Week 83: College Reading and Writing: Natasha Tretheway

Week 83: College Reading and Writing: Natasha Tretheway

Natasha Tretheway: Annotating, Summarizing, Analyzing, Imitating

to annotate: to make notes on something to help you understand it better

to summarize: to put something in your own words

to analyze: to consider a question on the text, providing supporting examples from the text

to imitate: to create an original piece of writing based on something you have read

We are doing a series of three poems called “Three Photographs” by Natasha Tretheway.

Exercise: Read and annotate

1. Read the poem and response out loud and underline any words you need to look up.

2. Write any questions you have in the margins or in your notebook.

3. Put tricky parts into your own words in notes in the margins or in your notebook.

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the poems

1.     What does the speaker mean in I. Daybook April 1901: “What luck to find them here!”

2.     Cabbage Vendor: What does the speaker mean: “Nothing natural last forever”?

3.     Wash Women: Why is it significant that in “his photograph” the women do not smile?

Exercise: Summarize the poem

Write a paragraph summarizing the poem with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page.

example too-short summary, incorporating quotation and in-text citation:

In Natasha Tretheway’s series “Three Photographs,” three different speakers give voice to laborers in  three different historical photographs. In the first poem, the speaker is the photographer of the photo. The speaker is excited that he’s stumbled across two African American men picking flowers for, presumably, a florist. The speaker opens the poem by exclaiming, “What luck to find them here!” (Tretheway 6).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Tretheway, Natasha. “Three Photographs.” Domestic Work. Graywolf, 2000.

Exercise: Write a response to these poems. What are your first impressions? How do you connect or disconnect to the subjects and speakers? Do the poems remind you of anything from your own life?

Exercise: Summarize the response

Write a paragraph summarizing the response with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page.

Exercise: Analysis

Question for analysis: In Tretheway’s second poem, “Cabbage Vendor,” the speaker says about the photographer: “I could work a root of my own, turn that thing around and make him see himself like he be seeing me—distant and small—forever” (7). What do you feel the subjects attitude is on having their photograph taken? What kind of statement, if any, is Tretheway making about historical photographs?

Exercise: Imitation

Using the photo, write a persona poem from the perspective of the photographer or the subject(s).

Homework:

1. Summary of Poem
2. Response of Poem
3. Analysis of Poem and Response
4. Imitation of Poem

About this class:

In this class, you are welcome to submit homework for a grade.  If it’s not strong enough to earn an A, I’ll give you some comments to help you revise it, and let you do it over again. You have as many chances as you want to complete and perfect the work in this class, and you are welcome to do more than one week’s worksheet for homework at a time; ask me for sheets you’ve missed.  Students who complete 15 weeks of graded assignments and a longer paper can qualify for college credit.  When you get close to completing 15 weeks, I’ll help you get started on your longer paper.