Data Information Analysis
Author #1- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Outline
1.
Start
of project
- KWL
- Where do we start?
- Concept map with inquiry
questions
2.
Facts-
What we have found
- Link to concept map inquiry
questions
3.
Analysis-
Interpreting the data
- Final concept map with answers
to questions
- Updated KWL with “What I
Learned”
1. Start of Project
Our
original inquiry questions are as follows:
1.
What are some specific struggles that
women writers faced in the 19th and 20th centuries?
2.
Do you think this author was successful
in overcoming those obstacles? Was she
seen as a prominent literary figure by her peers, while she was alive? What about after her death? Do people today view her writing differently
now than the public did while she was writing?
How do you think she viewed her own writing?
3.
Why do you think your author pursued
writing when she knew what a struggle it would be? Why was it so important to her? Did she have a specific message to get
across, or was it more for personal satisfaction?
We want the kids to break these down into
manageable questions, so using the KWL chart, we would produce these questions:
Elizabeth
Barrett Browning
- KWL
|
What I Know (K) |
What I Don’t Know (W) |
What I Learned (L) |
|
Famous female author Fought for women’s rights Used writing as a forum to convey her ideas |
What personal struggles did she face? Why did she want to write? What was her personal background? How did her peers see her? Was she successful? |
|
- Where do we start?
To answer these questions, students should explore the
Within this collection, students can
search for a specific author, browse by author or period, or explore the
different collections. *For some reason,
if you access this site through the Digital Resource Collections, it will take
you to a different homepage. This
homepage is http://edweb.sdsu.edu/dhip/dr/sceti.html.
From here, click on Women’s Studies
Collection, then on A Celebration of Women Writers
(http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/).
Then you can search by author if you have a particular woman in mind, or
you can search by date (1850-1950, for example). Then you can choose an author to learn about.
- Concept
map of inquiry questions, using Inspiration
2. Facts- What we
have found
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Searching from A Celebration of Women
Writers (web address above), search by author.
That search produced these four
sites:
- http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=153
- http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebrownin.htm
- http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/browning.htm
- http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/History/Biographies/browning-elizabeth-barrett
*Each of these sites also provides links to
specific writings of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The students would have at least one day
where they just browsed through their writings to get an idea of their style
and voice.
Information found from the first site, http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=153
- Elizabeth
Barrett Browning was born in 1806 in
- Because
she was educated at home, she grew up being exposed to literature. Before she was ten years old, she had
already read Shakespeare.
- By
the age of 12, she had written her first epic poem.
- At
the age of 20
- She
lived with her father, who was very strict. He started sending her younger siblings
away to help with family affairs.
In response to this, and to convey her disapproval of slavery,
- In
1844, in the midst of a variety of personal problems, she published Poems. It was then that she met Robert Browning
and began a relationship with him.
- “
- “Political
and social themes embody
- She
died on
Information found on the second site, http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ebrownin.htm
- Called
“the most respected and successful woman poet of the Victorian period.”
- “At
the age of 14 she wrote her first collection of verse, THE BATTLE OF MARATHON.
It was followed by AN ESSAY ON MIND (1826), privately printed at her
father's expense, and a translation of PROMETHEUS BOUND (1833) with other
poems, which appeared anonymously. Her first work to gain critical
attention was THE SERAPHIM, AND OTHER POEMS (1838).”
- In
1935, she began to contribute to several periodicals.
- Around
the age of 22, after the death of her brother,
- “When
her POEMS (1844) appeared, it gained a huge popularity and was praised
among others by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Elizabeth
Browning's name was mentioned six years later in speculations about the
successor of Wordsworth as the poet laureate.”
- She
married Robert Browning in 1846.
