Week 41: College Reading and Writing: Jane Hirshfield and Chris Murphy
Jane Hirshfield and Chris Murphy: 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-sixth
poem and response in the book today, starting on page 91.
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 are “those who cannot
act”?
2. Is there a difference between
those who can act and those who cannot act, in the poem?
3. What is the effect of the poem’s
end? Why is it important?
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). The speaker questions what it
means to own and get rid of a gun in America, saying, “[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
- Who
is the speaker and why is this important to know?
- What
does “Silence from Congress...has become complicity” mean (Hillman 88)?
- What
are the all the different kind of actions and how is each different?
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
Hirshfield and Murphy write about the suffering of those who cannot act. What
do they each ask the reader to understand? How do the poem and response work
together? How do they relate to gun violence in America? Closely examine the
two texts and write an analysis where you explore the relationship between
those who cannot act and gun violence. Use lines from both the response and the
poem to answer this question.
Exercise: Imitation
Write a poem about a situation
where you can’t act. Ask yourself, how do you feel not being able to step in or
change anything? Use elements from the Hirshfield poem that you admire to make
your own poem stronger.
Homework:
- Summary
of Poem
- Summary
of Response
- Analysis
of Poem and Response
- 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.
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