Step Three

Maybe Neruda thinks he can write the saddest lines, but I think I have one line that is infinitely sadder than any of his:

"I don't know how I'm going to get my IOP done on time and I'm going to get a terrible grade."

Anyway, I just spent the entire weekend doing homework: I had to study for a biology test and a math test, write a 2000 word paper for history, and prepare for the poetry commentary test (which, in all honesty, consisted of trading off between praying to the god of poetry to help me analyze the poem and watching The Breakfast Club to get my mind off of it). Oh, and I helped cut down a tree in my backyard. I somehow managed to forget (again with the honesty: avoid) doing any sort of tangible work on my IOP. I am really not looking forward to this, but I really want to get it over with.

The hardest part is simply that I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I am currently struggling to decide how exactly I will present my IOP. I was thinking about doing a class discussion, because the class generally has a lot to say when we are analyzing poems. This sounded like the recipe for a perfect presentation, but I don't think the class would work with me on this topic because Kacey would just talk about sex the whole time and Hiro would talk about totalitarianism. I suppose I could just do my best not to call on them, but where's the fun in that?

Another option would be to demonstrate Neruda's belief that communication through a form other than speech is sometimes more effective, but I don't know whether or not that would help my grade. I feel like I could grab the classes attention if i stood up there and painted a picture or drew one on the white board (which reminds me i need to buy some of those for extra credit!), but I'm not sure if that is something that I could do for an IOP. It would be an interesting way to introduce my idea though, and it would help me to change their thinking about what he is saying. I think I might keep this idea and use it as a quick introduction if it doesn't work in a larger role.

I might just end up using overheads of a few of his poems and pointing out all of the parts that support what I'm saying, but that is boring, AND I don't know if that's good enough for an IOP. I think that if i have 10-15 minutes, I will aim for 13 to be safe.

• 2 minutes for the painting/drawing intro
• 10 minutes of analyzing poems (3 poems, 3 minutes each?)
• a couple minutes of whatever else I think of?

But I think I'm forgetting that part where I have to demonstrate that I understand Neruda's background or something, so I don't know how to work that in there. Also, when I'm analyzing the poems during that 10 minutes, do I do it solo or do i ask the class for their input? I would have to ask them specific questions so that they give me relevant answers, but I feel like getting them involved is important if i want to make it at all close to being interesting. OH, and I wonder if I could use up some time (only like 30 seconds or so) just having the room be silent, and I could incorporate something about silence (because I think Neruda mentions that often). But then again, is that acceptable for an IOP or is it just a waste of 30 valuable seconds?  And is that even relevant to my topic? Because if I'm talking about all of the senses, silence is sort of just one of the senses not being used. But if I am talking about hearing and speech specifically, then maybe demonstrating and analyzing silence could be useful. Probably not. It's probably just a big waste of time.