Class 4: EWRT 1B

AGENDAPresentation: Terms Teams and PointsAuthor Lecture: Langston HughesQHQ Discussion: Racial Passing: "Passing" and "Passing”

Lecture: Writing a Summary and Paraphrasing Poetry

In-class writing: Summary; paraphrase

2. The teams will remain the same through the discussion, reading, and workshops of one essay.

3. You must change at least 50% of your team after each essay is completed.

4. You may never be on a team with the same person more than twice.

5. You may never have a new team composed of more than 50% of any prior team.

1. We will often use teams to earn participation points. Your teams can be made up of 3 or 4 people.

Points will be earned for correct answers to questions, meaningful contributions to the discussion, the willingness to share your work, and for work posted in the slideshow. Each team will track their own points, but cheating leads to death (or loss of 25 participation points).

Answers, comments, and questions must be posed in a manner that promotes learning. Those who speak out of turn or with maliciousness will not receive points for their teams.

At the end of each class, you will turn in a point sheet with the full names of everyone in your group and your accumulated points for the day. Please circle the total number of earned points at the top of the page. It is your responsibility to make the sheet, track the points, and turn your final tally in. Points must be turned in at the end of each class.

Sit near your team members in class to facilitate ease of group discussions

Essay #2Teams

Get into groups of four. (1-2 minutes)

If you can’t find a group, please raise your hand.

Once your group is established, choose one person to be the keeper of the points. Write down members’ names.

Include the first letter of the last name.

Turn in your sheet at the end of the class period. Put the total at the top of the page.

Terms Exam #1: Class 619. Characterization: the creation of the image of imaginary

persons in drama, narrative poetry, the novel, and the short story. Characterization generates plot and is revealed by actions, speech, thoughts, physical appearance, and the other characters’ thoughts or words about him.

20. Dialogue: is a conversation, or a literary work in the form of a conversation, that is often used to reveal characters and to advance the plot. Also, it is the lines spoken by a character in a play, essay, story, or novel.

21.Epistle: a letter, especially a formal or didactic one; written communication. Also (usually initial capital letter ) one of the apostolic letters in the new testament or ( often initial capital letter ) an extract, usually from one of the Epistles of the New Testament, forming part of the Eucharistic service in certain churches.

22. Irony: a dryly humorous or lightly sarcastic figure of speech in which the literal meaning of a word or statement is the opposite of that intended. In literature, it is the technique of indicating an intention or attitude opposed to what is actually stated. Often, only the context of the statement leads the reader to understand it is ironic. Irony makes use of hyperbole, sarcasm, satire, and understatement.

There are four types of irony:

• Verbal irony as defined by Cicero: “Irony is the saying of one thing and meaning another,” or Socrates: ”when one adopts another’s point of view in order to reveal that person’s weaknesses and eventually to ridicule him.”

• Situational irony, such as when a pickpocket gets his own pockets picked

• Dramatic irony, such as when Oedipus unwittingly kills his own father

• Rhetorical irony, such as that of the innocent narrator in Twain’s Huckleberry Finn

23.Literal: pertaining to a letter of the alphabet. More typically, it means “based on what is actually written or expressed.” A literal interpretation gives an exact rendering— word for word— taking words in their usual or primary sense. It is also used to describe thinking which is unimaginative or matter of fact.

24.Literature: writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas and concerns of universal and apparently permanent interest, are essential features. While applied to any kind of printed material, such as circulars, leaflets, and handbills, there are some who feel it is more correctly reserved for prose and verse of acknowledged excellence, such as George Eliot’s works. The term connotes superior qualities.

25.Paraphrase: (also called rewording) – the restatement of a passage giving the meaning in another form. This usually involves expanding the original text so as to make it clear.

In your groups: 5 minutesDiscuss the reading for today.

Share the QHQs that you wrote.

LANGSTON HUGHES 1902-1967

One of the founders of the cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

What do you know about Langston Hughes?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inP76rkYUso

Few authors of the twentieth century are more significant than Langston Hughes. He is assured his status by his many contributions to literature.

