There will be a multitude of poems in the poetry packet, and this packet will be for both juniors and seniors.  Within the packet, there will be two groups of poems:  one set of Shakespearean sonnets and the other set of contemporary free verse poems.

The juniors and seniors will be divided into small groups.  Each group will be assigned one poem from the packet.  Junior groups will be initially responsible for the sonnets; senior groups will be initially responsible for the free verse poems.  Each group will develop a “presentation” on the poem they’ve been assigned.  After these “presentations” have been posted on-line through the Collaboratory, everyone will be required to post responses to any of the poems from the packet.

On-Line Group “Presentation” Project—Due by July 31, 2004

1. First of all, you must meet with your other group members.  You can do this in person, over the phone, or on-line.  Once your group is determined, meet with those people and exchange contact information to make plans.
2. On your own, read the poem many, many, many, many, many times and look up words you don’t know!  (Seniors:  Try that color marking thing!)
3. Then, as a group, develop an interpretation of the poem you’ve been assigned.  Your interpretation should not be a summary of the poem; rather your interpretation should make a statement about theme and a judgment of that theme.  To defend your interpretation, you should touch on some/most of the following:

o       patterns you find in the poem and how they connect to each other

o       imagery (and how the imagery affects your emotions (mood))

o       word choices

o       tone and mood and how they are developed

o       structure (where line breaks happen, where shifts happen, how the words lay out on the page, how words are ordered)

o       how the poem begins and ends

o       who the speaker of the poem is and who the speaker is speaking to (and why)

o       symbols that might be in the poem

4. Type up a 3+ paragraph explanation of your interpretation and post it on the IB Literature Discussion Board.  The poem will appear on the Collaboratory in the discussion board.  Click on the title and post your “presentation” as a reply to the poem.  (Directions for this appear on back.)  When you post your presentation, include the first name and last initial of all the presenters in the group.

Your group presentation must be posted by July 31, 2004. This doesn’t mean you should sit down at 11 pm on July 31 to do this because if it goes wrong or doesn’t work and you start crying, oh well.  Post BEFORE July 31 if at all possible.

On-Line Poetry Responses—Due by August 31, 2004

1. First of all for this:  Read all the poems in your packet (not just the one you have to do for your presentation).  Find a few to fall in love with (or fall in hate with) and grapple with them.  Look up words you don’t know.  Tell them to your dog.  Rail about them over the phone to your friends.  Sleep with them under your pillow.  Color them with highlighters.  And so on.
2. Then AFTER JULY 31 AND BEFORE AUGUST 31, go on-line and see what the presentation groups have had to say about the poems you are most intrigued by.  ANY POEM IS FAIR GAME (sonnets OR free verse; it doesn’t matter what year you are).
3. RESPOND.  EVERYONE MUST RESPOND AT LEAST ONCE TO 6 DIFFERENT POEMS, and SENIORS, you must reply 3 or more times to 2 of these 6 poems.  If, for some reason, no one has posted a presentation to a poem, you may start the conversation about it.  Ideally, you will respond more than once to the poems you’re most interested in and create a conversation about those poems with your peers.  If you so desire, one of these poems can be the poem you presented on; however, your presentation doesn’t count as 1 of your 6 responses. 

      [To say this in another way:

o       Juniors must respond a minimum of 6 times total, one response each to 6 different poems.

o       Seniors must respond a minimum of 10 times total, one response each to 4 different poems, and 4 responses each to 2 different poems.  (You want to do more?  Can we say “extra credit”?)]

You must post your responses by August 31, 2004. YOU SHOULD NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO DO THIS.  Use other posting dates for other assignments (like those you’ll be doing for Palace Walk, for instance) as times to work on posting your responses so that you are not sitting down to do all your responses at the 11^th hour.

Below is a partial repeat of the instructions you received about the Collaboratory on June 9.  For full instructions about any and all of the summer work (juniors and seniors), please visit Ms. Spachman’s website starting June 23:  http://s.spachman.tripod.com/home.htm.   There will be a link on the main page that says “IB Summer Reading.”  This link will take you to all the assignments and instructions you might need.

Feature:  Curie IB Literature Discussion Board

1. Once you’re logged in, click on the orange-ish “Messages” button at the top of the page.
2. Then click on the link “forums” that now also appears near the top of the page.
3. Scroll down to find “Curie IB Literature Discussion Board.”  Click on that link.
4. The new page will load a list of topics you can respond to in the discussion board.  Topics with the newest responses will appear at the top.  The “Originator” column tells you which person started the topic.  This will be especially important for mentors to notice when they need to respond to a posting by one of their mentees.
5. To view a topic, click on the topic.  If you want to post to a particular poem, just look for the title of the poem.
6. To reply to a topic, all you need to do is click the “reply” link within the topic you want to respond to.  Once you’re done typing your response, click “DONE!”  ONLY CLICK THIS ONCE.