This HW post is a response to FDouglass “Learning to Read and Write.”  This HW has two parts. You must complete each part to receive credit.
Part One: Choose ONE of the Reading Response Questions.  Answer the question in one fully developed paragraph (5-6 sentences).
Part Two: Choose one large block quotation of your choice from anywhere in the reading (5-6 sentences, something like the passage we worked on in class today starting with “Slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me . . ..”). Copy the quotation, enclosing it in quotation marks and giving the Paragraph number. Now analyze this quotation carefully, explaining each sentence in your own words. I expect you to write a full paragraph, 5-6 sentences.
Here are the Reading Response Qs for Part One (choose one):
- Â After the young Douglass loses his mistress as his teacher, what strategies does he practice to continue learning to read? Â Who does he turn to for help? Â How does he persuade them to help him?
- What is the effect of Douglass’s own reading, in general, for him?  Read Paragaphs 5 and 6.  In responding to this question, look carefully at how he describes his reading of both “The Columbia Orator,” and Sheridan’s speeches about Catholic emancipation.
- What does Douglass mean when he says that “learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing” (paragraph 5)?  Furthermore, what does he mean when he says that “freedom…was ever present to torment me” (same paragraph)?  In other words, is there a downside to becoming literate?  What might that be?
- Reread paragraph 7 and describe the process Douglass goes through to learn the word “abolition.”  How does this process explain why the author’s mistress found his reading newspapers so threatening?
- Look carefully at the various strategies Douglass used to learn how to write (final paragraphs). What are these?
HOW TO POST: Go to the top menu bar. Click on the plus sign. You will land on a writing page. Write in the title: Reading Response FDouglass– write your first name. Type in your writing. When finished, go to right hand side and check on category: Reading Response FDouglass . Then scroll up and click on publish. Please post by Wednesday 12 noon.