Week 91: College Reading and Writing: Reginald Dwayne Betts and Samaria Rice

Week 91: College Reading and Writing

Reginald Dwayne Betts and Samaria Rice: 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 fourth poem and response in our book today, starting on page 14.

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 form doing for the poem?

2.     Who is the speaker mad at? Who does the speaker admire?

3.     What do you think the speaker means by “all I have stomach for is blood” (Betts 15)?

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the Response

1. What are some places in the text where you can feel Rice’s anger? How many times does she use the word “terrorism”? How many times does she use the word “America” or “American”? How does it change depending on context?
2. Rice starts by thinking of Tamir “as his mother, the woman who gave birth to him.” What are some other ways she thinks of Tamir, other roles she reveals through this response?

                                                                                                             

Exercise: Summarize the Poem

Write a paragraph summarizing the poem with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page.

Example Summary: Too short, but incorporates quotation and in-text citation:

Reginald Dwayne Betts’ poem “When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving,” starts with Betts thinking of police violence while his “sons play in the backseat” (Betts 14). He thinks “this should not be” a poem, and mentions a number of things that are “taboo,” including when Americans might “yearn / to see a man die” (Betts 14-15). He concludes by contrasting “a part of that wishes it would all go away” with “the strength” that lets other people “resist the temptation” to commit violence out of anger and end up in a “series of cells” Betts seems too familiar with (Betts 15).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Betts, Reginald Dwayne. “When I Think of Tamir Rice While Driving” Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Ed. Brian Clements et al. Beacon Press, 2017.

Exercise: Respond to Poem

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

Exercise: Summarize the Response

Write a paragraph summarizing the response with quotations, in-text citations, and a Work Cited Page.

Exercise: Analysis

Question for analysis: What do you think “sanity” means for this speaker? Use quotation and in-text citation to support your answer.

Exercise: Imitation

Write your own poem thinking about gun violence in America. Include “rhetoric,” “taboo,” and “pomp.”

Homework:

1. Summary of Poem
2. Summary of Response
3. Analysis of Poem/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.