Week 102: College Reading and Writing Cornelius Eady and Ronnie Mosley


Week 102: College Reading and Writing

Cornelius Eady and Ronnie Mosley: 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 fifteenth poem and response in our book today, starting on page 50.

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.     What is the effect of the punctuation in the poem?
2.     What is significant about the line “Unharmed to wherever” (Eady 50)?
3.     What is meant by the lines “In the fist and fury you’ll long / for what you say you don’t need” (Eady 51)?
4.     What is the effect of the word “spell” in the last stanza?

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the Response
1.     What does Mosley mean when he asks “Do we see ourselves as safe or in danger” (Mosley 52)? How does this connect with the poem?
2.     What does Mosely mean by “Our nation is better than accepting the fear of turning the wrong corner because we choose to not address the source of our fear of what’s around the corner” (Mosley 52)?
3.     What does Mosley mean by “The best way to honor the lives of those I lost is to prevent it from happening again” (Mosley 52)?
                                                                                                             
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:
Cornelius Eady’s poem “Gun Poem” starts off with the speaker remembering “that afternoon / My big sister, Gloria / Came to visit” (Eady 50). The speaker then talks about an almost robbery, but Gloria, “with her / Pistol in her purse,” thwarted the attempt (Eady 50). Eady ends his poem by saying that in the heat of the moment “you’ll long / for what you say you don’t need” (Eady 51).




Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)
Eady, Cornelius. “Gun Poem” 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: What are some examples in Moseley’s response about making a choices that have to do with gun violence? Compare them to the choices that are talked about in the poem Use quotation and in-text citation to support your answer.


Homework Assignment: Imitation
Write your own six stanza poem about a choice you make every day.

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.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching Bullets into Bells Behind Bars