In-Class, Friday, Nov. 7th: Grammar for Haiku

After Friday's mini lessons (Ken, Brian, and Jen), we are going to continue our two-day unit about grammar and poetry.

Since those of you who become teachers will most likely teach in a technology classroom (remember that from 2012 on, your students will be assessed for their "technological literacy," which means we as teachers have to teach them), we will also deal with computer-generated grammars for poems. That means, you create a program telling the computer which choices it has for noun, verb, preposition, etc., and the computer spits out a (more or less) creative poem.



At first, review what a haiku is (most of you will know already).

Below are the basic rules for the classic version:

• 3-short lines
• 1-season word
• 1-cutting word
• no rhyme or metaphor
• (17 syllables, 5-7-5)

Then, look at the following blog entry, which offers a simple "grammar" that can be fed into a computer so it creates a haiku. Be aware that here, the haiku have less than 17 syllables (many writers think that 17 syllables in Japanese can be more effectively rendered in less syllables in English).



We have just learned that the classic version of a haiku is a bit more complicated / longer than in this blog above (which just offers one season-related word in the first line, like "summer").




TASK: Get together in groups of 3-4 and invent your own haiku according to the classic rule described above. IT MUST DEAL WITH GRAMMAR or LANGUAGE!!!! Then, write a "computer grammar" for it similar to the blog entry linked above.


Post your limerick AND your corresponding "grammar" as a blog response to this thread, and present it to the class.



(If you missed this class, do it alone and post it for the rest to read.) Due date: Today at the end of class, or Wednesday before class (deadline).