Week 27: College Reading and Writing: Cornelius Eady and Ronnie Mosley

Week 27: College Reading and Writing: Cornelius Eady and Ronnie Mosley

Cornelius Eady and Ronnie Mosley: 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 fourteenth poem and response in the book today, starting on page 50. 

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 is the effect of the capital letters that begin each line?

2.     Why do you think it’s significant for the speaker to say it was “in a fight” when his sister told him how to use a pistol on somebody?

3.     What does the word “spell” do in the last stanza?

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 (for today’s poem)

Diaz, Natalie. “Catching Copper.” 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. What does Mosley mean when he asks, “”Do we see ourselves as safe or in danger?”
2. What do you think Mosley means when he says, “Our nation is better than accepting the fear of turning the wrong corner because we choose not to address the source of our fear of what’s around the corner”?
3. What means of prevention is Mosley referring to when he says “The best way to honor the lives of those I lost is to prevent it from happening again”?

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: Write an analysis where you discuss what Mosley means by making a choice about gun violence and then give examples from the poem where choices are being made around gun violence.

Exercise: Imitation

Write a six stanza poem about a choice you make every day.

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.