MARCH MADNESS POETRY TOURNAMENT

• We will be reading and briefly analyzing two poems a day
• You will vote on your favorite
• We will return to the winning poems, doing a deeper analysis each time

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Winner!

March Madness

Poetry Tournament

VOTE HERE

Round 1: Speaker, Occasion, Structure

• Speaker: What do we know about the person speaking? Consider age, gender, race, nationality, location, emotional state, desires, etc.
• Occasion: What is the situation behind the poem? Are they describing a specific experience or place? What has happened in the past or what is happening that brought on this speech? Is it directed to a specific audience? Is it a more general reflection?
• Structure: How are the lines broken up? Are there stanzas? Is there a rhyme scheme? Do you notice shifts based on chunks of meaning?

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D1/2 Padlet

A2 Padlet

B2 Padlet

Round 2: Language

• Imagery: Describe the imagery in the poem (consider the various senses) and the reactions the images evoke.
• Diction: Consider levels of formality, connotation and denotation of words, patterns of types of words, etc.
• Syntax: Look at the sentence structure. Are they writing in complete sentences? Are they simple, compound, complex, etc.? Are they interrogative, declarative, or exclamatory? Where are there caesuras (pauses) and what type of punctuation are they using? How does this slow down or speed up the lines? What ideas or words are emphasized by these structures? Do you see specific structures like anaphora, polysyndeton, antithesis, etc.?

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Round 3: Tone and Theme

• Tone: What tone(s) do you see in the poem? To find this, consider what the poet’s attitude is toward what is being described. Use your tone word list to help you describe it. What language creates the tone(s)?
• Theme: What is the theme, or message, of the poem? Try to make it a full sentence as precise as you can be while still saying in the realm of universal insights or observations about our world and the people in it.

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Link to Tone Word List Link to Theme Handout

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FOR THE BULLETIN BOARD:

Do Now: March Madness Poetry Tournament

Round 1:

Read the poems and answer the questions on Padlet.

We will discuss and then vote!

THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS

BY ROBERT HAYDEN

A STORY

BY LI YOUNG LEE

Do Now: March Madness Poetry Tournament

Round 1:

Read the poems and answer the questions on Padlet.

We will discuss and then vote!

WE GROW ACCUSTOMED TO THE DARK

BY EMILY DICKINSON

Do Now: March Madness Poetry Tournament

Round 1:

Read the poems and answer the questions on Padlet.

We will discuss and then vote!

GOOD HAIR�BY SHERMAN ALEXIE

TWO WORLDS�BY PAT MORA

GUIDELINES�LISA SUHAIR MAJAJ

MAYA ANGELOU

WOMEN�BY ALICE WALKER

EROS

BY ROBERT BRIDGES

EROS

ANNE STEVENSON

A BARRED OWL

BY RICHARD WILBUR

THE HISTORY TEACHER�BY BILLY COLLINS

ONE ART�BY ELIZABETH BISHOP

IN BLACKWATER WOODS�BY MARY OLIVER

Interactive Tournament Bracket Instructions

1. Insert text or images that represent your content in the outer two columns of the bracket. (Delete or leave-blank the cells or rows you don’t need.)
2. Hyperlink your content to websites or other information to make your bracket more interactive.
3. Create a Google form to be used as a voting ballot, like this one.
4. Link the Form to “Vote Here”.
5. For automatic vote counting, link your Form to a Google sheet, by clicking on “Choose Response Destination” in the “Responses” menu and selecting “Create a new spreadsheet”.
6. To use the same form for each round of voting:
1. Unlink the form after the first round of voting.
2. Change the voting options on the Google form to reflect the next match-up.
3. Re-link the form by selecting “Choose Response Destination” in the “Responses” menu and select, “Choose existing spreadsheet”. (Your existing spreadsheet will automatically add a new tab each time you do this.
7. Move your winners and voting link each time a voting round has ended!

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