Week 79: College Reading and Writing: Teague and Nazario

Week 79: College Reading and Writing: Teague and Nazario

Alexandra Teague and Iran Nazario: 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 159. 

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 do you notice about the form of this poem?

2.     What does Winchester mean, “Where is the military genius”?

3.     What does the poem mean “To fire the gun makes a man almost certain of safety”?

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:

Alexandra Teague’s poem “Repeater” begins with the Winchester quote: “Where is the military genius to grasp this machine?” (159). The poem then goes on to describe a repeating weapon, a weapon that can be “loaded on Sunday and fired all week” (159).  

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Teague, Alexandra. “Repeater.”  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 much experience did Nazario have with guns?
2. What was Nazario’s most dangerous weapon?
3. What did a gun lead to for Nazario?

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: In Nazario’s response he writes, “I grew up believing that hurting people was power and respect” (160).  Where do you see the connection between power/respect and harm in Teague’s poem?

Exercise: Imitation

Write a villanelle where you imagine a conversation between yourself and someone else.

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.