Week 51: College Reading and Writing: Jamaal May and Dan Gross

Week 51: College Reading and Writing: Jamaal May and Dan Gross

Jamaal May and Dan Gross: 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 thirty-third poem and response in the book today, starting on page 115.

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. How does tone work in this poem?

2. What is the role of “joke” (May 115)?

3. What does “funny” mean (May 115)?

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)

May, Jamaal. “The Gun Joke.” 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 it important?
2. What does the joke in the response teach us?
3. What does this response ask us to do?

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: There are similarities and differences to how May and Gross use jokes to write about the commonness of gun violence and need for gun control (115, 116). Closely examine the two texts and write an analysis where you explore what each author is asking the reader to understand about the relationship between gun violence and gun control.

Exercise: Imitation

Write a poem of “jokes.”  It does not need to be funny. A successful joke leads us one way, then suddenly shifts, unexpectedly changing the way we are going. Use elements from May’s 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:

Your notebooks belong to you; you can write first drafts in them, and make notes for yourselves.  To turn in homework, revise your work in a blue book or sheets of paper you can get from your instructor. 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.