• The length of his career: 1921-1967• The variety of his output: articles, poems, short stories,

dramas, novels, and history texts.• His influence on three generations of African American

writers: from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil Rights Movement

• His concern for the “ordinary” African American: The subject of his work

• His introduction of the jazz idiom: the quality of black colloquial speech and the rhythms of jazz and the blues.

During his long career Hughes was harshly criticized by blacks and whites. Because he left no single masterwork, such as Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) or Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), and because he consciously wrote in the common idiom of the people, academic interest in him grew only slowly. The importance of his influence on several generations of African American authors is, however, indisputable and widely acknowledged.

QHQ Discussion: Racial Passing: "Passing" and "Passing”

“Passing” Jack1. Is Jack actually ashamed to be [black]?2. Did Jack wanted to pass as white only for his own good or

also for the sake of his family?3. Why is Jack frustrated that his father left him and his family

behind when Jack himself is following in his father’s footstep, in trying to conceal and erase the the black relationships that they both share and shun?

4. Is [Jack] really, actually comfortable with passing, or could it be true that dislikes what he does?

5. Is his passing hurting anyone?

1. How does the mother feel about jack dating/marrying a white girl?

2. What was the turning point for the mother to decide to chose having her son being white over her pride of being black?

3. Could the reason why Gladys and Charlie hold such anger against jack be because, Jack was given more of a privileged life due to his skin color then Gladys and Charlie?

Jack’s Original Family

Jack’s New Family

1. If [Jack] were to have all [dark-skinned] kids do you think he would give in eventually and call them his kids ?

2. Q: What will happen if Jack really denies his [dark-skinned] child?

3. Q: How will Jack’s child feel in the future about white people because his father chose to be white rather than a parent?

?

Consequences

1. Will Jack come to regret his life choices? Or will he be able to convince himself that he is truly happy staying away from the color-line?

2. Q: Will [Jack] continue to pass if some catastrophic happens in his life? For example, if his mother is dying.

3. Q. What if the main character came out and stated that he really is mixed race? What if he starts talking to his mom on the streets whenever he sees her? What kind of repercussions might this have?

1. Is it Jacks choice passing as a white guy and away from his family?

2. Is it more of a burden or an advantage for Jack to pass as a white person?

3. Q: Is passing as something or someone you are not right/okay?

4. Do some of the messages and ideas in the story still exist in today’s world? To what extent do they exist? What are some examples?

5. Q At what point is is acceptable to choose what is best for yourself over your family without causing tension?

6. Q: Why does identity matter? How can people stop “passing?”

Broader Inquiries about social policy, perspective, and choice.

On sunny summer Sunday afternoons in Harlemwhen the air is one interminable ball gameand grandma cannot get her gospel hymnsfrom the Saints of God in Christon account of the Dodgers on the radio,on sunny Sunday afternoonswhen the kids look all newand far too clean to stay that way,and Harlem has itswashed-and-ironed-and-cleaned-best out,the ones who’ve crossed the lineto live downtownmiss you,Harlem of the bitter dreamsince their dream hascome true.

“Passing” By Langston Hughes

1. What is this poem really about?2. Q: Why does Hughes center his short poem on “sunny

Sunday afternoons?”3. Q: has Harlem changed that much from the place he

remembers?4. Why did he use kids to describe cleanness of Harlem?5. Q: What did Hughes mean by “the air is one interminable ball

game and grandma cannot get her gospel hymns”?6. Who is the narrator of Passing referring to when he states,

“the ones who’ve crossed the line to live downtown miss you”?

7. How does this poem represent passing?

“Passing”: The Poem

Paraphrase and SummaryWriting strategies that cannot be ignored

How to Paraphrase A paraphrase is a restatement of a passage giving the meaning in another

form. This usually involves expanding the original text so as to make it clear. A paraphrase will have none of the beauty or effectiveness of the original. It

merely aims, in its prosy way, to spell out the literal meaning. It will not substitute for the original, then, but will help us appreciate the compactness and complexity of many poems.

Write in prose, not verse (in prose the lines go all the way to right margin). The line breaks of the original are irrelevant in paraphrasing.

