Poetry Presentation ProjectMs. Tan/English 9

Components• Visual (PowerPoint) - 25

• Presentation - 10

• Delivery - 10

• Turn in - 5

• Total = 50 points

Visual• Informational slide: your name, poem title, poet’s name • Include a slide featuring a brief poet biography: four

key facts about the poet • Include a slide with vocabulary words or explained

allusions • Include a slide that describes your summary and

interpretation (what you think poem is about) of the poem

• Show a copy of the poem to the class • Animated annotations of at least three poetic devices • A Poem Chart of your three poetic devices and the

theme of the poem

Presentation• Read the poem aloud to the class • Point out accurate examples of at least three poetic

devices • Develop a strong theme of the poem • Explain how the three poetic devices contributes to

the theme of the poem • You must present on the day you sign up for, or

else you will suffer a penalty of 10% or a zero • Between two to four minutes long

Delivery• Read the poem with emotion, paying attention to

the punctuations of the poem. • Your voice must be projected throughout the

classroom, not mumbled behind your notes. • You must have eye contact with your audience. • You must be dressed in business casual attire (a

“nice” top over jeans is fine). • You are encouraged to use notecards, but you

should not simply read from them.

Turn in

• Your original poem, annotated • A handwritten Poem Chart (worksheet)

Sample Presentation

Billy Collins• A Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of

the City University of New York, where he has worked for over thirty years.

• He is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003

• In 2002, he read his poem “The Names” in a special session of Congress to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 attacks

• He instituted the program Poetry 180 (one poem per day of school) to encourage high school student to read more poetry.

Billy Collins• A Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of

the City University of New York, where he has worked for over thirty years.

• He is an American poet, appointed as Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003

• In 2002, he read his poem “The Names” in a special session of Congress to commemorate the victims of the 9/11 attacks

• He instituted the program Poetry 180 (one poem per day of school) to encourage high school student to read more poetry.

Definitions

• “Introduction to Poetry” is an allusion to names of classes in college.

• A color slide is an old version of placing images on film, and a projector to enlarge the photo.

Summary and Interpretation

• The poem is spoken from the point of view of a professor who wants his students to view poetry in a certain way: fun and full of discovery.

• However, his students only see poetry as painful, and instead they “torture” answers out of it.

“Introduction to Poetry” Billy Collins I ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the light like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem 5and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem 10waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose 15to find out what it really means.

simile

imagery

metaphor

imagery

personification

personification

metaphor

tone change

Poetic Device, Quote, Line # Interpretation Theme

speaker, the whole poem

The speaker is a teacher or professor, explaining how he wants students to feel about poetry.

Poetry is meant to be discovered

with joy, and not a painful task.

simile“like a color slide” (line 3)

Has a positive connotation of

discovery.

metaphor, “waterski across the surface of a poem” (9-10)

Has a positive connotation of

fun.

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180

(except #1)

Google “Poetry 180”