create at least 10 short-answer questions (you may get ideas from any handouts you have received in class or from the textbook). You may provide the answers to the class, or you may require the class to come up with the answers as you teach. Regardless, you must have (and turn in) an answer key. c. Create a teaching handout for EACH poem. That means you will create TWO. i. Handouts are due the A day before you present. You will assign the multiple-choice section of the handouts to the class as homework to be completed before your presentation. ii. The handout should have a title or header section that tells the name of the poem and the author, as well as your names (you and your partner). iii. The poem should be reprinted at the top of the handout for reference. (Think about how poems are printed before multiple-choice questions on the exam.) Try to number the lines. (You can do this by hand if you cant format them on the computer.) iv. Following the reprinted poem, you should print the multiple-choice questions. When you teach, you will begin by reviewing the answers the multiple choice questions that participants did for homework the night before. v. Following the multiple-choice questions, you should print the short answer questions. You will use the short answer questions to guide the class through an explication/analysis of the poem. This section will be the bulk of your presentation. vi. End with a section that offers guided practice for creating an introductory statement and thesis. a. The first sentence should answer the questions What is the poem about? and What is it saying about that subject? Require that participants complete a stem like this: In the poem ____, the author, _____, suggests [or insert another explication verb here] ______________________________________________________. b. Have students add a second sentence or continue the statement by addressing the question How is the meaning communicated? (structure and literary devices) Participants should add another sentence to the thesis that answers that question.

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present your poems to the class. The day before you present, you will need to bring handouts for each participant. Homework will be for participants to read the poems and answer the MC questions. I can make copies for you ahead of time, but I will need the original and copy paper 2 A days before your handouts are due. Presentations will be limited to NO MORE THAN 40 minutes.

Grading
You will be graded as a group on your handouts/materials (2 minor grades for your initial annotations, 2 minor grades for each teaching handout) and your presentation (1 holistic major grade). You will be graded independently on your explication paper (1 holistic major grade). You will have SEVERAL workdays in class. I will count your on-task work ethic as another minor grade as well.

Due Dates
We may need to adjust due dates, but for now, plan to begin presentations on March 15th. As we get closer to that time, we will do a drawing for presentation order.