APPLYING KIRIS HOLISTIC SCORING CRITERIA TO FEATURES OF POETRY

This document is only an instructional tool created for a workshop on teaching poetry by Kathryn Mincey, Morehead State University. It is not a product of the Kentucky Department of Education or the Kentucky Writing Program. Because it is not a scoring guide, it should not be considered as a substitute for the KIRIS Holistic Scoring Guide.

 

  POETIC

FEATURES 

 

OVERVIEW

 PERSPECTIVE

 The degree to which the poet establishes

- a distinctive voice, persona, or speaker

- clear or purposefully ambiguous tone

- extraordinary perception of the ordinary

 

CONCEPTUAL

COMPLEXITY

 The degree to which the poet achieves

- tension (see attachment for amplification)

- compression (see attachment)

- surprise (see attachment)

 

DESIGN

 The degree to which the poet demonstrates

a visual or conceptual intention through

- arrangement of words, phrases, lines

- spacing, enjambment, caesura, punctuation

- indentation, typography, stanzaic pattern

 

SEMANTIC

STRUCTURES

 The degree to which the poet

- employs images to represent abstractions

- connects images to fresh figures of speech (similes, personification, etc.)

- demonstrates metaphoric thought

 

DICTION AND SYNTAX

 The degree to which the poet exhibits

- fresh, effective vocabulary

- syntax that generates sound devices such as consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, rhythm, repetition, refrain, perhaps rhyme

 

ARTISTIC UNITY

 The degree to which the poet achieves

- form that supports content

- surface features that enhance meaning

- sound and/or shape that match mood or idea

- individual elements that complement the whole

Kathryn Mincey, "Guiding Student Poetry" Rev. 10-97 (Copyright, 1997)

 

 

APPLYING HOLISTIC PERFORMANCE LEVELS TO POETRY

 

This document is only an instructional tool created for a workshop on teaching poetry by Kathryn Mincey, Morehead State University. It is not a product of the Kentucky Department of Education or the Kentucky Writing Program. Because it is not a scoring guide, it should not be substituted for the KIRIS Holistic Scoring Guide.

 

 

NOVICE

 

APPRENTICE

 

PROFICIENT

 

DISTINGUISHED

 - Limited perception, voice; ordinary perspective

- Minimal conceptual development; limited and/or unimaginative details

-Unintentional or random design

-Ineffective or confusing semantic structures

- Uninteresting and/or ineffective diction, syntax

- Form, surface features that interfere with mood or idea

 - Some evidence of voice or unusual perspective

- Some insightful or imaginative details

- Some attention to organization or design

- Simplistic and/or unimaginative semantic structures

- Imprecise or unimaginative diction; ordinary syntax

- Form, surface features that do not enhance mood or idea

 - Intentional perspective; evidence of perceptive voice;

- Conceptual depth; some tension,; a sense of discovery

- Intentional design

- Semantic structures show relationship of concrete to abstract

- Imaginative, thoughtful, fresh diction; syntax that generates sound qualities

-Attempt at artistic unity: sound, shape match mood, idea; form, surface features enhance content

 -Controlled perspective, whether precise or ambiguous : distinctive voice, perception of the extraordinary in the ordinary

- Conceptual complexity: tension, compression, surprise

- Careful and/or subtle design

- Semantic structures suggest metaphoric or symbolic thought

- Precise and/or evocative diction; creative, evocative, musical syntax

C Artistic unity: sound, shape match mood, idea; form, surface features enhance content

 

 

Kathryn Mincey, "Guiding Student Poets" Rev. 10-97 (Copyright, 1997)