- “In
her late years Elisabeth Browning developed an interest in spiritualism
and Italian independence movement. She became supporter of Italian unity,
which she advocated in CASA GUIDI WINDOWS (1851). She also opposed slavery
in her books THE RUNAWAY SLAVE AT PILGRIM'S POINT (1849) and in the
political POEMS BEFORE CONGRESS (1860). Her magnum opus, AURORA LEIGH
(1857), was a novel in blank verse about a woman writer, her childhood and
pursuit of a literary career. It also dealt such themes as the poet's
mission, social responsibilities, and the position of women. LAST POEMS
(1862), issued posthumously, contained some of her best-known lyrics.”
- “After
her death the writer Edward Fitzgerald expressed no sorrow in his famous
letter: ''Mrs. Browning's Death is rather a relief to me, I must say: no
more Aurora Leighs, thank God! A woman of real genius, I know; but what is
the upshot of it all? She and her Sex had better mind the Kitchen and
their Children: and perhaps the Poor: except in such things as little
Novels, they only devote themselves to what Men do much better, leaving
that which Men do worse or not at all.''”
- Selected
works:
THE
AN ESSAY ON MIND AND OTHER POEMS, 1826
PROMETHEUS BOUND, 1833 (translation)
THE SERAPHIM AND
OTHER POEMS, 1838
THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN, 1841
THE RUNAWAY SLAVE AT PILGRIM'S POINT, 1849
POEMS, 1850 - includes series Sonnets from the
Portuguese
AURORA LEIGH, 1857
CASA GUIDI WINDOWS, 1851
AURORA LEIGH, 1857
POEMS BEFORE CONGRESS, 1860
LAST POEMS, 1862 (ed. by Robert Browning)
THE GREEK CHRISTIAN POETS, AND THE ENGLISH
POETS, 1863
LETTERS, 1897
LETTERS TO R.B. AND E.E.B., 1899
THE POETICAL WORKS, 1904
LETTERS TO MISS MITFORD, 1954
LETERS TO MR. BOYD, 1855
22 UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF ELISABETH BARRETT
BROWNING & ROBERT BROWNING, 1971
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF ELISABETH BARRETT
BROWNING, 1973
ROBERT BROWNING AND ELISABETH BARRETT: THE
COURTSHIP CORRESPONDENCE, 1845-1846: A SELECTION, 1989
THE COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS OF ELISABETH BARRETT
BROWNING, 1991
ELISABETH BARRETT BROWNING: LETTERS TO HER
SISTER, 1846-1859, 1992
Information found on the third site, http://www.cswnet.com/~erin/browning.htm
- Elizabeth’s
father arranged for her first poem to be published when she was 13.
- In
1850, Elizabeth’s Sonnets From the Portuguese was published. This has been called her most well-known
piece.
- “Elizabeth's
poems have a diction and rhythm evoking an attractive, spontaneous quality
though some may seem sentimental. Many of her poems protest what she
considered unjust social conditions. She also wrote poems appealing for
political freedom for Italy and other countries controlled by foreign
nations.”
Information found on the fourth site, http://www.mith2.umd.edu/WomensStudies/ReadingRoom/History/Biographies/browning-elizabeth-barrett
- “Elizabeth
Barrett Browning was an accomplished and popular poet in her own right. In
her life, she was considered an important author, and was even considered
for the post of Poet Laureate after Wordsworth's death in 1850.”
- “In
addition to her skill as a poet, she was also a student and translator of
Greek, an abolitionist, an early feminist, and active in Italian
politics.”
- “Far
from the usual picture of a weak and sickly romantic writer of verse,
Barrett Browning wrote intensely political poems ("Runaway Slave at
Pilgrim's Point", "Napoleon III in Italy", and "A
Curse for a Nation" among them) in addition to her romantic lyrics.”
- “Barrett
Browning's works include the books The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838),
Poems of 1844, Poems of 1850, Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850), Casa
Guidi Windows (1851), Aurora Leigh (1856), Poems Before Congress (1860),
the posthumously printed work Last Poems (1862), and many Greek
translations.”
