Reacting to Poetry Assignment Sheet

Reacting to Poetry Essay: English 102

Jack Christian

Genre: Personal Essay

Audience: Our classroom community

Length: at least 4 pages, not more than 5 (double-spaced, 11-12 pt font, standard margins, etc)

Due Dates: Initial Draft, 9/12/11; Second Draft, 9/14/11; Final Draft, 9/16/11

Goals:

1)      For students to engage a text (1 of 4 poems) for their own purposes, potentially to “re-purpose” a text

2)      For students to discover, through the process of writing, what they would like to convey, and then revise their essay for that purpose, i.e. to discover a reason for writing, and then to revise with that reason in mind

3)      For students to practice reacting, responding, analyzing, and otherwise interacting with a text

4)      For students to gain confidence in their ability to craft a thoughtful personal essay, and to engage and structure complex ideas within the personal essay form

Process

               

Day 1: 9/7/11

1)       Read over the 4 poems and pick one to respond to in a 1-page informal response, considering questions you have, important ideas or themes apparent in the poem, ways you relate and/or fail to relate to the poem

Day 2: 9/9/11

2)       In class, share your response with other students who have picked the same poem as you. Students will work in groups of up to 4 members.

3)       Briefly discuss all four poems as a class.

4)       Brainstorm ways in which a writer might respond to / interact with any poem. List as many ways of responding as possible on the board. Students copy these into their notes.

For Day 3

5)       Using the list of ways of responding as writing prompts, students will produce a draft of at least 4 pages. At this point, the coherence of the essay as a whole is of little importance. What is important is that students push themselves to generate as much material as possible for later use.

Day 3: 9/12/11

6)       In class students share their initial drafts with each other and suggest ways they each might consider more ideas, or directions their essay might go. To aid in this, students will consider a list of quotations from famous essay writers about the process of essay-writing, and then attempt to organize their own essays with one of those quotations in mind.

For Day 4

7)       Students will rewrite and re-organize their essays, producing a second, more cohesive, better organized draft.

Day 4: 9/14/11

8)       Students will share their second draft with other classmates, offering and receiving further suggestions, and copy-editing each other’s work.

Day 5: 9/16/11

9)       Students will come to class with a polished draft of their essay, to share once more and to turn in for a grade, and to reflect upon the process of producing an essay in this fashion.