Week 77: College Reading and Writing: Soto and Grauwiler

Week 77: College Reading and Writing: Soto and Grauwiler

Christopher Soto and John Grauwiler: 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 poem and response in the book today, starting on page 153. 

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 do you think the line breaks contribute to the poem?

2.     What do you think the speaker means: “but this morning/ I feel it/ I really feel it again.”

3.     What is the significance of the shift to the lover? What is the significance of the shift to the father?

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:

Christopher Soto’s poem begins with the speaker reflecting on the shooting deaths of queer brown people: “Last time I saw myself die is when police killed Jessie Hernandez” (153). The speaker then goes on to say that the writings of José Esteban Muñoz, a professor at NYU, where Soto attended school, gave him hope about being a queer brown man, that he made him feel like being a “queer brown survivor was possible” (153), but then the reader reveals that Muñoz “didn’t Survive” (153), and he carries the deaths of brown queer people in his “chest” (153).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Soto, Christopher. “All the Dead Boys Look Like Me.” 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. How does Grauwiler describe what it means “to be queer or a person of color”?
2. What are the ranges of Grauwiler’s experience with gun violence?  
3. What does Soto’s poem remind Grauwiler about what activism is?  

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: Christopher Soto’s poem begins with describing hateful acts against queer brown people and then describes a kind of fear he must live with, knowing how vulnerable queer people and people of color are to hate crimes. However, Soto’s poem ends introducing two people he loves: his unnamed lover and his father. The end of the poem describes a phone call with his father: “He sounded like he loved me. It’s something I am rarely able to hear. And I hope, if anything, his sound is what my body remembers first” (153). For analysis, answer the following questions: First, why do you think Soto ends his poem about gun deaths with the sound of his father crying? Second, in the poem’s response, Grauwiler writes: “Activism is what love looks like in public” (155). What does this mean and do you agree? 

Exercise: Imitation

Write a poem about a public event that affects you more deeply than others. In your poem, first describe the event and then describe the ways in which you carry it.

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.