April 27 through May 1

Want to review Jeopardy Style? Check out Raisin in the Sun Review.

We took an in-class quiz comparing a couple of poems. Students were graded, and then they had an opportunity to correct the misses for half credit. If you missed this, see teacher outside class time.

We also watched the video on Lorraine Hansberry that is on this blog, three videos back. Students will see some information from this video on the final test. One period did not have an opportunity to watch in class, and they need to watch at home.

We read and discussed these poems:
"A Tribute to Mother"
"Mother to Son"
"When I heard the learn'd astronomer".

A Tribute to My Mother
David L. Weatherford

http://www.davidlweatherford.com/tribute.html

\
Your gentle guidance has immeasurably influenced
all that I have done,
all that I do,
and all that I will ever do.

Your sweet spirit is indelibly imprinted on
all that I have been,
all that I am,
and all that I will ever be.

Thus, you are a part of all that
I accomplish and all that I become.
And so it is that when I help my neighbor,
your helping hand is there also.

When I ease the pain of a friend,
they owe a debt to you.
When I show a child a better way,
either by word or by example,
you are the teacher once removed.


Because everything I do reflects values learned from you,
any wrong that I  right,
any heart I may brighten,
any gift that I share,
or burden I may lighten,
is in its own small way a tribute to you.


Because you gave me life, and more importantly,
lessons in how to live, you are the wellspring from which flows
all good I may achieve in my time on earth.
For all that you are and for all that I am,

THANK YOU , MOM.


Author response to my sister Tonya:

Hi Tonya:

Thanks for signing my guestbook.  I was particularly touched by your note because my own mother, for whom I wrote the poem, also has dementia.   Ironically, I have since written another poem for her, and I have struggled with whether I should read it to her or not, as she has a limited attention span, and I have no idea how much of the message she would fully grasp.  I got your note right before I went home for Mother's Day weekend;  it made me decide to read the poem to her over that weekend, and I did.   I honestly don't know what it meant to her to hear it, as she cannot speak, and does not demonstrate a lot of emotion.
But at least now, i will never ask myself if I should have read it to her when I had the chance.
Thanks!


sincerely,
David L. Weatherford


Mother to Son (Langston Hughes )

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor-
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now-
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.




Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

180. When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer


WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick; 5
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.