Steps for the Written Process #3

Steps for written responses:

1)      Briefly summarize the essay.

2)      Find key quotes/passages.

3)      Think about your own ideas and experiences in regard to education and write them down.

4)      Take the above info and write one or two paragraphs blending your own ideas and experiences with the author’s. Be sure your written response contains the following:

a.       Title of essay in quotes and name of author.

b.      A key personal experience.

c.       A connection between the two. For example:  Have you had a similar or contrasting experience?

d.      One direct quote from the essay (Be sure to provide quotation marks and explain it to the reader).

Think of writing Task Three in stages. You may use the model above to write your essay as I am doing with my essay. I have begun to outline my personal experiences first.

The essays I have chosen to use for my Task Three paper include:  “Sister Flowers” by Maya Angelou and “Becoming Educated” by Barbara Jordan.

The focus for my paper includes:  Who are persons who took me aside as Sister Flowers did for Maya Angelou and what does becoming educated mean to me as it meant for Barbara Jordan?

Summary of “Sister Flowers” by Maya Angelou

“Sister Flowers” written by Maya Angelou tells a story about an aristocratic African American womyn who threw Angelou, a young child at the setting of the story, a life line. Marguerite, as Angelou went by as a child, considered Mrs. Bertha Flowers a refined gentlewomyn. Angelou describes Mrs. Flowers as a rich African American womyn. She compares her to a refined, mature white womyn during the setting of the story. Mrs. Flowers invites Marguerite to her home to talk with her. When she arrives, Mrs. Flowers talks with her about her love of reading, but she has been informed that Marguerite does not speak up in class. Mrs. Flowers tells Marguerite that it is important to speak up because the human voice is then able to construct meaning. As an example, Mrs. Flowers opens A Tale of Two Cities and begins to recite, “It was the best of times and the worst of times…” This is music to Marguerite’s ears; she is then instructed to take a book of poetry with her and upon her next visit, she is to memorize and recite a poem for Mrs. Flowers. Marguerite, at the time of this setting, was simply pleased to be liked by Mrs. Flowers.

Summary of “Becoming Educated” by Barbara Jordan

Barbara Jordan, a young African American womyn in the time of 1959, attended law school at Boston University. In a time of desegregation, lynchings, and movements which called for dramatic change, Jordan found herself amid a hostile learning environment at times. Unlike her fellow colleagues, she had more of a difficult time learning the concepts of the field, so she buried herself, night after night, in the law library under piles and piles of law books. Because it was 1959, Jordan certainly stood out as both a womyn and an African American in Boston University. Her law professors, on select days, would walk into class and announce that today was ladies day. They only called on the womyn; most days, they would call only on the male students. In order to prepare for classes, studying in the wee hours of the night by herself was not enough. In the spring, Jordan’s roommate’s boyfriend organized a black study group. With six or seven persons, Jordan began to orally discuss matters of the law including the facts, the cases and the findings. Jordan began to realize that she was becoming educated. By comprehending these new concepts of the law, that were otherwise unfamiliar to her, she began to delve into the process of thinking where she thought things through and reached her own conclusions. Jordan learned how to defend what she had to say in class and in her study group.