Write Your own Poetry Prompt!

1. Pick any poem out of the Literature Sense & Sound book and make a TPCASTT.
2. Based on the Sample Question 1 Assignments that I gave you on Friday, write a Question 1 Prompt.
3. Post the poem and the prompt on the class blog.
4. After the poems and prompts are posted on the blog, choose one to write your Question 1 Essay. Claim the poem by posting your name underneath the poem & prompt. Only one person can sign up for each poem. (There may be an instance where two people sign up for the same poem, but do that as a last resort only!!!)
5. After you have “claimed” a poem. Write a Question 1 essay. Share this as a Google document with me and the writer of the prompt. This is due Friday
6. By Tuesday, you should have graded and scored your partner’s essay. 

Discuss this week's poetry

Discuss Langston Hughes' "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" & Octavio Paz' "The Street"

• You need to write one conversation starter (1 paragraph) about any or all of the poems. Your conversation starters can be personal or reflective in nature, or they may be analytical. Refer to specific lines and incorporate quotes in your response. You may also pose questions as well. 

•  You will also need to reply to at least one classmate's conversation starter (1 paragraph). Be sure to address (by name) the classmate(s) that you are responding to. 

Feminism in the Modern World

After reading many of your blog posts, I wanted to remind you of a couple of things from Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor:
1. "Don't Read With Your Eyes" I know at times this may be hard to do, since the only tool to decoding the world around you, is a 2015 model, but we still must consider the social and historical climate of the time period of the work. Remember Foster states, "Instead try to find a reading perspective that allows for sympathy with the historical moment of the story, that understands the text as having been written against its own social, historical, cultural, and personal background" (Foster 228).
2. "It's All Political". Chopin wrote about the world around her. As Foster states, "The world contains many things, and on the level of society, part of what contains the political reality of the time--power structures, relations among classes, issues of justices and rights, interactions between the sexes and among various racial and ethnic constituencies" (Foster 115). It is no wonder that Chopin would chose this as a topic of her writing, yet many of you may be surprised to find out that Kate Chopin did not consider herself a feminist. After reading her novel, many find this difficult to believe. Is Kate Chopin like modern women today who have a hard time identifying with the title of feminism?

Discuss Feminism in our Modern Society: You are not limited to these questions.
What does it mean to be a feminist today? Are there negative connotations associated with the word? Why? or Why not? What is the image of the modern women? Do we still have two polar opposites on the spectrum: Reisz and Ratignolle? Is feminism an illusory or real?

I have added Aziz Ansari's commentary for an important reason. While I know he's a comedian, and not an authority on feminism, comics often satirize the world around them. In that sense, like Chopin, Ansari is also commenting on the political and social issues of the time.. This is just one of many viewpoints on modern day feminism. Feel fee to respond to Ansari's arguments as well.