Second Quarter Project: ENGL 101
The quarter project for the second half of this class will again be comprised
of a collection of related writings in a number of different genres. This
time, there are two primary tasks that you will be asked to complete: close,
critical work with a single poem of your choosing in the Poetry Idea
Workshop, and connections to literature through the writing of Linked
Genre Responses.
As with the first quarter project, this assignment offers you some choice
in fulfilling its requirements, which are described below. What I want
you to show me in this work is your ability to engage with literary texts
in ways that demonstrate your ability to read critically and think creatively
about literature. Your work should let me see that you have read the texts
youíre writing about carefully and closely, and have thought about the
ways that the texts reflect, represent, reproduce, and/or resist the ideas
within them.
Required elements:
Poetry Idea Workshop: The study of poetry is often the search
for patterns (repetition of words, sounds, images, or ideas, or other patterns
like the visual layout of the poem). Choose one poem from The Best Poems
Ever (make a wise choice) and do the following:
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Make two copies of the poem (by photocopying, finding on the web and pasting
into a document, or typing it yourself), making sure to preserve the original
poem's layout. See the example on the web page for ways of marking the
elements below (NOTE: If you want definitions to any of the terms listed
below, Bob's Poetic
Byway is a great resource).
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On copy 1, mark sound patterns (using highlighters, colored pencils, etc.)
in the poem. These might include rhymes (which donít happen only at the
end of a poem's lines!), rhythms, and repeated letter sounds in close proximity
to one another (alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc.). Provide a key
for understanding your marking system.
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On copy 2, mark image patterns you find in the poem. These can include
elements of the poem's layout on the page (how the poem itself looks),
as well as descriptive words and passages in the poem like metaphors, similes,
and onomatopoeia (how the poem helps the reader "feel" what it's about).
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Write a brief reader's reaction to the poem. This should include a short
(no more than five sentences!) synthesis of the poem (what the poem is
about, and how it gets its ideas across), how you figured out what you
think the poem means (reading strategies you used), and your personal rationale
for choosing the poem.
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Write a "poetry idea" prompt for the poem, based on what you wrote in your
reaction to the poem.
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Write a poem of your own in response to the "poetry idea" prompt you wrote.
Responses to Literature: Write two "linked
genre responses" to literary texts of your choosing that we have read
in class since Spring Break. A "linked genre response" includes (at least)
two different genres that show different aspects of a single idea in a
literary text, as well as a writer's note that discusses the common idea,
and why you chose to represent the idea in the specific genres that were
used.
For Example:
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A linked genre response to the poem "This is just to say" could include:
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a poem from the person whose plums were eaten, addressed to the original
poet
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a readers' theater script of the scene that occurs when the plum owner
and the plum thief first see one another after the theft
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a sports-commentator's play-by-play of the plum theft and its aftermath