Week 23: College Reading and Writing: Joel Dias-Porter and Kiki Leyba

handout by Prof. Kate Glavin, running the weekly classes in South Bay for the summer; thanks, Kate!

Week 23: College Reading and Writing: Joel Dias-Porter and Kiki Leyba

Joel Dias-Porter and Kiki Leyba: 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 the book today, starting on page 33. 

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.     How do you feel about how Dias-Porter uses questions in the poem? What do you feel is their significance?

2.     What is Keisha’s role in the poem? What does she mean when she says she’s “been ran out of tears”?

3.      Why does the speaker feel that the nature poems no longer resonate?

Exercise: Summarize the poem

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

example too-short summary from last week, 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 (for today’s poem)

Dias-Porter, Joel. “Wednesday Poem.” 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

1. How is this a response to Dias-Porter’s poem? What is it responding to?
2. Who is the “you” in the first line?
3. What does Leyba mean when she says “The darkest days grow strength/ in ways I don’t want to speak of”?

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 Dias-Porter’s poem, the speaker puts his nature book away because “which student could these pistils protect, here where it’s natural to never see seventeen.” In contrast, Leyba uses the word “unnatural” to describe the horrors of gun violence. Write an analysis where you answer what “natural” and “unnatural’ are doing in each piece and what is being described as “natural” and “unnatural.”

Exercise: Imitation

Write a contrast poem where you compare something you consider “natural” to something you feel is not.

Homework:

1. Summary of Poem
2. Summary of Response
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.