Week 16: Reginald Dwayne Betts and Samaria Rice from Bullets into Bells

Week 16: College Reading and Writing: Reginald Dwayne Betts and Samaria Rice

Reginald Dwayne Betts and Samaria Rice: 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 fourth poem and response in the book today, starting on page 14.  We looked at the poem together in Week 7, before we had the books, but today I want to read it with the response by Tamir Rice’s mom. You’ll remember that Tamir Rice was the 12 year old boy who was shot dead by police in a Cleveland playground, where he was playing with a toy gun.

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 poem

1.     What do you think Betts means by "all I have stomach for is blood"?  Who is he mad at?  Who does he admire? Point to lines in the text that support your position.

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the poem

1.     What are some places in the text where you can feel Rice’s anger? How many times does she use the word “terrorism”? How many times does she use the word “America” or “American”? How does it change depending on context?

2.     Rice starts by thinking of Tamir “as his mother, the woman who gave birth to him.” What are some other ways she thinks of Tamir, other roles she reveals through this response?  Point to lines in the text that support your position.

Exercise: Summarize the response

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

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

Samaria Rice's “Response to ‘When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving’” starts with Rice thinking of Tamir “as his mother” and Tamir as “an All-American kid” (16).  She sees his murder as the result of “American terrorism” and says “we need change [. . . ]and accountability” to counter it (Rice 16).  Rice recognizes that Tamir’s death meant she “lost a piece of [herself],” and also became “a national leader fighting for human rights” (Rice 16). 

Work Cited Page

Rice, Samaria. "“Response to ‘When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving’” Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Ed. Brian Clements et al. Beacon Press, 2017.

Exercise: Analysis

Question for analysis: What do you think of Rice’s use of the word “terrorism”?  Do you think it’s justified?  Why or why not? Use quotation and summary to support your answer; you can use evidence—cited quotation or summary—from any of the pieces you have read in this book.   

Exercise: Imitation

One of the things Betts talks about in his poem is how “we are not permitted to articulate the reasons we might yearn to see a man die” (15). Write your own poem about something taboo, something we are not permitted to articulate as a country or group, or an individual who is not permitted to articulate something by their family, their friends, or their own feelings. Some of the things we’ve talked about in class that could fall under this category are our own feelings of guilt, or a family member’s abuse or alcoholism. Choose elements of the poem by Betts to help shape your piece.  For example, you may choose to include run-on sentences and ampersands and let the narrative wander through all the things on your mind, rather than make this poem a direct answer to the prompt.

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 Rice

2.     Analysis

3.     Imitation