Poetry Analysis and PEE Chain Prompt

2. Monday, February 29th Agenda • 1. Extended Do Now • 2. Introduce Extended PEE chain prompt and structure • 3. Briefly discuss soul food • Homework: • Prepare for Thursday’s presentation. Memorize poem, come in dressed as your character. Print performance rubric. You will also turn in the final copy of your poem and poem rubric • Bring in soul food dish • Plan accordingly to meet PEE chain deadline: March 10th • Early deadline for extra points: Tuesday, March 8th

3. Do Now/Extended Response • Choose one piece of poetry that we have studied in class and explain how the work reflects the time period. • Step 1: Choose a piece (i.e “Harlem”, “Mother to Son”, “Strange Fruit”, etc.) • Step 2: Write down a list of what you understand about the time period. This can be historically, socially, or culturally. Use timeline and make inferences based on topics and other pieces of literature explored in class. • Step 3: Write an extended response answering the prompt.

4. Review of PEE chain • Point • Linking Phrase (1) • Evidence • Linking Phrase (2) • Explanation

5. Linking Phrase 1 (connect point to evidence) • “In the text” • “For example” • “This idea is expressed when” • “This idea is shown when” • “This is evident when”

6. Linking Phrase 1 (connect point to evidence) • “In the text” • “For example” • “This idea is expressed when” • “This idea is shown when” • “This is evident when”

7. Linking Phrase (2) • In this statement you should begin to connect the evidence to the explanation/analysis • “This quotation explains” • “This suggests” • “Here, the author is explaining” • “This evidence suggests that”

8. Extended Explanation/Analysis • 1. Explain the quotation • 2. Explain how the quotation supports the point • 3. Analyze Diction/Language/Literary Devices • 4. Analyze Context/explain how the social, cultural and historical background is represented in the text. • 5. Bring the PEE chain to a close by wrapping up your ideas.

9. Prompt = the question you are answering in writing • Choose one piece of poetry that we have studied over the course of this unit and explain how the work reflects the time period during which it was written. Your response should include evidence from the poem and comment on specific language techniques that are used to help convey the message of the poem. Your analysis should also refer to the historical context.

10. Tuesday, March 1st Agenda • 1. Do Now • 2. Review PEE chain prompt • 3. Breaking down Prompt • 4. Analyzing Diction and Language • Homework: • Prepare for Thursday: To make your lives easier, please turn in both rubrics and your poem to me tomorrow or today, unless you are still making changes. • Please also print PEE chain materials

11. Calendar • Thursday, March 3rd: Presentation Performances, Come in Character, and Soul Food Lunch • Monday, March7th: Rough Draft of PEE Chain is due • Tuesday, March 8th: Early deadline for PEE chain and extra Points. Typed and in APA format with IB rubric attached. • Thursday, March 10th: Final PEE chain is due, typed and in APA format. IB rubric must be attached. • Friday, March 11th: Corte ends

12. Breakdown the Prompt • Step 1: The first step for any good writer is to fully understand what they are writing about. Take this time to write down what the prompt is asking you to do …

13. Choose the Text • Step 1: Choose the text that you want to analyze. Perhaps you want to choose the poem you enjoyed the most, the one you understood the most, OR maybe you want to choose the poem that you were able to analyze the most. • The sample PEE chain includes an analysis of the poem, “Strange Fruit”.

14. Answer the question • How does the poem that you have chosen reflect the time period during which it was written? This requires you to have an understanding of what was happening during the time the poem was written. • So, what was happening during this time? • Hint: You should have completed this in your “Do Now”.

15. Answer to the question = point • “Strange Fruit”, written by Abel Meeropol in 1937 and performed by Billie Holiday in 1939, reflects the time period during which it was written because it uses descriptive language to protest against racism and the lynching of African Americans that existed in the South during this time.

16. Explaining language • A good writer also answers the prompt fully. Keep in mind that the prompt also asks you to, “include evidence from the poem and comment on specific language techniques that are used to help convey the message of the poem. “ • Do the following: • 1. Identify at least two examples of literary devices or figurative language within your poem that you plan to use as evidence in your response. • 2. Break down the lines/evidence by explaining what the lines mean. Explain the figurative language or literary devices.

17. So what will I need to do in order to analyze language? .. • Identify literary devices, like figurative language (e.g. simile, metaphor, personification, etc.), as well as rhyme, imagery alliteration, etc. THEN explain what they mean.

18. For example, • Stanza 1: Southern trees bear a strange fruit,Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. • Stanza 2: Pastoral scene of the gallant South,The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,And the sudden smell of burning flesh! • Stanza 3: Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,Here is a strange and bitter crop. • The entire first stanza in “Strange Fruit” reveals the meaning of the metaphoric and symbolic title. Specifically, the personificationused in the second line suggests that the “blood on the leaves and blood at the root” tells the reader that the strange fruit is or was at some point in time living. The third line in the stanza finally explains the source of the blood: “a black body swinging”. Furthermore, as the first stanza draws to a close, the reader is able to understand the imagery is also being employed in the second stanzas. This allows the readers to picture and imagine the pain, and perhaps, death that is being associated with the strange fruit. The reader is able to understand that the strange fruit, which is a black body, is the strange fruit that is hanging from the trees.

