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ENC1101--Group Analysis Activity: Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," Colored Me," Walker's "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self," and Angelou's "Graduation" (in-class activity on August 19, 2024)


Print out and annotate these essays. You must have a printed-out version in your binder AND an electronic version on your laptop. (You may upload a picture of your annotated text to your computer.) I could ask to see (or collect) either version for a grade at any time during the semester. If you do not have the assignment I ask to see or collect, you will earn a grade of zero. No excuses. You should not come late to class because you had to print an assignment. I will not accept your work, and you will earn a grade of zero. 

PDFs (Click on the links, print them out, and annotate them.) See "How to Annotate" on this website, or google that phrase. You will find plenty of resources on how to annotate. Simply highlighting is not annotating. You will earn a grade of zero.


"Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" https://www.oleanschools.org/cms/lib/NY19000263/Centricity/Domain/166/Beauty.pdf (due August 19, 2024)

"Graduation" https://docdrop.org/static/drop-pdf/Angelou_Graduation-lGDZn_ocr-PG3Hv_ocr.pdf (August 21, 2024)

Group Activity

You have begun analyzing and annotating these important texts: "How It Feels to Be Colored Me," "Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self," and "Graduation." Now you will work with peers to finish the annotations and address the points below. Record ideas for class discussions or brainstorm ideas for a Compare/Contrast Analysis Essay. All group members should write down their collective ideas in their binders. 

Help one another understand the similarities and differences among the texts and assist your peers in developing a specific and focused thesis statement for a possible Compare and Contrast Essay. For example: Hurston and Angelou discuss how their "blackness" affected attitudes of self, identity, and society. Hurston presents vignettes from different periods of her life, whereas Angelou focuses solely on her childhood graduation experience.

With your partner(s), also do the following:

  1. Read the essay together (softly).
  2. Discuss what you have read. Think of good questions to elicit class discussion. 
  3. Create a list of similarities and differences among the essays.
  4. Decide how you are going to present and discuss your assigned essay.
  5. Consider the following as you think of analysis questions--
  • subject(s)
  • theme(s)
  • purpose(s)
  • mood
  • tone
  • audience
  • figurative language (similes, metaphors, extended metaphors, personification, tropes)
  • voice
  • point of view
  • diction (in particular, colloquial language)
  • organization/structure
  • shifts
  • setting
  • dialogue
  • characterization
  • imagery
  • details
  • style
  • narrative "payoff"; epiphany; revelation; lesson learned; insights
You should keep your own record of group work in your binder. You may be writing a Comparison/Contrast Essay on these three texts, and you can use the ideas you generate today. Title this activity: Analysis and Comparison/Contrast Activity--Hurston, Walker, and Angelou Essays.

FYI: Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928 (still living).
Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, in 1944 (still living).
Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, in 1891 and died in
1960.

"Graduation" was first published in 1970.
"Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self" was published in
1983.
"How It Feels to Be Colored Me" was published in 1928.

If an essay is assigned, use the checklist in the link below. Staple the checklist to the front of your essay.

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