Week 31: College Reading and Writing: Philip Levine

Week 31: College Reading and Writing: Philip Levine

Philip Levine: 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 a poem from a handout. The poem is called “What Work Is.”

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 “we” in the first line? Who is the “you” in the third line?

2.     What is the “sad slouch” about?

3.     What is significant about “what work is” in the last line?

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)

Levine, Philip. “What Work Is.” Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

Exercise: Using the responses in the book as a model, write your own response to “What Work Is.” Include your own work experience and tie it back to the poem.

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: The title of this poem suggests a definition for work. It goes on to describe men who have a “sad slouch” and a “love flooding.” These two details add physical and emotional layers to the poem. In your analysis, using the images from the poem, write about what work means to Levine and how it affects the speaker of this poem, both physically and emotionally.

Exercise: Imitation

Write a poem about what work means to 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.