Glogster Allows for Live Reading by Beat Poets

Glogster is a great tool and fun to use. It allowed me to gather several poets in one spot for a live reading. Of course, this isn't really possible but after a little searching on YouTube I was able to find three of the most important poets of the San Francisco Renaissance reading their works and put them together on Glogster.

This Glog will be posted to the class blog a day or two before a unit on the Beat Movement begins and the students will view it before coming to class. Upon arriving in class students will be asked to share their thoughts and impressions, so far of the Beat poets. Students will have copies of one or more of the poems and the poems will be read aloud as a group. Then students will have a chance to read the same poems silently. There will be a discussion of the difference between hearing a poem and reading a poem. The importance of live reading for the Beats will be discussed and the role it played in the Beat Movement and the San Francisco Renaissance.

Quicksand Assignment

Big Question: What is the role of clothing and appearance in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand?

Now that we’ve read Nella Larsen’s Quicksand and discussed it in class, I’d like you to take a look at one of the big questions posed by this text. As Helga moves from one place to another her wardrobe changes. Choose one of these places and focus on Helga’s clothing, accessories, and appearance as she tries to find her place in her new home. What do her clothes tell us about Helga at the time or the people around her? How much choice does Helga have in deciding what to wear? Who or what drives the clothing choices made by Helga? These are just sample questions that you might address to answer the big question. Write a three to five page paper on the role of clothing in Quicksand and use the text to support your argument. Post the paper on your blog and link it to your Glog.

Create a Glog to introduce the reader of your paper to Helga in the location you chose to explore. Find images, video, and audio that bring Miss Crane to life. Include at least two quotations from the text to explain items you’ve included on your Glog.

As an example, here’s a Glog from last semester that was created as an introduction to a discussion about the debate or theme of Uplift and the Harlem Renaissance.

Glog part 2

Created a Glog with my group in class today so my rough draft may be my final copy. I added a W.E.B. DuBois Wikipedia link on his photo. I sent the Glog to a friend and he tells me it works but the e-mail he received looked very suspicious and from my end there was no way to edit it before it went out. Here's what he got:

From: "Angela"
Date: November 3, 2009 8:32:56 PM PST
To:
Subject: Take a look at this

Hi,

I thought you'd like this:
Click here

Angela

Crazy, huh?

Well, here's my Glog:

Glog

A walk through the cemetery with Walt

This post is my response to the Whitman assignment Christine posted on her blog, found here.

I think this a well-written and clear assignment. Christine treats the poem, the subject and her students with respect. Perhaps respect seems like an odd word choice but I think that it is very fitting. Christine has isolated a small but key part of “Song of Myself” that reflects on a visit to a cemetery. It might be tempting to bring up the scary or Goth images of a cemetery but like Whitman she treats this setting with respect. Whitman has found beauty and romance in “uncut hair of graves” and the assignment uses a similar approach to bring the student into an early part of the poem.

The first part of the assignment asks the students to write freely in their journals about their immediate response to the poem. This is a great way to get students started on an essay. When I did this part of the assignment I found that I was able to address several things that were on my mind after reading the fourteen or so assigned lines of the poem. I always struggle with how and where to begin an essay so having this step outlined for me in the writing process was very helpful. Having a chance to work this through in a journal entry will make starting an essay much easier.

JOURNAL ENTRY:

Reflections on a short passage from Whitman’s “Song of Myself” (1855)

This is a tricky passage for me to focus on because to find it chosen for me out all the possibilities in this work, took my breath away. For as long as I can remember I have been intrigued by cemeteries … the living, the dead, the art, the silence, the pageantry, the emptiness, and on and on. So much can be found and experienced in a cemetery. I have many favorite cemeteries and like to visit them regularly. I also explore and photograph cemeteries when I’m in a new place. When I was a child I would beg my parents to drive through the cemetery on the way home from church. But enough about me, what about the poem?