·
Concept map
of inquiry questions with rough data, using Inspiration
3.Analysis-
final concept map with data in order
Important
Quote: (If I were a student, I would begin my paper
with this quote)
“After her death the writer Edward Fitzgerald
expressed no sorrow in his famous letter: ‘Mrs. Browning's death is rather a
relief to me, I must say: no more Aurora Leighs, thank God! A woman of
real genius, I know; but what is the upshot of it all? She and her sex had
better mind the kitchen and their children: and perhaps the poor: except in
such things as little novels, they only devote themselves to what men do much
better, leaving that which men do worse or not at all.’”
- Concept map of inquiry
questions and specific answers, using Inspiration
Click here or on the above graphic
to see full concept map
The stars signify a brief answer to the inquiry
questions we asked at the beginning.
These will be the answers used for the “What I Learned” section of the
KWL.
- Updated
KWL Chart with What I Learned filled in:
|
What I Know (K) |
What I Don’t Know (W) |
What I Learned (L) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- In
Depth Answers
We would also want the
kids to expand on these answers, including their own views and
interpretations. This takes us back to
our original inquiry questions:
i.
What are some specific struggles that
women writers faced in the 19th and 20th centuries?
Women were often under
the rule of their husbands or fathers.
They always had someone else to answer to. They were not in control of their own
destinies. They also faced constant
criticism from people who felt that their proper place was in the kitchen, not
expressing their views. Many women were
forced to publish anonymously, like Browning, although some authors were
respected based on their abilities.
Women had to balance their home life and their life as a writer. Many women were disrespected and ignored,
despite their talent.
ii.
Do you think this author was successful
in overcoming those obstacles? Was she
seen as a prominent literary figure by her peers, while she was alive? What about after her death? Do people today view her writing differently
now than the public did while she was writing?
How do you think she viewed her own writing?
Elizabeth Barrett
Browning seemed to overcome the obstacles she faced very well. Although she came from a strict home life,
her father helped her to publish from a young age. Many prominent authors, including Edgar Allen
Poe, respected her. People speculated
that she would be well known throughout future generations because of her
talent. She was compared to Wordsworth
on more than one occasion. Still, she
had her critics. Edward Fitzgerald spoke
of her as a nuisance, saying that she was better off in the kitchen. Some people viewed her writing as
sentimental, and were unwilling to consider her work. Overall, she was a player in the field of
writing, and she was able to get her point across. She caused many people to think and question
things that were going on. I think
Elizabeth was happy with her writing, since she got her message out.
iii. Why do you think your author pursued writing when she knew what a struggle it would be? Why was it so important to her? Did she have a specific message to get across, or was it more for personal satisfaction?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote to fight the social and political injustices that she saw. She knew that the most effective thing she could do was use the pen, so she put her ideas on paper and used that to affect people. She struggled, but to her it was worth the problems she faced. She had messages that she wanted to get across, and she did that through her writing. She opposed slavery, the oppression of women, the lack of appropriate child labor laws, and the disunity among Italians. Each of her pieces spoke out against something that she wanted to change. She saw her role as one who could have an effect of the wrongs that were going on around her.
Data Information Analysis
Author
#2- bell hooks
Outline:
1.
Start of project
·
KWL
·
Where
do we start?
·
Concept
map with inquiry questions
2.
Facts- What we have found
·
Link
to concept map inquiry questions
3.
Analysis-
final concept map with data in order
·
Final
Concept map with answers to questions
·
Updated
KWL chart with “What I learned”
1. Start of Project
Out
original inuiry questions are as follows:
1.
What are some specific struggles that women
writers faced in the 19th and 20th centuries?
- Do you think this author was successful in
overcoming those obstacles? Was she
seen as a prominent literary figure by her peers, while she was
alive? What about after her death? Do people today view her writing
differently now than the public did while she was writing? How do you think she viewed her own
writing?
