Top of your page: Class Notes, Date Important points you took away from the lesson◦Doodles◦Questions◦Make sure it’s meaningful! They will be part of your grade

Important skill for future courses

Note Taking

No separate title page

Last name before page number of each page in top right hand corner

First page - Top left hand corner:Your NameTeacher’s NameClassDate the assignment is due/handed in

Title (centered) = no bold/italics/underline

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Biographical Essay Format - MLA

Always double space Indent each new paragraph (for any paper)

The font is 12pt Times New Roman

MLA – Other Information

Your paper should reflect what you have learned about and should help readers get to know your poet.

Be sure to talk about how the poet’s socio-cultural context influenced their writing! Make connections using examples to strengthen your writing.

You are demonstrating what you have learned about your poet and what connections you are making. It is okay to use “I” in your paper.

Remember your sources from your annotated bibliography! They are the background research to your paper!

Content of Paper

Introduction:Your introduction should: Introduce reader to your topic (poet) Grab the readers attention Identify what you will be discussing/focusing

on in your paper (thesis statement) Include the direction your paper is going.

What are the 3 subtopics you will talk about in the body of your essay to support your thesis?

5 Paragraph Essay

Body: 3 paragraphs, each talking about one of the

subtopics mentioned in your introduction Information about your poet and how

his/her life is connected to writing Use examples and quotes from your sources

for support These paragraphs should show how your

subtopics are connected to your thesis statement

5 Paragraph Essay

Conclusion:

Brings your paper to a closeSums up the main points that are important for the reader to take away from your paper

5 Paragraph Essay

Short QuoteRomantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree.

An improvement was the development of boats, which allowed farmers to “sell to new places” and resulted in a “substantial increase in a farmer’s ability to earn income” (Darren 76).

He creates a framework for the rest of his book as he offers his readers stories of his own trials and errors: “When I first became a farmer, I tried to do everything by myself but I realized it wasn’t possible” (Darren 5).

MLA Style Quotes

Transitions connect ideas and give your paper a “flow” which makes your ideas easier to understand

Transitions between paragraphs—the content of one paragraph leads into the next by suggesting the content of the following paragraph

Transitions

Criteria 4 3 2 1

Content:How well do you know your poet? What have you learned about this person? Have you answered the question: How did this person’s socio-cultural context influence his or her writing? Do you use details and examples from the person’s life to help the reader really get to know this person?

Demonstrates excellent understanding of person’s life and contributions to the world of literature. Includes information that makes the person “come alive”. Demonstrates a profound understanding of the impact of socio-cultural context.

Demonstrates good understanding of important ideas and events in person’s life. Discusses how the individual’s socio-cultural context factors in to his or her writing.

Demonstrates some gaps in understanding. Includes some factual errors and misconceptions. Attempts to discuss the importance of socio-cultural context.

Demonstrates little knowledge or understanding of the person. Does not discuss the relevance of socio-cultural context. Written work is merely a re-writing of facts.

Organization: Is your essay well organized? Does your beginning paragraph draw your reader in?Does your final paragraph summarize what is important to know about your person?

Introduction and conclusion are strong and engaging. Information is presented in a logical and interesting order. Ideas flow well.

Good introduction and conclusion. Information is presented in a logical order. Uses adequate transitions between ideas.

Introduction and conclusion are present , but not complete. An organization is evident, but some ideas are presented out of order. Attempts to use transitions.

There does not seem to be an organizational plan. Ideas seem jumbled and disconnected.

Supporting details: Do you use details and examples from the person’s life to help the reader really get to know this person?

Develops ideas fully using appropriate and relevant examples, reasons, details, explanations, and generalizations.

Develops ideas using some examples, details, and explanations.

Uses some examples and explanation to express ideas. May include some examples that are not relevant to the topic.

Does not use relevant examples or explanations to elaborate on the topic.

Mechanics usage: Have you proofread your essay? Did you vary your sentence structure? Did you choose the most appropriate words to communicate your ideas.

Contains few grammatical or spelling errors. Uses varied sentence structure. Uses strong, precise, and descriptive language.

Several spelling and/or grammatical errors Attempts to vary sentence structure. Uses precision of language.

Contains errors which interfere somewhat with comprehension. Little attempt to vary sentence structure or word choice.

Many errors make comprehension difficult or impossible. No attempt to vary sentence structure or make good word choices.