I can see the child in the first line running around the cemetery, not really understanding where he is; for him it is just another place to play and explore. Hands full of grass from a grave he wonders “What is the grass?” Perhaps he has never seen grass and doesn’t know the word for it but to an adult who has a different understanding of this place the innocent question seems to be asking for so much more than a botany lesson. The images Whitman gives us are lovely (“handkerchief of the Lord”), beautiful (“a scented gift”), mysterious (“hieroglyphic”) and romantic. This is not the cemetery of horror films and hauntings. A cemetery, for Whitman, is not a sad or frightening place.

Whitman knows that a cemetery (or dead) is where we all end up; “Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff”, all “the same”, all received the same. The grass grows around them, between them, and over them. The same grass grows “among black folks as among white”. Death can’t be cheated and death does not discriminate. Throughout his poem Whitman gathers groups of people together and he does it here in this cemetery. Whitman represents us all as one in the cities and in the end. I think it’s fascinating that he puts us together in death before he puts us together in life.

My three to five page essay for this assignment would focus on the topic in my last paragraph. I would like to take a closer look at the lists of people and occupations we find several times in Whitman’s poem.

Using New York Public Library’s Digital Gallery to Explore 1855 New York and Whitman’s “Song of Myself”

I’ll be the first to admit that working with these maps is a little challenging and nothing like a quick visit to Google Earth. To get a closer look at each map you will need to use the zoom option on the NYPLDG page; once you’ve done this you’ll find that you are able to move around the neighborhood and explore. The first image in this collection offers a reference guide to these maps. Using this as a guide, create a pictorial tour of the neighborhood on any one map in the collection. Find images of the types of businesses and buildings that occupied a city block. Given the types of buildings in the neighborhood, was it filled with workers or was it more residential? Who occupied these spaces? What did they look like, how did they live? Did one socio-economic group or several populate this neighborhood? Again, find images to support your answers to these questions.

Link your findings back to Whitman’s poem. Create a document that combines your findings with Whitman’s poem.

Working with Whitman's "Song of Myself"

What makes Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” an American poem?

Over the next several class meetings we will try to answer this question. As preparation, visit the Whitman archive and read the 1855 text of “Song of Myself”. The poem begins just above page 14 and ends with page 56. You are not required to print out all of the pages but we will be dividing the poem into sections that you will be required to bring to class. Below find which seven pages you need to bring to our next class meeting. Spend some time reading your assigned pages out loud; be prepared to read the entire poem with a small group of your classmates.

Students A, B, C, D print pages 14-20

Students E, F, G, H print pages 21-27

Students I, J, K, L print pages 28-34

Students M, N, O, P print pages 35-41

Students Q, R, S, T print pages 42-48

Students U, V, W, X print pages 49-56

If you’re nervous about reading aloud maybe John Doherty will inspire you.

Now that you’ve read to poem silently and out loud to yourself, it’s time you had a chance to hear it read to you. You’ll form into five groups to allow for a complete reading of “Song of Myself”. Take 45 minutes to read the poem and begin discussing your experiences reading the poem alone (silently or aloud) and reading it as a group. We’ll meet back here and discuss as a class. We’ll continue this discussion when we meet again.

In the meantime, take a look at 1855 street maps of New York, Paris, and London. Explore them and consider people living in those places at that time; how did they move about the city, interact with others, how likely were they to encounter someone outside of their class or community? Do these maps raise any other questions about life in the United States versus life in Europe in 1855? Be prepared to discuss these questions and how Whitman’s poem illustrates these differences.

Lastly, do a little exploring yourself. On pages 21 and 22 Whitman list several types of people and working he has seen in America, find an image of one them and their European counterpart. Write a short response (2-3 paragraphs) your 1855 American has to "Song of Myself" and questions his or her European counterpart has about the poem. The questions can be in the form of a lengthy conversation between these two people or they can simply be a list of questions. If you present this as a conversation you do not have to write the response of the 1855 American.