Becoming and Editor - Poetry Unit

7th Grade Language Arts and Literature

Becoming an Editor You and your partner have been selected to be guest editors for an anthology of poetry titled Poetry for Teens. As guest editors, you have been asked to submit five poems (total) for publication in the anthology. The criteria for selection is as follows:

The poem must be one that would appeal to a teenage audience.

All of the poems must have different authors. (However, these poems do not have to be written by "famous" poets.)
You must be able to explain WHY you selected each poem.

At least one of the poems has to be written before 1900.

All of the poems and explanations for selection will be reviewed by a panel of 8th grade language arts students. These students will select their three favorite poems. The guest editors will receive a "bonus" if one of their poems is selected by the panel of 8th graders.

To accomplish this task, you will need to start reading poetry. I have provided a listing of sites below. I would recommend cutting and pasting onto Microsoft Word the poem, author, and web site as you find poems that you are considering while you work.

Poet's Corner http://www.geocities.com/spanoudi/poems/index.html

It has a database of over 6,000 poems and over 700 poets! Very user-friendly, and a great place to get started.

The Poetry Archive http://www.emule.com/poetry

Another searchable database with over 3,000 poems and 145 different poets.

The Academy of American Poets http://www.poets.org/booth/booth.cfm

This site has a large database of poetry. It may be of particular interest to you because it has a “listening booth” where you can hear poems read, usually by the poet.

Poetry From All Over http://cmgm.stanford.edu/~ahmad/poetry.html

This site has poetry from several different cultures/languages including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, and Greek. (They have been translated into English.) It also has the dates the poet was alive, so it can give you a historical perspective as well.

A Poetry Index http://eserver.org/poetry/

You may read poetry from various poets by clicking on their names.

Once you have selected your five poems, you will need to write a paragraph for each poem that explains why you feel it should be included in Poetry for Teens. Carefully think through this paragraph and be as specific as possible. For example, don't just say that teens could relate to the poem, say WHY they could relate to the poem. Remember, the 8th grade judges will be reading these paragraphs. Be convincing.

Please write down and hand in to me what your responsibilities were in your group. Hand this in individually.

Evaluation Criteria

	Poor No attempt	Below Average Slight Attempt	Satisfactory	Above Average Met All Criteria	Excellent Exceeded Expectations
Did the student turn in five poems?	1	2	3	4	5
Did the student write a paragraph for each poem?	1	2	3	4	5
What was the quality of the paragraphs? (Good Explanations)	1	2	3	4	5
Did the student do his/her share of the work in the partner groups.	1	2	3	4	5

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