Week 22: College Reading and Writing: Kyle Dargan and Daniel Webster
Prof. Kate Glavin is taking over
for the summer--this is one of her handouts.
Week 22:
College Reading and Writing: Kyle Dargan and Daniel Webster
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 eighth poem and response in the 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: Questions for Comprehension of the poem
1. Who is the
speaker in this poem? Why does the speaker care so much about the farmer?
2. What does the
speaker mean “A young face is another young face”?
3. What does the speaker mean that the “corpses
may share the woods with the deer and the turkeys”?
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:
Kyle
Dargan’s poem “Natural Causes” tells the story of a boy who purchases a gun
“from a farm in Virginia” (31) from a farmer who “keeps his gaze down as to
remember nothing of the boy’s face” (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” (31).
Work Cited Page
Dargan, Kyle. “Natural Causes.” Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens
Respond to Gun Violence. Ed. Brian Clements et al. Beacon Press, 2017.
Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the response
- What does Webster say “Natural Causes” reveals?
- What does Webster mean when he says that the “absence of
background checks and sales records means these sales entail little risk
to sellers”?
- What does Webster imply when he says that gun seller
investigations usually only occur when a “police officer is shot”?
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: While a lot of the poems we’ve read focus on the shooter or victim,
Dargan’s speaker focuses on the gun seller. How do Dargan and Webster, in their
respective pieces, hold the gun seller accountable? Using quotation from the
text, what do you think they seem to be saying about who should be held
responsible for gun violence?
Exercise: Imitation
Write a prose poem where you tell a significant event using
an obscure POV: a bystander at the event, a sibling, or a witness. You can
write about something in your own life or something you’ve seen on the news.
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.
Homework:
- Summary of
Poem
- Summary of
Response
- Analysis of
Poem and Response
- 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.
Comments
Post a Comment