Word Entry From "A Rose for Emily" found in "Backpack Literature"

"But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps an eyesore among eyesores."(pg 34)

My guess at what the word coquettish means is that it is used to describe something very raggedy or dilapidated. I interpreted the word that way because the word was being used to describe a old houses decay.

The actually meaning of the word was entirely different from what i had guessed. The word coquettish actually means to be flirtatious or to arose sexual interest in someone.At first i was quite confused as to how a old houses decay can be perceived as being flirtatious. However after a second reading of the sentence I came to the conclusion that the author is suggesting that due to the house being the last one standing among a  neighborhood in ruins, the house looks very inviting, almost flirtatiously drawing your attention.

Word Entry "The Jewelry"

1. "Time did not assuage his grief" (59).

2. My Guess: It states he was feeling grief. So my first initial thought is time was not a contributing factor that would help him heal from his grief.

 

 

3. Definition: To lessen the intensity of. (Merriam Websters site)

 

 

4. Explanation: Once I realized what the actual definition was, I reread the sentence. The author was trying to convey that time was not helping mend the grief M. Lantin was experiencing from the loss of his wife. 

Cultural Knowledge Entry Example

Here’s a sample Cultural Knowledge entry (5 points each, no points for incomplete entries):

1. Investigating: East Coast Hip Hop is the nation’s musical conscience (p. 172).
2. My guess: I’m confused. People always seem angry at hip-hop because it seems to have no conscience. I’ve heard a lot of hip-hop that celebrates violence, drug culture, and being rich.
3. Results: East Coast Hip Hop, also known as “Old School” hip hop, was born long before the hip hop that’s popular now. It came from the Bronx, a mostly-black section of New York City, when a group of DJs (including Cool Herc) started mixing music for block parties. This was around 1974, when the Black Power movement was alive and well and improving the lives of black citizens: for the first time ever, residents of the Bronx were well-employed, were being policed fairly, and were making strides toward educational equality. And that momentum kept building—activists were organizing neighborhoods and running for office and getting people involved in justice issues. And they used hip-hop to do it. East Coast hip-hop revolves around themes of social justice and revolution. It’s different from the more popular West Coast hip-hop (also called Gangsta Rap, fathered by IceT), which revolves around themes of violence, drug use, and spending money. But East Coast, according to its fans and historians, represents music’s best hope for speaking out against racism, oppression, and inequality. (Info from a book by Jeff Chang, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.)
4. Now I understand why hip-hop could be the music of revolution. I didn’t know that there were two distinct kinds of hip-hop, or that they differ so much. Like most folks, I’d heard mostly West Coast hip-hop . . . but now that I know the difference, I want to seek out more East Coast stuff. And I see how hip-hop could be used to help listeners keep thinking about what’s morally right. This reference relates to the article because the writer is arguing against the idea that protest music ended with the 1960s and 1970s. Instead, the author gives hope that music still has a social conscience.

Word Entry Example

SAMPLE WORD ENTRY (3 points each; no points for incomplete entries):

1. “The corpses of child fighters who had died of thirst marked her way, like cairns” (17).
2. My guess: I know she’s lost, and cairns are something ‘marking her way,’ so I think maybe a cairn is some kind of directional sign.
3. Definition: A mound of stones erected as a memorial or a marker. (American Heritage dictionary)
4. Explanation: Oh. I see it now: the bodies are marking her way like trail markers. The author wants to emphasize the horror of seeing so many bodies that the corpses are like their own memorials.

Instructions

• As you read, circle the words you don’t completely know the meanings of.

• Circle any cultural references you don’t understand – for example, if a writer mentions “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Polyanna, or secularism.

• If the word can be looked up in the dictionary, use it as a word entry; if it’s more complicated, you can turn the reference into a cultural knowledge entry.

	For each Word Entry (3 points each):	For each Cultural Knowledge Entry (5 points each):
Step 1	Type out the sentence with the unfamiliar word or reference in it. (Underline the word or idea you don’t understand, and use parentheses to tell your peers which page the sentence came from.)	Type out the sentence with the unfamiliar reference you need to investigate. Include the page number where you saw the reference.
Step 2	Take a guess at what the word means, and explain your guess to me and your peers.	Take a guess at what you think the term is referring to, and explain your guess to me and your peers.
Step 3	Look the word up in an appropriate place, and type out the best definition for this particular text.	Look up the reference – on the web, in an encyclopedia, or in any other reliable source. Find an explanation that makes sense, and share it with us in just a few lines, in your own words. Tell us where you got your info: name your source in parentheses.
Step 4	Now, show us your “Aha!” moment: Now that you know the meaning, tell us in your own words what the original sentence means.	Then show us your "Aha!" moment: Write a few sentences explaining how understanding this reference helps you better understand the reading overall.

About the EN 190 Context Journal

About the EN 190 CONTEXT JOURNAL

Adapted from Heal McKnight and Prof. Jill Kronstadt

Purpose:                  These context journal entries will help you learn new vocabulary, build cultural and historical knowledge you can apply in other courses, connect word choice with the overall meaning of a passage and a piece of writing as a whole, and demonstrate that you have read and thought about each assigned reading.

Assignment:            Every week of the semester, you are responsible for posting a context journal entry to the "EN 190 Literature Context Journals and Conversations" blog for credit. 

Grading:                  Context journals are worth 5 % of your overall grade in this course.

§  Each word entry (see instructions below) is worth 3 points.

§  Each cultural knowledge entry (see instructions below) is worth 5 points.

§  Since our class will meet 15 weeks this semester, I expect you to post enough context journal entries for you to accumulate 40 points by the end of the semester. 

You will not earn any points for incomplete entries.