I chose a poem that contained 25 lines or more and presented it to the class. I was not allowed to choose a poem that someone else had taken and all the short ones had been taken. So being the genius that I am, I used a super-secret technique to find a poem that no one else has even laid eyes on, that would be fun to read and meets all the requirements. When I first read over this poem, I was able to see that there were a lot of moods to unpack. I felt as if I could portray these moods when reciting the poem which influenced me to pick it.
Reading the poem to a partner helped me the most and prepared me for the presentation. This exercise was enjoyable and helped me remember the poem the most because I enjoyed reciting it. It also made me a lot less nervous in front of the audience.
Another thing I did outside of class that helped me prepare for the presentation were recitations on my own time. I would go over the poem in my head whenever I was doing something that did not need much thinking. Things like walking home and doing chores do not really use much brainpower so I was able to go over this poem in my mind.
Completing the paragraph writing about the poem did not help me much at all. My theory is that we were told to do a paragraph write on our poem to help us find and bring out the moods of the poem during recitation. However, being someone who could already bring out the poem’s mood, I did not find this helpful.
Core Competency Reflection
Examples of where I communicate clearly and purposefully can be seen within my pauses, exaggerations, and slow speech during certain parts of the recitation.
I use evidence to make judgements or decisions as demonstrated in the tones I used during the poem. I read between the lines and used that as evidence to make decisions on the tone that would work the best for that line.
This is how I select images and words to create impact for different audiences: I would select words that would provoke an emotion in me, that one singular word that could add meaning to the line. Once I had selected that word, I would apply my tone and exaggerate that word during recitation.
