Week 28: College Reading and Writing: Espada and Wheeler

Week 28: College Reading and Writing: Espada and Wheeler

Martín Espada and David & Francine Wheeler: 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 fifteenth poem and response in the book today, starting on page 53. 

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 does Espada mean by the bells “a world away”? Why are the bells a world away?

2.     What is the significance of “bullets into bells”?

3.     What is the town “with a flagpole on Main Street”?

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 a previous 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)

Espada, Martín. “Heal the Cracks in the Bell of the World.” 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 is the irony “of the location of our loss”?
2. What is the Wheelers’ “unwanted permanent texture” of their lives?
3. Why do the Wheeler’s stay in the town where their son was murdered?

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 the poem’s response by David and Francine Wheeler, the couple writes that while moving “through this landscape” (55) where their son was killed is an “unwanted permanent texture” (55) in their lives, it is “eclipsed in dimension by the support, assistance, and love of our community” (55). How is this statement echoed in the poem’s image of “bullets into bells” (55)?

Exercise: Imitation

Write a three stanza poem where the speaker takes back power from an image that is traumatizing and painful and transforms it into a peaceful and healing image.

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.