Download 8f11 Creative Writing Unit #1

English Language and Literature
Grade 10
Academic
Creative Writing Unit
(Poetry & Short Stories)
Natalie Morgante
Theresa Chenard
ONTARIO CURRICULUM EXPECTATIONS:
Grade 10, Academic English (ENG 2D)
Oral Communication
2. Speaking to Communicate: Use speaking skills and strategies appropriately to
communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
 2.1 Purpose—Students will communicate orally for a variety of purposes, using
language appropriate for the intended audience
 2.2 Interpersonal Speaking Strategies—Students will demonstrate an
understanding of a variety of interpersonal speaking strategies and adapt them to
suit the purpose, situation, and audience, exhibiting sensitivity to cultural
differences.
 2.4 Diction and Devices—Student will use appropriate words, phrases, and
terminology, and several different stylistic devices, to communicate their
meaning and engage their intended audience.
 2.5 Vocal Strategies—Students will identify a variety of vocal strategies,
including tone, pace, pitch, and volume, and use them appropriately and with
sensitivity to audience needs and cultural differences.
Reading and Literature Studies
1. Reading for Meaning: Read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary,
informational, and graphic texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning.
 1.3 Demonstrating Understanding of Content—Students will identify the most
important ideas and supporting details in texts, including increasingly complex
texts.
 1.4 Making Inferences—Students will make and explain inferences about texts,
including increasingly complex texts, supporting their explanations with wellchosen stated and implied ideas from the texts.
 1.6 Analysing Texts—Students will analyse texts in terms of the information,
ideas, issues, or themes they explore, examining how various aspects of the
texts contribute to the presentation or development of these elements.
 1.7 Evaluating Texts—Students will evaluate the effectiveness of texts,
including increasingly complex texts, using evidence from the text to support
their opinions.
2. Understanding Form and Style: Recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and
stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate
meaning.
 2.1 Text Forms—Students will identify a variety of characteristics of literary,
informational, and graphic text forms and explain how they help communicate
meaning
 2.2 Text Features—Students will identify a variety of text features and explain
how they help communicate meaning.

2.3 Elements of Style—Students will identify a variety of elements of style in
texts and explain how they help communicate meaning and enhance the
effectiveness of the texts.
Writing
1. Developing and Organizing Content: Generate, gather, and organize ideas and
information to write for an intended purpose and audience.
 1.1 Identifying Topic, Purpose, and Audience—Students will identify the topic,
purpose, and audience for a variety of writing tasks
 1.2 Generating and Developing Ideas—Students will generate, expand, explore
and focus ideas for potential writing tasks, using a variety of strategies and
print, electronic, and other resources, as appropriate.
2. Using Knowledge of Form and Style: Draft and revise their writing, using a variety of
literary, informational. And graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the
purpose and audience
 2.1 Form—Students will write for different purposes and audiences using a
variety of literary, graphic, and informational forms.
 2.2 Voice—Students will establish a distinctive voice in their writing, modifying
language and tone skillfully to suit the form, audience, and purpose for writing.
 2.3 Diction—Students will use appropriate descriptive and evocative words,
phrases, and expressions to make their writing clear, vivid, and interesting for
their indented audience.
 2.6 Revision—Students will revise drafts to improve the content, organization,
clarity, and style of their written work, using a variety of teacher-modelled
strategies.
3. Applying Knowledge of Conventions: Use editing, proofreading, and publishing skills
and strategies, and knowledge of language conventions, to correct errors, refine
expression, and present their work effectively.
 3.2 Vocabulary—Students will build vocabulary for writing by confirming word
meaning(s) and reviewing and refining word choice, using a variety of resources
and strategies, as appropriate for the purpose.
 3.7 Producing Finished Work—Students will produce pieces of published work
to meet criteria identified by the teacher, base on the curriculum expectations.
4. Reflecting on Skills and Strategies: Reflect on and identify their strengths as writers,
areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful at different stages in
the writing process.
