1) Silent Reading - remember that you need to be 1/4 of the way through your novel by Thursday. 2) "The Dumka" - what is happening in this poem? What are the contrasts?
Suggestions Regarding Response:
• “alone,” yet “together” lines 1; 39–40
• they sit quietly but in their thoughts, “something dense / and radiant swirled around them” lines 10 and 11
• the sky is smeared green with doom but afterwards the air is drenched with an amber glow lines 13–15
• “fields of maize” contrast with “bread lines in the city” lines 22 and 23
• “the war” contrasts with “the homecoming” and the new prosperity that comes with peace lines 25–28
• the deprivation of the Depression era contrasts with post-war prosperity lines 12–29 • “the homecoming” contrasts with the later solitude of old age and a vanishing neighbourhood lines 27–30
• contrast in the overall structure of the poem; the couple is alone together at the beginning and end, but in the middle stanza they are surrounded by the swirl of their memories various references
• contrast between the present as the older couple sits quietly alone together and their memories of past experiences various references
This list is not exhaustive.
Now, get out your rought draft and mark it with a partner.
Debate the multiple choice answers if need be or consult others in the room.
Mark one another's written responses. Remember the 6 point scale. Discuss what is working and what is not.
Give yourselves a mark for the whole pre-test and write these marks and your names on a piece of paper and hand them in.
3) Revisions in the library. Now that you have some feedback, you are to go to the library and re-write the paragraph response.
Make sure you have:
- A clear thesis statement that uses both the title and the author's name
- Transitional phrases
- No re-telling
- At least 8 sentences
- Sentence variety - try having some really short sentences and build one or two really looooooong sentences
- at least 6 short supporting quotations (even a word or two from the poem counts as support)
- a memorable last line/conclusion
4) Paragraph is due TODAY
