Week 80: College Reading and Writing: Tretheway and Weingart

Week 80: College Reading and Writing: Tretheway and Weingart

Natasha Tretheway and Eddie Weingart: 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 161. 

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 Saint Gertrude called to write?

2.     What are Saint Gertrude’s “instruments”?

3.     What is the ultimate connection between Saint Gertrude and the speaker’s mother?

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:

Natasha Tretheway’s poem begins by explaining “the legend” (161) of Saint Gertrude: “Saint Gertrude is called to write after seeing, in a vision, the sacred heart of Christ” (161). The speaker then goes on to describe in great detail Miguel Cabrera’s painting of Saint Gertrude :Against the dark backdrop, her face is a wafer of light” (161). Immediately after this line, the speaker begins to compare the painting to the last photograph her mother had taken before she died.

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Tretheway, Natasha. “Articulation.”  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. What is the main reason the poem resonates with Weingart?
2. What was Weingart’s mother’s instinct?
3. What are Weingart’s “three types of memory” of his mother?

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 the poem, Tretheway subtly compares her mother to Saint Gertrude. In his response, Weingart makes it clear that his mother was willing to sacrifice her life for his. What is the significance of Tretheway and Weingart comparing their mothers to saints?

Exercise: Imitation

Write an ekphrastic poem in couplets.

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.