Write modern prose, rearranging word order and sentence structure as necessary. As far as possible, within the limits of commonsense, avoid using the words of the original. Finding new words to express the meaning is a test of what you are understanding.

Write coherent syntax, imitating that of the original if you can do so with ease, otherwise breaking it down into easier sentence forms.

Write in the same grammatical person and tense as the original. If the original is in the first person, as many poems are, so must the paraphrase be.

Expand what is condensed.

Spell out explicitly what the original implies or conveys by hints. It follows that a paraphrase will normally be longer than the original.

Spell out explicitly all the possible meanings if the original is ambiguous (saying two or more things at once), as many poems are.

Use square brackets to mark off any additional elements you find it necessary to insert for the coherence of the meaning. The brackets will show that these bits are editorial -- contributed by you for the sake of clarity but not strictly "said" in the original. An example might be some implied transitional phrase or even an implied thought that occurs to the speaker causing a change in tone or feeling.

I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then. Besides,They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed-- I, too, am America.

Paraphrased Text

I am an American.

Although the color of my skin may be different from yours, I am like the rest of my fellowmen. Now I am separated from whites, but I [and my people] are gaining strength.

Soon, I [we] will join the rest of America, and my [our] rights will assure us that we are not excluded from the fruits of the country.

My darker complexion makes me no less beautiful than everybody else, which should make whites feel sorry for treating me like less than the average individual.

I am like the rest of you.

On sunny summer Sunday afternoons in Harlem when the air is one interminable ball game and grandma cannot get her gospel hymns from the Saints of God in Christ on account of the Dodgers on the radio, on sunny Sunday afternoons when the kids look all new and far too clean to stay that way, and Harlem has its washed-and-ironed-and-cleaned-best out, the ones who’ve crossed the line to live downtown miss you, Harlem of the bitter dream since their dream has come true.

“Passing” By Langston Hughes

Take a few minutes to paraphrase this poem

The SummaryA summary is condensed version of a larger reading.  A summary is not a rewrite of the original piece and does not have to be long nor should it be long.  To write a summary, use your own words to briefly express the main idea and relevant details of the piece you have read.   Your purpose in writing the summary is to give the basic ideas of the original reading.  What was it about and what did the author want to communicate? 

While reading the original work, take note of what or who is the focus and ask the usual questions that reporters use: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?  Using these questions to examine what you are reading can help you to write the summary.

Always read the introductory paragraph thoughtfully and look for a thesis statement.  Finding the thesis statement is like finding a key to a locked door.  Frequently, however, the thesis, or central idea, is implied or suggested.  Thus, you will have to work harder to figure out what the author wants readers to understand. Use any hints that may shed light on the meaning of the piece: pay attention to the title and any headings and to the opening and closing lines of paragraphs.

In writing the summary, let your reader know the piece that you are summarizing. Identify the title, author and source of the piece. You may want to use this formula:

In "Title of the Piece" (source and date of piece), author shows/offers/suggests that: central idea of the piece. 

Remember:

• Do not rewrite the original piece.• Keep your summary short.• Use your own wording.• Refer to the central and main ideas of

the original piece.• Read with who, what, when, where, why

and how questions in mind.

In the short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” author James Thurber humorously presents a character who fantasizes about himself as a hero enduring incredibly challenging circumstances. In his real life, Walter Mitty lives an ordinary, plain life; he is a husband under the control of an overbearing, critical wife.  Thurber uses lively dialogue to give readers an understanding of Mitty's character. The story takes place over a period of about twenty minutes; during this brief time, Mitty drives his wife to the hairdresser and runs errands that his wife has given him while he waits for her. In between his worrying that he is not doing what she wants him to do, he daydreams about himself as a great surgeon, brilliant repair technician, expert marksman, and brave military captain. This story shows that fantasy is often a good alternative to reality.

Here is a sample summary:

“Passing” the Short Story

By Langston Hughes

Start your summary of the story

HOMEWORK

Read: Finish Larsen’s PassingPost #4: Post your summary of "Passing" and your paraphrase of "Passing." Post #5: QHQ: Larsen’s Passing: Make sure to include cited textual support in your question or answer.