Poetry Portfolio Contents Rubric
Organize your poetry portfolio according to the outline below. Your
poetry portfolio is due January 4, 2008. Although you will be given
some time during the first week back after the break, you should begin
working on your portfolio now.
I. Portfolio Binder – purchase a soft binder to use, and it is
recommended that you use the plastic sleeves for your papers.
II. Cover Page – design a creative cover page for the front of your
portfolio. The cover page must include: your name, block, a title, and
your teacher’s name. Be creative in designing your cover page.
III. Poetry Unit Reflection/Exam – This will be completed in class the
week we return from the holiday break.
IV. Table of Contents – Immediately after the cover page is a Table of
Contents Page. It must list the page number and contents of each page
in your portfolio. It should be divided into the following components:
A. Poetic Forms – A short essay, explaining the poetic forms you
learned during this unit. They are: Slam poetry, Place poetry, Copy
Change poetry, Imagist poetry, Free Verse, Villanelle, Haiku: Senryu,
Tanka and Renga, and Petrarchan and Shakespearian Sonnet. This essay
must be written in your own words.
B. Handouts and actively read poems given to you:
a) Poetry Unit Rubric, including the list of Literary Devices
b) Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
c) Place Poem handout
d) Willa Cather, “Prairie Song”
e) Regents Review Practice Section
f) Sharon Olds, “High School Graduation”
g) Copy Change handout
h) Quincy Jones, “Back on the Block”
i) Imagist handout
j) Free Verse handout with questions and answers and one poem,
either Kipling’s “If” or Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?”
actively read
k) Villanelle pattern handout, completed
l) Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night”
m) Haiku: The Real Story handout
n) William Butler Yeats, “When You Are Old”
o) Theodore Roethke, “The Cellar”
p) Weldon Kees, “Praise to the Mind”
q) Sharon Olds, “Take the I Out”
C. Research Poems thoroughly actively read. You should have one by
each of the following poets:
a) Walt Whitman
b) Willa Cather
c) Sharon Olds
d) William Carlos Williams
e) Rudyard Kipling
f) Emily Dickinson
g) Dylan Thomas
h) William Butler Yeats
i) Theodore Roethke
j) William Shakespeare
k) Weldon Kees
l) Three poems of your choice from one of the research poetry
websites
m) One poem about Staten Island or NYC
n) Two poems from Poetryoutloud.org
D. Original Poems TYPED with your name at the bottom and no
heading. You should have at least one poem that you composed
using the poetic form:
a) Place Poem (free verse using Sensory Details)
b) Copy Change Poem with “Back on the Block” near your poem.
c) Imagist Poem
d) Free Verse Poem (extended poem of multiple stanzas)
e) Villanelle
f) Haiku, Senyru, or Tanka (3-4 short verses)
g) Renga (with each poets name on top and beneath their verses)
h) Sonnet about something you Love or Loathe
E. Discovery Poems. Your portfolio must include poetry that you
discovered through your research. You may have as many poems as
you want in this section of your portfolio.
F. Completed Poet Tee Extra Credit Index Card with teacher
signatures.