Dear Students:

Congratulations!  You survived working on numerous projects, reading tons of literature, and discussing books in conversation and writing.  You were a wonderful group of students to work with, and I am glad that I was able to meet all of you in my short time teaching at Portage High School.  I believe that Portage is a great community filled with wonderful people, but it will only stay that way if the youth in the community continue to put forth the tremendous effort all of you have shown.

I wish you all luck with your sophomore year.  You will see a number of big transitions in your lives and the lives of your friends over the next few years.  Take a minute to look around and enjoy all of the possibilities this place has to offer you.  There are so many new opportunities arising with the new radio and television stations.

The new media center and coffee shop will also provide you with an excellent place to catch up on all of the reading your English teachers will assign you over the next few years, but remember to bring your books back on time.  Others want to enjoy them too!

Remember, you have one goal that must stay with you over the course of the next three years.  You must leave this place better than when you found it!

Thank you,

Mr. Welches

Juniors, your first day is January 23, 2006.  You're down to your last year and a half at Portage High School.  Make the most of it!

Here are your poem of the week questions.  Answer them in complete sentences in your journal

1.  What images stick out in this poem?

2. What does the poet want his readers to do with his poem?

3.  What do the readers want to do with the poem?

4.  What do you think the poet means?  ( 3-5 sentences)Use examples from the poem to support your view.

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.