Week 86: College Reading and Writing: Natasha Tretheway

Week 86: College Reading and Writing: Natasha Tretheway

Natasha Tretheway: 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 a poem called “Amateur Fighter” by Natasha Tretheway.

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 poems

1.     In the first line, what does the speaker mean “What is left…”

2.     What did the speaker’s father turn his anger into?

3.     What does the speaker’s father want her to understand?

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:

In Natasha Tretheway’s poem “Amateur Fighter,” the speaker opens the poem by mentioning a necklace that her father wears around his neck, “a tiny gold glove” (33) that is left from his boxing career. She then mentions how he came to boxing “as a boy, out of nessecity” (33). The speakers alludes to violence in her father’s home: “Perhaps he learned just to box a stepfather” (33).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Tretheway, Natasha. “Amateur Fighter.” Domestic Work. Graywolf, 2000.

Exercise: Write a response to this poem. What are your first impression? How do you connect or disconnect to the subject and speaker? Does the poem remind you of anything from your own life?

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 Tretheway’s poem, the speaker says about her father, “He’d leave his front tooth out for pictures so that I might understand living meant suffering” (33). Does the speaker’s father have a sense of pride associated with his pain? Where and how do you see that in this poem?

Exercise: Imitation

Write about a sentimental object that is associated with hard work.  

Homework:

1. Summary of Poem
2. Response of Poem
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.