American Odyssey

Join your classmates to go on a journey around America, learning about its poets and their poems

Welcome to American Odyssey, an opportunity to study 6 American poets in depth. For this unit, you will work with 3 or 4 students in your class and form an imaginary traveling team who will explore America learning about these poets. Your group will stop to make 6 small group presentations along the journey's way to share with classmates what you are learning.

1. Once your small group is formed, choose your personas--how your group will travel through the United States to study about your poets. Your group may decide to travel as train hobos ala Steinbeck or in a unique car, truck, or van suited to your group's tastes. Consider some of the following American vehicles for your group's use:

            1959 pink Cadillac convertible with fins
            an ice cream truck that plays "My Favorite Things" when it turns a corner
            a black hearse, most recently used as a Godfather's Pizza delivery
                        vehicle
            steel gray truck formerly used as a Brinks security vehicle
            2 tone Chevy Bel-Air with fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror
            Bookmobile on the lam from the Jefferson County Library
            Oscar Mayer Weinermobile
            double-decker bus last used for giving tours of New Orleans
            yellow Checkered Cab
            Batmobile
            Partridge Family bus
            1996 Chevy S-10 pick-up splashed with mud
            Hummer
            orange Plymouth Duster
            1955 white Thunderbird with candy apple red interior
            1980 full-size station wagon with faux wood panels
            a set of Harleys with sidecars
            cab from an 18-wheeler
            reconditioned US Postal Service local delivery truck with steering
                wheel on the right side of the vehicle
            Amphicar (half car/half boat)
            a set of COWasaki motorcycles

You might choose to travel in an old by-plane (well, the seating would be tight) or a World War I fighter plane. Your transportation mode needs to have a uniquely American flavor to it and reflect your group's personalities somehow. Find a picture in a book, magazine, or on the internet of your group's vehicle.

2. Make a flag or pennant to take along on your odyssey. Each group chooses its favorite poet and makes a pennant with the poet's name and at least six symbols of his or her life. Since this pennant will be seen in public, take time to make it look professional: clip art, very neat printing, color, photos, your poet's name in large, clear letters. These pennants will reside on the classroom wall.

3. In class, check the presentation chart to find out which days your group will present and about the presentation requirements each day.

4. Make a map of the places you'll visit on your American Odyssey. Starting from Birmingham, calculate how your group would get to the hometown or primary city of residence for your poet. If your poet moved or traveled a great deal, you may have several places to map out. On some white space on your map, add the drawing or photo of your team's vehicle and a picture of your group, dressed for the journey. See Mrs. Adams for a camera.

Check the internet and try to find out information about the primary city of residence. Does the town have a special library or museum in featuring the poet's work? If so, send request some materials be sent to you to share with the class. Some folks actually take time out on vacations to visits the homes and museums of poets and writers.

5. Before you begin your journey across America learning about your poet, be ready to present your pennant, your map, and a group-written poem about your team and their unusual vehicle. Warming up your sharp-as-an-eagle poetic eyesight, please write your poem in ballad form and include alliteration, personification, a rhyming couplet, and a metaphor in your poem. Check out the class web page on ballads and how to write them.

5. You will be teaching the class about the poet and his/her poems. Each group member should read about the poet's life from a different source and report their findings on the front and back of a 5" x 7" card. Include bibliographic information about the sources.

6. On 6 days agreed upon by the class, each group will "teach" a poem to the class. Each day's presentations will require a different type of effort on the group's part.

7. Before your group presents on any given day, be sure you've read, studied, and analyzed the poem to be presented. Every person in your group will have a responsibility in this analysis so that each of the following elements in your selected poem is addressed. In literature circles, everyone had a job for each discussion. Your small group, in a way, is a poetry circle group. For each day, you should divide the responsibilities this way:

Rotate the team jobs for each presentation. I am expecting a notebook page of notes from each team member for each presentation to ensure individual accountability.

8. Before the first day's presentations, your group should give Mrs. Adams sort of "critic's review" sheet so that students can offer feedback on the effectiveness of the poetry presentation. The "critic's review" form should shadow your traveling personas. for example, the traveling hobos might have their feedback forms be faded Campbell's Pork and Bean can labels. [Draw a facsimile label or photocopy the real thing ]. A group traveling in a 1959 pink Cadillac might have their evaluation forms be a 1959 license plate. These evaluation forms should be able to contain as much writing as on a 3" x 5" index card. Make 25 copies of your form.

9. Each day, after all the presentations are completed, Mrs. Adams will pass out ONE of the sets of evaluation forms. Students will write a critic's review of the best presentation of the day using the language of poetry such as "effective metaphor," "emphasized the alliterative first words of each line," etc. We will end up using one set of each group's "critic review" forms for each presentation day.