19. Diction • Diction = word choice. • Diction is important because it: • Shapes the reader’s interpretation of a text • can add or take away meaning from a text • suggests levels of formality. • can express the author’s feelings about a topic. • Diction is determined by audience. You speak differently to different audiences (teachers, parents, your friends) • Types of diction: • Informal: (talking to friends, text messages, social media) • Formal: (academic writing, addressing teachers, authority, professional emails) • Colloquial/slang (talking to friends, when conveying a point, writing or using dialect)

20. When analyzing diction • It is important to understand that the author CHOSE certain words on purpose! • Therefore, it is up to you to determine why the writer chose one word over another • Or why they chose a certain word in general • Some reasons writers choose certain words • To affect the reader • To conjure or bring up a certain emotion • To create a tone • To create a contrast or opposition in the sentence • To cater to the audience (children, adults, a certain group of people, certain interests, etc.)

21. Diction is like choosing your clothes

22. Let’s try it • Why does the author use the word “gallant” as an adjective for the South in line 1 of the 2nd stanza? • Why does the author use the words “strange” and “fruit” throughout the poem? • Why does the author use the word “bulging” in the 2nd line of the 2nd stanza? • Why is the word “bitter” used in the last line of the poem?

23. Point • Remember to answer the question: “Strange Fruit”, written by Abel Meeropol in 1937 and performed by Billie Holiday in 1939, reflects the time period during which it was written because in the text the author employs sensory language and literary devices to emphasize the amount of racism that existed in the South and to protest against the lynching of African Americans.

24. (LP 1 and evidence) • Remember quote should be no longer than 7 words: For example, after having revealed that the strange fruit is the lifeless body of an African American who was lynched, the author describes the horrible and sickening sight of this act. The author describes the body as having “bulging eyes and a twisted mouth”.

25. (LP2 and Explanation) • Here, the author uses imagery to appeal to the reader’s senses and emotions by describing how lynching destroyed the black body and was left hanging for others to see. This reveals both the cruel intentions of the aggressor, their desire to have control using terror and fear, and the inhumane treatment African Americans were subjected to. Creating such a startling image allows the reader to wrestle with this truth.

26. Evidence/Diction Analysis • You cannot really analyze diction without quoting it so it is also evidence: The author goes on to describe the contradiction that exists in the South during this time. The South, known to some for its grandeur and eloquence was also responsible for great cruelty. The author describes the scent of magnolia flowers as “sweet” but immediately describes the “sudden” smell of “burning flesh!” in the next line. The author juxtaposes the lines to reveal what was truly happening in the Southern states. By placing two contradictory ideas beside each other the reader is awakened to the amount of death, brutality, and racism that existed in such a seemingly “sweet” place. This disrupts the belief that the South was a beautiful place in 1937 because it had “black bodies swinging” so frequently from trees that they could have been considered a type of fruit, an abnormal, “strange” fruit.

27. Wednesday, March 2nd Agenda • 1. Do Now: Review • 2. Context Analysis • 3. Begin Writing Parts of the PEE chain • Homework: • Prepare for Thursday: print rubrics, bring final copy of poem, memorize poem, come dressed in character • Bring in dish (by 10:30 am) • Rough draft for PEE chain due Monday

28. Context Definition • the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc. • Context is the background, the words, events or circumstances that took place before an event, that shaped it. • Context often includes historical or political events, societal norms, or cultural traditions and practices.

29. For example, • In order to understand the memoir Night, one has to first understand the Holocaust, Nazi Germany, and Anti Semitism. These events and ideas are all a part of the context • In order to understand the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance, one has to understand the African American experience in the United States, which includes being stolen from Africa, being shipped to a new land, being sold like animals into a system of slavery, being degraded and mistreated for centuries, Jim Crow Laws, being denied human and civil rights, and managing to remain dignified through all of it. This is context.

30. Questions to analyze Context • 1. How does the context (social, cultural, historical) influence the text? How does what was happening during this time influence what the poet writes about? • 2. Discuss what was happening during the time the poem was written and briefly restate how this is shown in the text.

31. Context • The historical implications in “Strange Fruit” are obvious. Between 1882 and 1968 more than 4,000 people were lynched, over seventy percent were African American. Over 95% percent of the lynchings took place in the South. After it was written in 1937, “Strange Fruit” was adopted and performed by Billie Holiday, whose mass audience revealed lynching for the racist, heinous crime that existed in the “free” world. The popularity of the protest song spread awareness and eventually led to the end of lynching of African American people.

32. Friday, March 4th Agenda • 1. Do Now: take out PEE chain materials • 2. Individual time to work on PEE chains • Homework: • Rough draft (written in one document) is due Monday. • Tuesday is the early deadline

33. Writing Tips • Please do not simply rewrite or restate what you see in the sample. It is a guide, not an example for you to copy. • Remember that you must breakdown and explain your evidence, so be wise about you choose to include in your evidence and analysis.

