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African American Poets - English 7 2021: Home

Project Objectives

  1. Research an African American Poet. 
  2. Analyze a poem by the poet you research. 
  3. Write three paragraphs integrating your research and analysis.  

1.     Research the poet -Expectations of your work on the research portion of this project:

  • Use the guiding research questions  
  • Write one fact per notecard 
  • If you paste a quote onto a notecard, you must also include an idea in your own words of why that quote is important or interesting 
  • Organize and label notecards clearly 
  • Respond to or apply any feedback provided by the teachers in your NoodleTools project  
  • Complete at least 12 notecards.

2. Analyze a Poem 

  • You will analyze your poem for homework on Day 3 of the project. You will analyze the whole poem, even though you will only write about a short quote in your final paper.

3. Write the Paper.

  • Writing structure:
    • ​​​​​​​Paragraph 1 -- Introduce the poem and briefly dip into relevant details from author’s life.  
    • Paragraph 2 – Start with a thesis statement which incorporates the idea of social commentary. Introduce a quote from the poem. Analyze the quote. 
    • Paragraph 3 --Provide biographical and cultural details of the poet's life which are relevant to the poem you have analyzed. End with a sentence or two which points to broader implications.

Schedule

Pre-Day 1 (Intro to Project)

  • Homework:
  • Share with Ms. NM
  • Explore LibGuide
  • Write the schedule in your planner

Day 1 (Research)

  • Explore Databases with Mx. Posley.
  • Answer guiding research questions A & B.
  • Homework: Continue your research. 

Day 2 (Research)

  • Research online materials for specific information. Continue creating notecards and building a bibliography.
  • Answer guiding research questions C & D.
  • Homework: Continue your research. 

Day 3 (Research)

  • Continue creating notecards and building a bibliography in Noodletools.
  • Answer guiding research question E. 
  • ​Homework: Complete a close reading of your assigned poem.

Day 4 (Research)

  • Analyze Poem

Day 5 (Writing)

  • Plan Writing

Day 6 (Writing)

  • Draft

Your final deadline for the project is no later than Monday March 1st. 

Assignment Details

  1. Take notes in NoodleTools and share your project with your teacher.
  2. Cite a minimum of 4 sources total (try having one 1 book). Correctly cite all of your sources using NoodleTools.
  3. You should have a minimum of 12 notecards. Pile your notecards in organized and labeled stacks.
  4. Plan and write your paper using the project rubric as a guide.

Research Tips

  1. Use this LibGuide to find resources and instructions. Go the Research Topics tab and scroll down to find your question and recommended sources. 
  2. Find short biography of your poet in an encyclopedia or Biography In Context to get a big picture.
  3. Use the suggested research questions to guide your research in the books on reserve.
  4. Use the links listed beneath your question in the LibGuide before doing general internet searches.
  5. Be systematic in the research process. Take all the notecards from one source before moving on to the next.
  6. Create notecards that are composed of one idea per card. 
  7. Photocopy pages from relevant books for work at home. Remember to copy the title page for citation purposes.

Quick Links to Resources

 Sora is our resource for ebooks and audiobooks! Download the app or use in your browser. Find our school and then log in with your NCS username and password without the @cathedral.org. You can also link your public library account for more titles to browse.

 

 EBSCO eBooks features a large collection of research books across all subject areas that are accessible online. 

For a complete list of our databases, please check out our Databases by Subject tab at the top of this page.

 

 

NCS uses NoodleTools to support MLA, APA and Chicago citations. You can sign in with your Microsoft 365 username and password (same as your NCS email).