Week 93: College Reading and Writing: Tara Bray and Dennis Henigan

Week 93: College Reading and Writing

Tara Bray and Dennis Henigan: 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 sixth poem and response in our book today, starting on page 20.

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: 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: Questions for Comprehension of the Poem

1.     How did Bray’s mother die?

2.     What shift happens on line 10?

3.     What happens to the verbs throughout this poem?

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the Response

1.     What are the three realities Henigan wants to communicate about gun violence?

                                                                                                             

Homework Assignment: Summarize the Poem

Write a 7-9 sentence 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:

Tara Bray’s “How My Mother Died” starts by explaining that her father “shook the gun to get the bullet out,” implying that this “careless” act killed her mother (Bray 20). She goes on to describe his regret and sorrow, then calls on “Jesus of the ordinary prayer” (Bray 20). Bray asks Jesus to “lay” her father down so they can both recover from what “can’t, for the life of him, be undone” (Bray 20).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Bray, Tara. “How My Mother Died” Bullets Into Bells: Poets and Citizens Respond to Gun Violence. Ed. Brian Clements et al. Beacon Press, 2017.

Homework Assignment: Summarize the Response

Write a 7-9 sentence paragraph summarizing the response with quotations, in-text citations, and a Work Cited Page.

Homework Assignment: Analysis

Question for analysis: Both Bray and Henigan focus on how Bray’s mother’s death was a “mistake” (Henigan 21). How does this make her death different from an intentional murder? You can use evidence from any of the pieces you have read in this book, and/or anecdotal evidence from your own life. Use quotation and summary to support your answer, which should be 7-9 sentences.

Homework Assignment: Imitation

Write your own poem where the verb tense changes. For example, you can write about a mistake in the present tense and then jump to the future tense where you’ll write describe the possible outcomes, or you can have started in the past tense with a story and then move into the present tense, like Bray did in her poem.

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.