Week 97: College Reading and Writing: Kyle Dargan and Daniel Webster:

Week 97: College Reading and Writing

Kyle Dargan and Daniel Webster: 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 the tenth poem and response in our book today, starting on page 31.

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: Respond to Poem

Write a response to this poem. What are your first impressions? How do you connect or disconnect to the subject and speaker? Does the poem remind you of anything from your own life and experience?

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the Poem

1.     How does the way the poem is written contribute to the theme of the poem?

2.     How does nature in the poem reflect or contribute to the mood of the poem? What does it show the reader?

3.     What does Dargan mean when he writes “a young face is another young face”?

4.     What is the significance of the line “…corpses may share the woods with the deer and the turkeys”?

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the Response

1.     What does Webster say “Natural Causes” reveals?

2.      What does Webster mean when he says “The absence of background checks and sales records means these sales entail little risk to sellers” (Webster 32)?

3.     What is Webster implying when he says that gun seller investigations usually only occur when a “police officer is shot” (Webster 32)?

                                                                                                             

Homework Assignment: Summarize the Poem

Write a 7-9 sentence paragraph summarizing the poem with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page.

Example Summary: Too short, but incorporates quotation and in-text citation:

Kyle Dargan’s poem, “Natural Causes,” tells the story of a boy who purchases a gun “from a farm in Virginia” from a farmer who “keeps his gaze down as to remember nothing of the boy’s face” (Dargan 31). The speaker of the poem insinuates that the farmer has sold guns to other boys like this one, when they say “his customers rarely return older” (Dargan 31).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Dargan, Kyle. “Natural Causes” Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Ed. Brian Clements et al. Beacon Press, 2017.

Homework Assignment: Summarize the Response

Write a 7-9 sentence paragraph summarizing the response with quotations, in-text citations, and a Work Cited Page.

Homework Assignment: Analysis

Question for analysis: While a lot of poems we’ve looked at focus on the shooter or victim, Dargan’s speaker focuses on the gun seller. How do Dargan and Webster hold gun sellers responsible in each of their pieces? What do you think they are saying about who shares responsibility for gun violence? Use quotation and in-text citation to support your 7-9 sentence answer.

Homework Assignment: Imitation

Write your own prose poem about a significant event from the point of view of a sibling, a witness, or a bystander at the event. You can write about an event from your life or one you’ve seen from the news.

Homework:

1. Summary of Poem
2. Summary of Response
3. Analysis of Poem/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.