Week 30: College Reading and Writing: Jameson Fitzpatrick and Kevin Hertzog

Week 30: College Reading and Writing: Jameson Fitzpatrick and Kevin Hertzog

Jameson Fitzpatrick and Kevin Hertzog: 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 seventeenth poem and response in the book today, starting on page 59. 

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 significance of “gay bar” in this poem? When do we know it’s significant?

2.     What do you think “power to be cursed with” means?

3.     Why is it significant that Fitzpatrick identifies Hibiscus as gay and what does his protest mean in the poem?

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)

Fitzpatrick, Jameson. “A Poem for Pulse.” 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 Hertzog mean “family of choice”?
2. What does “radicalize” mean in the second paragraph?
3. Why is it significant to Hertzog that these people died at a gay bar?

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 his response, David Hertzog writes, “And it wasn’t only the fact that they died so young, but it was also that they’d died at a gay club” (62).  Using Hertzog’s response to contextualize your answer, write an analysis where you discuss how physical space and place function in Fitzpatrick’s poem and how it carries meaning.

Exercise: Imitation

Write a poem about a place that carries meaning for you.

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.