BLOG #4 - Claude McKay poetry

Harlem Renaissance
Reading Response Blog #4 Due Thursday, December 1st

Read the following poems while also considering the excerpt from Claude McKay’s A Long Way From Home packet pgg. 157-172.
Post your responses of literary analysis on the web blog in paragraph form. Attempt to analyze the poem for its art versus its assumed propagandist components.
Please make line citations when referring to the poems.

Poems by Claude McKay:
“Baptism”-Taytra Todd
“The White House” - Jes Stiner
“The Negro’s Friend” - Robbie Shiver
“On a Primitive Canoe” - Passion Rutledge
“The Tropics in New York” - Cyrus Roepers
“When Dawn Comes to the City” - Ajay Premkumar
“The Desolate City” - Jake Levin & Mona Dooley
“The Harlem Dancer”- Martha Diamond
“Saint Isaac’s Church, Petrograd” - Olivia Dewey
“Barcelona”- Maria Bissell

How does your poem compare to the others in this group in its form?
When and where was your poem published?

Comment on the following appropriate poetic components of your poem in paragraph form:
Imagery
Syntax
Figurative Language (metaphor, simile, etc.)
Sound
Diction
Speaker and Tone
Rhythm

Welcome to Harlem Renaissance!

Congratulations on being technically savvy enough to sign on to the Web Log.

The web log is an opportunity for you to respond to reading material and have a shared dialogue with your peers before class.

Here is a bit about how the blog will work:

Blogs are due on or before Thursday or Friday by 2pm. A blog should assert some thesis regarding the reading or in a section of text. You may challenge or defend a characterization, moral explanation, description/depiction, word choice, or the absence of some other necessary component. Attempt to raise a question and answer it. You must read the other submissions before your own in order not to duplicate or repeat the same argument. Be sure to write what you mean; you will be held accountable for your words. Blogs should be at least 300 words long. Spelling, grammar and syntax count.

Each blog will have three (3) Blog Witnesses. The Blog Witnesses are exempt from writing a blog that week. They must each respond thoughtfully to each of the writings posted by fellow students. The witnesses may critique, analyze, review or challenge the author’s blog. Blog Witnesses are then in charge of leading a portion of Monday’s class to discuss the reactions to the text, and raise at least four (4) critical questions that address the assigned text. Blog Witness responses must be posted by Sunday night before class by 8pm. Blog Witness dates are listed below in parentheses.

I will use the following RUBRIC to grade your blog entries:
- timely & sufficient length 1/1
- asserts a strong clear thesis 3/3
- includes examples from the text 2/2
- answers raised questions 1/1
- sufficiently addresses topic 3/3
- thoughtful & creative content 2/2
- well-written (grammar & syntax) 3/3
TOTAL - 20/20
(The total is graded out of 20 points. You receive 5 points for completing the blog).

Blog Schedule:
Friday, September 30th - BLOG#1
- (Taytra Todd, John Steiner & Miss Jefferson)
Friday, October 14th - BLOG #2
- (Jake Levin, Cyrus Roepers & Passion Rutledge)
Thursday, November 3rd - BLOG #3
- (Olivia Dewey, Maria Bissell & Martha Diamond)
Thursday, December 1st - BLOG #4
- (Maria Abramovich, Kane Kanagawa & Tom Simeone)
Friday, December 9th - BLOG #5
- (Robert Shiver, Mona Dooley & Ajay Premkumar)