- Why do you think your author pursued
writing when she knew what a struggle it would be? Why was it so important to her? Did she have a specific message to get
across, or was it more for personal satisfaction?
We want the kids to break these down
into manageable questions, so using the KWL chart, we would produce these
questions:
|
What I Know (K) |
What I Don’t Know (W) |
What I Learned (L) |
|
Famous female author Fought for minority and women’s rights Used writing as a forum to convey her ideas |
What personal struggles did she face? Why did she want to write? What was her personal background? How did her peers see her? Was she successful? |
|
Where do we start?
To
answer these questions, students should explore various web pages dealing with
women writers. One such site is
Searching from Voices From the Gap (http://voices.cla.umn.edu/).
From
this site students can search by authors’ names to read about various women
writers and choose an author to do their research about.
·
Concept map of inquiry questions, using Inspiration:
·
2. Facts- What we have found
Bell Hooks
Searching from Voices From the Gap (http://voices.cla.umn.edu/) , search by author.
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/HOOKSbell.html
Information found on this site:
· An intellectual and a scholar, bell hooks is devoted to critical consciousness and awareness of oneself and society.
· Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky on September 25, 1952, bell hooks, nee Gloria Watkins, has been critically conscious since childhood.
· She made her "commitment to intellectual life in the segregated black world of [her] childhood," and later pursued a B.A. in 1973 from Stanford University. This led to an M.A. in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in 1983 from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Although currently a scholar teaching at the City College of New York, hooks continues to maintain that intellectual work need not come from academia, and that being in academia (as she experienced at Stanford) is often an impediment to true intellectual thought.
· Always passionate and intent on calling individuals to recognize and change the negative repercussions of what she terms the "white supremist capitalist patriarchy" that structures this society, hooks nonetheless found time to pursue a formal academic inquiry in English, writing her dissertation on the works of Toni Morrison.
· Her love of English and language combined with her rage toward the white supremist capitalist patriarchy led her to begin writing her first book Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism when she was 19 years old.
· Production of the book took eight years of research and many revisions. In it she begins to explore the issues which later become a continuing paradigm throughout her works.
· hooks urges an end to the degradation and exploitation of black women, arguing that this is an intregal step in alleviating white supremacy.
· Hooks's main concern is with black women, however, her analysis of black women's current situation in the social hierarchy necessarily comes to deal with race and class, as well as gender.
· In her later books, hooks begins to critique popular culture. Her book Outlaw Culture and her film Cultural Criticism and Transformation are dedicated solely to hooks's desire to nurture in her readers a "critical eye."
· Hooks is committed to her ideas and that is evident in her use of a pseudonym. hooks decided to use a pseudonym both to honor her grandmother (whose name she took) and her mother, but also because the name Gloria became associated with an identity that was not completely hers. By using "bell hooks," she was able to reclaim her voice and identity.
· It is hooks's commitment to her ideas, however, that led her to decapitalize her name. Both the decapitalization and the pseudonym itself are attempts to take the reader's focus away from the author and place it on the content of the work. For hooks, her ideas come first and foremost, before her name and personal identity.
·
Works by the author:
·
Be
Boy Buzz (2002)
·
Communion:
The Female Search for Love (2002)
·
Happy
to be Happy (2001)
·
Salvation:
Black People and Love (2001)
·
All
About Love: New Visions(2000)
·
Feminism is for Everybody (2000)
·
Remembered
Rapture: The Writer at Work (1999)
·
Art
On My Mind: Visual Politics (1995)
·
Killing
Rage: Ending Racism (1995)
·
Outlaw
Culture: Resisting Representation (1994)
·
Teaching
to Trangress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (1994)
·
Sisters
of the Yam: Black Women and Self-recovery (1993)
·
Black
Looks: Race and Representation (1992)
·
Yearning:
Race, Class and Cultural Politics (1990)
·
Talking
Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989)
·
Feminist
Theory: From Margin to Center (1984)
·
Ain't
I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism (1981)
Autobiographical works