34. Begin Writing • Using the resources below to guide you: • Language Analysis • After introducing your evidence/quote • Identify figurative language • Identify literary devices • Then explain what they mean, why does the author use them • Diction Analysis • Choose a word that you think has significant meaning • Explain why you think the author chose that particular word. • Use the language from yesterday’s notes to help you (was it for affect, to create a tone, to create an image, to show a contradiction, to appeal to a certain audience) • Then introduce the context analysis • You might begin my saying “In the year (the title of the poem) was published ____________ was happening” • Discuss what was happening during the time the poem was written and briefly restate how this is shown in the text

35. “Strange Fruit”, written by Abel Meeropol in 1937 and performed by Billie Holiday in 1939, reflects the time period during which it was written because in the text the author employs sensory language and literary devices to emphasize the amount of racism that existed in the South, and to protest against the lynching of African Americans. For example, after having revealed that the “strange fruit” is a lifeless body of an African American who has been lynched, the author describes the horrible and sickening sight of the act. The author describes the body as having “bulging eyes and a twisted mouth”. Here, the author uses imagery to appeal to the reader’s senses and emotions by describing how lynching destroyed the black body and was left hanging for others to see. This reveals both the cruel intentions of the aggressor, their desire to have control using terror and fear, and the inhumane treatment African Americans were subjected to. Creating such a startling image allows the reader to wrestle with this truth. The author goes on to describe the contradiction that exists in the South during this time. The South, known to some for its grandeur and eloquence was also responsible for great cruelty. The author describes the scent of magnolia flowers as “sweet” but immediately describes the “sudden” smell of “burning flesh!” in the next line. The author juxtaposes the lines to reveal what was truly happening in the Southern states. By placing two contradictory ideas beside each other the reader is awakened to the amount of death, brutality, and racism that existed in such a seemingly “sweet” place. This disrupts the belief that the South was a beautiful place in 1937 because it had “black bodies swinging” so frequently from trees that they could have been considered a type of fruit, an abnormal, “strange” fruit. The historical implications in “Strange Fruit” are obvious. Between 1882 and 1968 more than 4,000 people were lynched, over seventy percent were African American. Over 95% percent of the lynchings took place in the South. After it was written in 1937, “Strange Fruit” was adopted and performed by Billie Holiday, whose mass audience revealed lynching for the racist, heinous crime that existed in the “free” world. The popularity of the protest song spread awareness and eventually led to the end of lynching of African American people.

36. Questions to analyze Context • 1. How does the context (social, cultural, historical) influence the text? How does what was happening during this time influence what the poet writes about? • 2. Discuss what was happening during the time the poem was written and briefly restate how this is shown in the text.

37. Mini – Review for extended PEE chain • Going over multiple ways to answer the prompt • Making sure that the point is one sentence • Following the correct structure • Identify figurative language, explain it, explain how this supports the point • Then transition into context and reviewing what goes in a context analysis • Including citations, (using only for context) not for poem

38. Directions • Gather multiple highlighters, pens, or markers for this exercise. Each part of the extended PEE chain will be marked using a different color.

39. Point • Highlight or circle your point with one color.

40. Point cont. • Keep in mind that your point should be ONE SENTENCE that answers the prompt. • Remember that the prompt is: Choose a poem and explain how the poem reflects the time period during which it was written • Therefore …

41. Your Point should begin with something like this … • “Harlem” reflects the quality of life for African Americans in 1945 because … • “Mother to Son” reflects what was happening in 1922 because in it … • “I, Too” reflects the time period during which it was written because Hughes explains … • “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” reflects the attitude of African Americans in 1921 because it shows … • …. Because it discusses • … Because it expresses • .. Because it demonstrates

42. Then answer the question in one sentence • How exactly does your poem reflect the time period? • Does it reveal a certain event, like lynching • Does it express the difficulty of African Americans • Let’s hear some of what you had to say …

43. Moving into your evidence • Every argument is in a sense a PEE chain because you use evidence to support what you are saying. • In academic writing linking phrases are used because quotations MUST be introduced.

44. Highlight your linking phrase in a new color

45. Crafting complete linking phrases • Some of you simply threw in a linking phrase but did not bother to complete the idea or sentence. • The linking phrases are designed to get you started. You must do the rest.

46. Incomplete linking phrases • “For example, “Life for me aint been a crystal stair”. • This is an incomplete sentence and therefore, an incomplete idea. • The linking phrase is there to set you up to begin your ideas, you have to fill in the rest to complete the idea and sentence. • Please take this time to evaluate your linking phrases. Read them aloud. Are they complete sentences?

47. Correct linking phrase • For example, this idea is expressed in the first line when the speaker in the poem says, “life for me aint been a crystal stair”.

48. Highlight the analysis in a different color • Or write it in if you do not have it

49. Analysis • 1. Explain the quotation • Keep in mind that the first part of the analysis is to explain the quote. • What is meant when the author says, “life for me aint been a crystal stair” … Or whatever your first quote is? • Here, the author explains … • Here, the author reveals … • This quotation suggests …

50. Check your analysis • Please make sure that you explain what your first example means • Then explain how the idea supports the point. • You might say: “This idea supports the point because” … • It shows this idea • It expresses this sentiment • It means this