Week 52: College Reading and Writing: Rosie Schaap

Week 52: College Reading and Writing: Rosie Schaap

Rosie Schaap: 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

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 role of “indelicacy” in this poem (Schaap)?

2. What is the importance of “naming” (Schaap)?

3. How is humor used?

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)

Schaap, Rosie. “Indelicacy.” Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 2018, https://lithub.com/indelicacy-a-new-poem-by-rosie-schaap/.

Exercise: Write a Response

What is this poem saying about indelicacy? Do you agree with Schaap? Why or why not? What does this poem remind you of? Do you relate to this poem’s message? Why or why not?

Exercise: Analysis

Question for analysis: What is the effect of the “naming” in this poem? How does the poem both show and tell the reader about the importance of naming? Closely examine the poem, write an analysis where you explore how the poet reflects on indelicacy to make a statement about “nam[ing] the thing” (Schaap).

Exercise: Imitation

Write a poem where you shut someone up in conversation about you. You could have been talking about today’s lunch, death, your computer skills, or mechanics.  You are the expert on you. Use elements from Schaap’s poem that you admire to make your own poem stronger.

Homework:

          

1. Summary of Poem                   
2. Write a Response
3. Analysis of Poem        
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.

Indelicacy

By Rosie Schaap

At 46 I’m traveling for months, alone.

Over the hill and on the road!

Everyone tells me how they’re jealous:

Lucky you! they cry. Lucky me!

Lucky me, sure. In essentials I can’t say

They’re wrong, but: would it be fair

If being an unemployed, childless widow

Had no benefits? I ask. That shuts them up.

When it happened, Lily the fruit-monger

Thought he had left me. One eyebrow rose,

One rough, inquisitional crag. Where is.

Your husband. Haven’t seen. Long time.

I gave one word: Dead. (He’d left me alright).

Came out just like that. Better than blubbering

That he had passed, like a gallstone or as some Jews

Among WASPs. Or had passed on, like rejection.

Shut Lily up, too: The most natural utterance.

Name the thing what the thing is: It won’t kill you.

My indelicacy, Lily’s gall: Now, I could talk

About dying forever—except who lives so long?