GCO 8: Students will be expected to use writing and other ways of representing to explore, clarify, and reflect on their thoughts, feelings, experiences and learning: and to use their imagination. 8.1, 8.2, 8.3GCO 9: Students will be expected to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences purposes, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3GCO 10: Students will be expected to use a range of strategies to develop effective writing and other ways of representing and to enhance their clarity, precision, and effectiveness. 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4,

Total Mark out of 16/

Rubric

Thursday, February 19th

To be handed in with your annotated bibliography

These should both be in your red folder

When is it due?

On June 3, 1926, Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey. The son of Louis and Naomi Ginsberg, two Jewish members of the New York literary counterculture of the 1920s, Ginsberg was raised among several progressive political perspectives. A supporter of the Communist party, Ginsberg’s mother was a nudist whose mental health was a concern throughout the poet’s childhood. According to biographer Barry Miles, “Naomi’s illness gave Allen an enormous empathy and tolerance for madness, neurosis, and psychosis.”

Allen Ginsberg

As an adolescent, Ginsberg savored Walt Whitman, though in 1939, when Ginsberg graduated high school, he considered Edgar Allan Poe his favorite poet. Eager to follow a childhood hero who had received a scholarship to Columbia University, Ginsberg made a vow that if he got into the school he would devote his life to helping the working class, a cause he took seriously over the course of the next several years.

He was admitted to Columbia University, and as a student there in the 1940s, he began close friendships with William S. Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and Jack Kerouac, all of whom later became leading figures of the Beat movement. The group led Ginsberg to a “New Vision," which he defined in his journal: “Since art is merely and ultimately self-expressive, we conclude that the fullest art, the most individual, uninfluenced, unrepressed, uninhibited expression of art is true expression and the true art.”

Around this time, Ginsberg also had what he referred to as his “Blake vision," an auditory hallucination of William Blake reading his poems “Ah Sunflower," “The Sick Rose," and “Little Girl Lost.” Ginsberg noted the occurrence several times as a pivotal moment for him in his comprehension of the universe, affecting fundamental beliefs about his life and his work. While Ginsberg claimed that no drugs were involved, he later stated that he used various drugs in an attempt to recapture the feelings inspired by the vision.

In 1954, Ginsberg moved to San Francisco. His mentor, William Carlos Williams, introduced him to key figures in the San Francisco poetry scene, including Kenneth Rexroth. He also met Michael McClure, who handed off the duties of curating a reading for the newly established “6” Gallery. With the help of Rexroth, the result was “The ‘6’ Gallery Reading” which took place on October 7, 1955. The event has been hailed as the birth of the Beat Generation, in no small part because it was also the first public reading of Ginsberg’s “Howl," a poem that garnered worldwide attention for him and the poets he associated with.

In response to Ginsberg’s reading, McClure wrote: “Ginsberg read on to the end of the poem, which left us standing in wonder, or cheering and wondering, but knowing at the deepest level that a barrier had been broken, that a human voice and body had been hurled against the harsh wall of America.”

Shortly after Howl and Other Poems was published in 1956 by City Lights Bookstore, it was banned for obscenity. The work overcame censorship trials, however, and “Howl” became one of the most widely read poems of the century, translated into more than twenty-two languages.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Ginsberg studied under gurus and Zen masters. As the leading icon of the Beats, Ginsberg was involved in countless political activities, including protests against the Vietnam War, and he spoke openly about issues that concerned him, such as free speech and gay rights agendas.

Ginsberg went on to publish numerous collections of poetry, including Kaddish and Other Poems (1961), Planet News (1968), and The Fall of America: Poems of These States (1973), which won the National Book Award.

Ginsberg went on to publish numerous collections of poetry, including Kaddish and Other Poems (1961), Planet News (1968), and The Fall of America: Poems of These States (1973), which won the National Book Award.

In 1993, Ginsberg received the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (the Order of Arts and Letters) from the French minister of culture. He also co-founded and directed the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Colorado. In his later years, Ginsberg became a distinguished professor at Brooklyn College.

On April 5, 1997, in New York City, he died from complications of hepatitis.

The Beat Generation was a group of American post-World War II writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired. Central elements of "Beat" culture: rejection of received standards, innovations in style, use of illegal drugs, alternative sexualities, an interest in examining religion, a rejection of materialism, and explicit portrayals of the human condition.

The Beat Generation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM9BMVFpk80

Howl by Allen Ginsberg