SOAPSTone Poetry Analysis

Class Example:
"If We Must Die" by Claude McKay

Quiz:

"Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes

Keeping a Dual-Entry notebook/journal (Look under class notes for A Lesson Before Dying)

Double Journal Model:represents a method of having a conversation with a work of literature. It is a type of note­taking where students write notes that dialogue with one another, thereby developing critical reading and reflective questioning.
Journal entries may take several forms:
1.questions about material not understood
2.comments to explain a statement
3.facts to remember for later
4.comments on interesting diction, imagery, characters, or literary devices
5.definitions to vocabulary
6.questions regarding what may be a flaw in the writer’s logic
7.an assertion about a character, or other interesting aspects of the novel and the
writer’s craft.

Your journal should be set up on your own paper like the model below.
This is the “note­taking” side. On this side, write down
quotes from the story, or images, or other points. Use page
numbers so that you can find the passages later.
This is the “note­making” side. On this side, write down
your responses to the quotes, images, or other points you
listed on the left side. Ask questions, raise insights, react to
the ideas.

Videos BDF class

"Here--Hold My Hand" by Mari Evans

"The Artilleryman's Vision" (excerpt) by Walt Whitman

"The Sun" by Mary Oliver

"Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou

Quiz--Identifying Speaker in SOAPStone

Identify some possiblities about the speaker using textual clues: give both the words (adjectives) that describe him/her and the textual clues that gave you this information:
"Harlem"--Langston Hughes
Here on the edge of hell
Stands Harlem—
Remembering the old lies,
The old kicks in the back,
The old "Be patient"
They told us before.
Sure, we remember.
Now when the man at the corner store
Says sugar’s gone up another two cents,
And bread one--
And there’s a new tax on cigarettes—
We remember the job we never had,
Never could get,
And can’t have now
Because we’re colored.
So we stand here
On the edge of hell
In Harlem
And look out on the world
And wonder
What we’re gonna do
In the face of what
We remember.

Preparing for the Oral Book Report...

Sample Questions I may ask you:
*Who is the main character and why?
*What is the setting and how is it important to the story?
*What is the central conflict in the story?
*Who is_____? How are they important to the story?

Sample visual aid (pretending I read Of Mice and Men)
"The Dummy"

cliche--an overused statement