Week 40: College Reading and Writing: Brenda Hillman and Jennifer Mascia

Week 40: College Reading and Writing: Brenda Hillman and Jennifer Mascia

Brenda Hillman and Jennifer Mascia: 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 twenty-fifth poem and response in the book today, starting on page 87.

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 lowercase “i” mean in this poem?

2.    What is the importance of the gun being a Luger?

3.    Why does the speaker keep searching Google?

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:

Brenda Hillman’s poem “The Family Sells the Family Gun” tells the story of siblings getting rid of their father’s gun after “his ashes...were lying” (87) from the perspective of one of the siblings. The speaker of the poem questions what it means to own and get rid of a gun in America, they say, “[w]e couldn’t take it to the cops even in my handbag” (Hillman 88).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Hillman, Brenda. “The Family Sells the Family Gun.” 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. Who is the speaker and why is this important to know?
2. Why is phrase “in a world without guns” repeated?
3. What does “I still love him” tell us about the speaker?

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: Both Hillman and Mascia write about their relationship with their fathers. Hillman and Mascia have questions about their fathers’ lives and who they were as men and as dads. Closely examine the two texts and write an analysis where you explore the similarities and differences in the authors’ feelings about their fathers.  Use lines from both the response and the poem to answer this question.

Exercise: Imitation

Write a poem where you find out a secret about someone you know and love. Ask yourself, does knowing this secret change the way you feel about them?  Use elements from the Hillman poem that you admire to make your own poem stronger.

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.