week+of+nov+10+and+12+(for+lit+class)

November 10 This week we're going to continue to think about leading class discussions (what kind of questions do we ask in order to learn certain things about the way our students think) as we look at poetry. As we think about poetry, I'd like us to also consider what it is we want students to know (about the genre; about the concepts/content in poems) and what we students to be able to do as readers of poetry (what strategies do we use as we read poetry? what are our purposes for reading and writing poetry?).

Poetry and Performance - What do these writers and teachers have to say about poetry and performance? Small groups to examine Morrell's chapter and the Sutton chapter.
 * Structure of this kind of article/chapter (common ground, problem, response, background/history, keeping the promise section, to be sure section, new significance, call for next steps
 * Key terms: how are they defining and using the term "literacy" and/or "literacy event" and "poetry" / "spoken performance"
 * Identifying their pedagogy ...
 * What do they want students to know (about poetry, about poets)?
 * Key concepts they want students to know about poetry?
 * How do they want students to view poets?
 * What do they want students to be able to do (as readers, as participants in a literate community)?
 * What reading strategies do they make visible to students?
 * What do they say are the features of an "analysis?"
 * How do their students learn these things? (What do students do?)
 * How do they know if their students have learned? (What are their assessments? When do they assess?)

Something Permanent - I chose this poetry collection for a few reasons (one writer; seems to be built around a theme; links to the Walker Evans photography)

So, let's read the photos as one genre and the poetry as another genre

Quick Analysis of Photos, then of Poetry ... using the Bwawarshi genre analysis heuristic (again)

Understanding the Rhetorical situation
 * G/M (genre/media/mode) = ?
 * A (audience) = who reads this genre? what roles do they perform?
 * P (purpose) = when is this genre used? why?
 * S (situation of the writing/writer) = where does this genre appear? With what other genres might it interact?

Identifying and describing patterns in the genre's features
 * Identify and describe patterns in the genre's features ...
 * What recurrent features do the sample share? For example, ...
 * What content is typically included?
 * What sorts of examples are used?
 * What are the parts of the text and how are they organized?
 * How long is a typical text in the genre?

Analyze what these patterns reveal about the situation
 * What roles for writers and readers does it encourage or discourage?
 * How is the subject of the genre treated? What's considered most/least important?
 * What actions does the genre help make possible (and/or make difficult)?
 * What attitude toward readers is implied in the genre?

Here's the key question after analysis of each of the poems and the photography: How are they connected? That is, how do the poems change the photographs and how do the photographs change the poems?

As we think about "change," what do you see as the relationship between money and power and the possibility of change? What does Walker Evans and Cynthia Rylant have to say about this? How do you know?

For next time, bring in drafts of **Questioning Circles** (Strategic Reading p. 136 and we've tried this in class already) for one poem and from one short story (from Woman Hollering Creek or another short story) that is related to your unit's theme and overarching question.

Also, the syllabus says that we're reading American Born Chinese (//ABC)// for next Tuesday, but since we're headed to Fairmont on that day, then we'll have to re-arrange when we read //ABC//.