Week 14: Jimmy Santiago Baca and Antonius Wiriadjaja from Bullets into Bells

Week 14: College Reading and Writing

Jimmy Santiago Baca and Antonius Wiriadjaja: Annotating, Summarizing, Imitating, Analyzing, Synthesizing

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

to summarize: to put something in your own words

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

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

to synthesize: to connect two or more texts in your own writing

We are doing the second poem and response in the book today, starting on page 3.

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 sentences into your own words in notes in the margins or in your notebook

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the poem

1. What happened to the kneecaps on p. 4

2. What does 911 say on p. 5?  How do the speaker and his wife respond?

3. How is it “harder to have hope” on p. 6? 

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the response

1. What happened to Antonius?

2. Who helped him?  What happened to him?

3. Why doesn’t Antonius want us to think of the people in this story as “them”?

Exercise: Summarize the poem

Write a paragraph summarizing the poem in your own words, with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page.  Don’t include your opinion, just summarize the poem.

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

In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Morning Shooting” Baca remembers a shooting outside his house and how he and his wife responded. While 911 said “Let the bitch die,” and his neighbors plan to build a wall “rimmed with knife blades,” Baca imagines the shot man “on his way to work” as a baby and young person (Baca 4-7).  Finally, he reflects on Trump’s “war on immigrants” during a walk, thinking of this “day of all-out launching of racism” (Baca 8-9). 

Work Cited Page

Arnold, Nick. "Jordan" Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Ed. Brian Clements et al. Beacon Press, 2017.

Exercise: Summarize the response

Write a paragraph summarizing the response in your own words, with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page.  Don’t include your opinion, just summarize the response.

example summary, incorporating quotation and in-text citation:

In Antonius Wiriadjaja’s response to Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “Morning Shooting,” Wiriadjaja reflects on his shooting, and John, the barber who “placed his hand over” Wiriadjaja’s in the street (10).  He points out that his attacker “was aiming for a pregnant woman” who is not the first victim of domestic violence, and that John himself was shot and killed years  (Wiriadjaja 10). He concludes by reminding us that victims of gun violence “are people,” and he “pray[s]” we never become victims ourselves (Wiriadjaja 10).

Work Cited Page

Wiriadjaja, Antonius. “Response to ‘Morning Shooting’" Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Ed. Brian Clements et al. Beacon Press, 2017.

Exercise: Synthesizing Analysis

Question for synthesizing analysis: Which of these made you feel the most anger?  Why? Quote both texts and consider counterargument in your work.

Exercise: Imitation

Write your own poem or short prose piece about something that makes you angry.  Choose elements of the poem by Baca or the prose piece by Wiriadjaja to help shape your piece.  For example, you may choose to put your poem in several pages of short lines, like Baca, or to end with a prayer, like Wiriadjaja.

For homework, revise these in a blue book or on loose paper; do not turn in your notebook or rip out pages to turn in.

1.     Summary of Baca

2.     Summary of Wiriadjaja

3.     Synthesizing Analysis

4.     Imitation