Namesake Workshop & Revision; Cultural Poem Draft Exercise/Models

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Period 1: 

 Please submit your Namesake Baseline Fiction Drafts to Google Classroom this morning. 

 Then work with your workshop group to give feedback and advice on how a draft may be improved in your workshop group.

 Workshop Groups (for quarter 1):
  • Group A: Faduma, Fadumo, Tyler, Demani, Mariangelis, Genesis, Andrea
  • Group B: Emani, James, Justice, Kaniel, Asher, Raina
Remember to create a workshop folder for your group. Share emails so that each of you has access to your workshop folder. Add me at 1299861 (bradley.craddock@rcsd121.org). Share your "How It Feels to Be Me" essay with your group. 

Each member of the group should make comments about each essay. Try to add comments that will help a writer add to their idea. Consider theme, diction, syntax, imagery, etc.

After receiving feedback, revise your draft. 

Period 2: 

Cultural Poetry Draft Exercise:
  • Elizabeth Bishop: "In the Waiting Room" (pg. 726-728)
  • Gwendolyn Brooks: "The Mother" (pg. 750-751)
  • Frank O'Hara: "Autobiographia Literaria" (pg. 779)
  • Donald Hall: "My Son, My Executioner" (pg. 794)
  • Lucille Clifton: "Homage to my Hips" (pg. 845)
  • Carolyn Forche: "The Memory of Elena" (pg. 880)
  • Askold Melnyczuk: "The Enamel Box" (pg. 888)
  • Cathy Song: "Lost Sister" (pg. 889-891)
Write a cultural poem draft. There is no wrong way to write a cultural poem. Everyone's experience and subject matter will be unique. It's okay to get personal. Avoid over-dramatizing your poem. This is not a life or death situation in most cases, but a subtle understanding of your (or your speaker's) own place in the world. You may tell a story, use fictional elements like dialogue, use traditional phrases or family sayings or idioms, etc.

What you'll need is a strong setting. How is your room (or a room in your house) a reflection of who you are and what your family values, for example? How is the setting significant to the speaker of your poem? If you can't answer this, make the setting significant.

TIPS/RULES/GUIDELINES:
  • Allow your speaker to witness a single significant action, tradition, or cultural moment that is unique to you, your family or family members, your group, your "homies" or your own personal experience. 
  • Describe that moment using different kinds of imagery (choose at least one, but you can mix them: visual imagery, sound imagery, tactile imagery, gustatory imagery, kinetic imagery, olfactory imagery...)
  • Allow your speaker to reflect on the meaning of this action. Your "volta" or turning point should come near the very end of your poem (if not the last shocking line...where your speaker realizes something significant--perhaps something now found that had been missing in one's life, a recognition of belonging, for example.)
  • Your poem must be at least 10 lines in length. It can be longer than 10 lines.
  • Proofread and title your draft.
HOMEWORK: Chapter 5 of The Namesake. Expect a mid-novel quiz on chapters 1-5 next class!

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