Week 96: College Reading and Writing: Billy Collins and Nicole Hockley

Week 96: College Reading and Writing

Billy Collins and Nicole Hockley: 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 ninth poem and response in our book today, starting on page 28.

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 is the poem using line breaks, and what effect do they have?

2.     How does nature in the poem reflect or contribute to the mood of the poem?

3.     What does Collins mean when he writes “history will never find a way to end” regarding the boy shooting at statues?

4.     What is the significance of paper as “pieces of glass” in which the speaker can see “swarms of dark birds circling in the sky below” (Collins 29)?

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the Response

1.     What does Hockley believe sustains the conflict around gun violence?

2.     What does Hockley believe is the universal goal of this debate?

3.     Who does Hockley believe is responsible for the changes needed to prevent 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:

Billy Collins poem, “Boy Shooting at Statue,” begins with the speaker describing walking through an almost empty park where he sees a boy “running alone / in circles around the base of a bronze statue.” The speaker just watches as the boy runs in circles, using “his hand for a gun,” lifting “his finger to the statue,” pretending to shoot (Collins 28-29).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Collins, Billy. “Boy Shooting at Statue” 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: Collins and Hockley seem to be in agreement that the history of gun violence in America keeps repeating itself. Collins’ poem is set in winter, and Hockley refers to the non-action around the issue as a “long winter” (Hockley 30). If the winter represents the political mood around gun violence, who might the boy represent in this “polarized and divisive” topic (Hockley 30)? Use quotation and in-text citation to support your 7-9 sentence answer.

Homework Assignment: Imitation

Write your own poem in tercets (stanzas of three lines each) where you compare two things to emphasize the theme of the poem. For instance, Collins uses a seemingly innocent scene of a boy playing in a park to show how common gun violence is in our culture and how desensitized we’ve become to it. Place two very different objects or people or places together to emphasize and draw attention to the point you want to make.

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.