Honors Algebra II/Trigonometry 1st Six Weeks Project
*Worth a test grade*
Eleven Line Quadratic Poem
(This exercise is from Levi Romero’s Creative Writing class at UNM. Damien Flores used it as a prompt for the
AHS Poetry Club. Thank you Ms. Bernstein)
Use the following poem structure to EXPLAIN a concept related to quadratics.
1st line - metaphor
2nd line - personification
3rd line - inject a line of dialogue
4th line - use a color word
5th line - onomatopoeia
6th line - something to do with fire
7th line - use simile
8th line - contradict something earlier said
9th line - include a word/phrase that's not in English
10th line - repeat a line from earlier in the poem
11th line - end with any poetic device
Some quadratic concepts for you to use in your poem (Please focus your poem. Do not include everything.)
• Parabola • Square Root Method
o Vertex, Standard, Intercept forms • Solutions/Roots/Zeros/X-Intercepts
• Vertex as a Maximum or Minimum Value o Real and Imaginary
• Axis of Symmetry • Completing the Square
• Equation Vs. Function • Quadratic Formula
• Factoring • Discriminant
Some poetic devices for you to use in your poem
Alliteration
• The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words. Example: "Fetched
fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood." Hopkins, "In the Valley of the Elwy."
Dialogue
• The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed
within quotation marks.
Hyperbole
• A figure of speech involving exaggeration. John Donne uses hyperbole in his poem: "Song:
Go and Catch a Falling Star."
Metaphor
• A comparison between essentially unlike things without an explicitly comparative word such
as like or as. An example is "My love is a red, red rose,"
Onomatopoeia
• The use of words to imitate the sounds they describe. Words such as buzz and crack are
onomatopoetic.
Personification
• The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities. An
example: "The yellow leaves flaunted their color gaily in the breeze." Wordsworth's "I
wandered lonely as a cloud" includes personification.
Simile
• A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using like, as, or as though.
An example: "My love is like a red, red rose."
Exceeds Proficient Nearing Does Not Meet
Standards Proficient Standards
Poetic • All required • All required • Not all • Required poetic
Devices, poetic devices poetic devices required poetic devices are not
Imagery, are used with are used devices are attempted
and Word flair • Attempts to use attempted. • Words used
Choice • Strong, precise, descriptive • Vocabulary is inappropriately or
and vivid words to create limited and incorrectly
vocabulary that images general or
has been chosen • Experiments ordinary words
with care with new and used
different words
with some
success
Organization • Writing shows • Writing shows • Writing shows • Writing shows no
and Content clear evidence evidence of some signs of evidence of
of planning and planning and planning and planning and
crafting (no crafting crafting, but crafting
spelling errors) • Sequencing is only with • Steps have not
• Uses a logical, logical limited success been attempted
effective • Steps have • Steps are • Sequencing is
organizational incomplete illogical, or not
been followed
strategy with few or no • The content of evident
• this poem
All steps errors relates to the • The focus is not
outlined in the • The content of clear, ideas are
instructions topic only
this poem minimally not connected and
have been relates to the do not develop
followed • Little included
topic well information • The content of
carefully this poem does
• A majority of about
• The content of the included not relate to the
this poem is Quadratics is
information mathematically topic
clearly related about • No included
to the topic correct
Quadratics is information about
• All included mathematically Quadratics is
information correct
about mathematically
Quadratics is correct
mathematically
correct