10. Each group picks a poem by its author that fits the theme for the day best. You will be performing in front of the class ( so make sure it's a quality event!). You should have a copy of the day's poem for each student. Suggestion: Type your poem using 8 pt. font, try to fit several copies of the poem on a single sheet, ask one of group members to print off these sheets from a home computer. If you can fit 4 copies of the poem on a single sheet, you'll only need about 6 copies of the sheet.

Perform your poem with lots of moody backgrounds. Remember all the senses, and use them to set the tone of the poem. Music, scents, sound effects, backgrounds (painted cardboard, etc.), balloons, food, tactile images (poems written on sandpaper or fabric and handed out), lighting effects like strobe or slide projected backgrounds - all these can make your performance effective.

Present your poem and then "teach" the poem to the class. Each day's theme-finder in a group is responsible for coordinating the entire presentation.

Your group will make a talking statue formation that is the "soul" of your poem and recite it to the class.. Pose yourselves in a statuary group that tells us something about the poem. Recite the poem, using all the people in the group to say part(s) of the poem. Pause, and then do a frozen tableau - what is each character thinking or saying at that instant? Each "statue" should briefly unfreeze and explain what his/her role is in the poem. Have a decorated title placard in front of your tableau, giving the title, author, and group members.

You may recreate your poem in any art form. Read it to the class as a group, either as a choral reading or in individual sections. Show us how you represented the poem in an art form. You may use any media, but no two art forms in the group may be alike. Dioramas, posters, sculpture, water color, collages, etc. are all welcome. Each member must complete a project. Each team member is responsible for artistically representing the poem and showing it to the class.

Your group will act out a poem, using props and costumes as necessary. Make your poem come alive. You may use sound effects, costumes, dramatic entrances and exits, and lots of color to give your poem some flair!

Find a poem that the poet wrote that would be exceptionally appropriate at a ceremony of some kind (wedding, funeral, graduation, bat/bar mitzvah, kick-off dinner for new business, inauguration, etc.). With the members of your group, stage the ceremony, including the speeches that would be made by those attending the ceremony. Include the poem in your ceremony.

Choose a poem by your poet that works well with multiple voices. A readers theatre presentation can utilize no real acting. Only the voices can carry the message of the poem. Often, a readers theatre group will dress in the same color or style of clothes (example: white t-shirts and blue jeans) to appear as a UNIT when presenting. Your group cannot move once the readers theatre presentation begins, except to raise your head (if you decide to start out with bowed heads). You can speak as single voices, duets, trios, or whole groups. Decide how the particular speakers in your group work well and use the voices to best effect in presenting the poem.

Resources
Visit the Alabama Virtual Library for online poetry databases. www.avl.lib.al.us If you do not have your AVL library card yet, visit the high school librarians who can set up an account for you.

Evaluation:
Here is a general rubric I use to evaluate the small group presentations. I adapt it slightly to meet particular days' presentations.

American Odyssey Traveling Team Poem Presentations
(General Rubric—Each presentation theme day’s rubric will be specific to the day’s task.

Traveling Team Members: ____________________________________________________
Date: __________________ Period: ___________ Poet: ________________________
Poem Selection: ________________________________________

Selection	Poor 1	Fair 2	Average 3	Good 4	Superior 5
1. Significance and quality of material
2. Appropriate for speaker, audience, presentation theme
Introduction
1. Appropriate information
2. Conversational directness
3. Attention-getting device
Meaning
1. Communicated author's intended meaning
2. Accurate phrasing to convey meaning
3. Appropriate emphasis
4. Presentation follow-up “teaches” poem effectively
Tone
1. Communicated emotion the author intended
2. Communicated the climax
Voice
1. Pleasant , clear quality
2. Appropriate pitch level
3. Appropriate inflection and rate
4. Adequate volume
6. Clear articulation and pronunciation
Delivery
1. Readers physically poised and at ease
2. Unobtrusively handled scripts
3. Bodily action coordinated with thought and emotion
4. Adequate eye contact with audience
Total

"What am I supposed to be learning? It seems like a lot of work, Mrs. Adams ! What good will it do me?"

Each group will submit a folder with copies of their annotated poems and 2 multiple choice questions (with 4 answer choices) for each poem. These multiple choice questions should mirror questions found on the Alabama High School Graduation Exam or the SAT 1.

Each student will complete a group evaluation sheet much like the one we used for evaluating literature circle work. Keep all your notes pages from each presentation. I will sign each of these on presentation days, and then you'll turn them in with your project evaluation sheet at the end of the unit.

Thanks to the NCTE List Serv English teachers who suggested some of these ideas in April 2001 and October 2001. Special thanks to Gretchen Lee who allowed me to experiment with the presentation day themes she developed in April 2001 for another project and to Michelle Garbis, a master unit analyst.

visitors have accessed this page it first uploaded on 6-08-02
Last revised: 7-02-03

Introduction	Presentation Days
Task	Resources
Procedures	Evaluation
Conclusion	Credits
Ballads and How To Write One	Alabama Course of Study Skills in Unit

	Studyguide.org	A Web Site for Mrs. Adams' English Classes

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