 4.3 Portfolio—Students will select a variety of examples of different types of
writing that they think reflect significant advances in their growth and
competence as writers and explain the reasons for their choice.
DAY 1:
Introduction to Poetry
Materials:
 4 Corners signs
 Statements for the 4 corners activity (1 copy for the teacher)
 Chalk and chalkboard
 Photocopies of “Is this Poetry?” worksheet (1 for every student)
 6 Different coloured file folders
 6 Sonnets to be placed in folder #1 (Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare, Sonnet 79 by
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Edmund Spencer, Sonnet 21 by Elizabeth Barret Browning, Holy Sonnet X: Death Be Not Proud
by John Donne, Sonnet XIX by John Milton, and Sonnet-To Genevra by Lord Byron).
6 Limericks to be placed in folder #2 (Crowded Tub by Shel Silverstein, Untitled by
Edward Lear, Brown Dog Called Spot by Rebecca Telford, old Man Of Quebec by Edward Lear,
Our Happy Hands by Herbert Nehrlich, and An Old Man From The Cape by Shadigo Claws).
6 Concrete poems to be placed in folder #3 (The Mouse’s Tale by Lewis Carroll, Untitled
by Harold de Campos, Silence by Eugen Gormringer, l(a…leaf falls on lonlieness) by E.E.
Cummings, Exhausted by Jennifer Kathleen Phillips, and Easter Wings by George Herbert).
2 Sound poems to be placed in folder #4 (Pavlov’s Dog 1 by Bill Bissett, and The Loch
Ness Monster’s Song by Edwin Morgan).
5 Free verse poems, to be placed in folder #5 (After the Sea-Ship by Walt Whitman,
Autumn by T.E Hulme, The Embankment by T.E Hulme, The More Loving One by W.H Auden,
and Irony by D.H Lawrence).
3 Odes, to be placed in folder #6 (Ode to Tomatoes by Pablo Neruda, Ode to Stephen
Dowling by Mark Twain, and Ode to a Grecian Urn by John Keats).
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Students’ Actions
Teacher asks the class to take 30 seconds to
think about what they know about poetry.
Students take 30 seconds and quietly think
about poetry.
After 30 seconds, the teacher then asks the
students to turn to the person beside, behind,
or in front of them and discuss poetry. The
teacher instructs the students to write some
of their ideas down.
Students find an elbow partner (sitting
behind, in front, or beside them) and talk
about what they think poetry is and some
types of poetry. They write down some of
their ideas
After a minute or so, the teacher then asks
some of the students to share their ideas.
Some of the students share their ideas about
poetry.
As the students share their ideas, the teacher
should record them on the chalkboard using
a web or mind/concept map. The teacher
should also encourage the class to
brainstorm and describe specific types of
The students share the ideas that they have
written down. Hopefully the brainstorming
session will help them to activate their
schemas resulting in recalling specific
information that they have learned in the
poetry. If the students get stuck, the teacher
should guide them (or give them clues) to
some answers. (This is a diagnostic activity.
The teacher will be able to tell what the class
knows based on their answers). When the
activity is over, the teacher asks the students
if they have any questions.
past.
The teacher then begins to explain the
instructions for the following activity as
he/she tapes a sign onto each of the four
corners of the room.
The students remain seated while the teacher
explains the instructions for the next activity.
The teacher explains that he/she will read a
The students then stand up, where they are
question to the students, and that the students and wait for the teacher to read the first
then must respond to the question by
question
standing in the corner with the appropriate
sign. The series of questions are all opinion
based and therefore the signs read “Strongly
Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly
Disagree.” If students do not identify with
any of the four responses, the teacher
explains that they are able to stand on the
wall between the signs.
The teacher then reads the questions. After
the teacher reads each question, he/she asks
specific students why they chose the answer
that they did. This will incite meaningful
dialogue and debate between students who
have differing opinions. As the students
debate, and support their opinions, the
teacher encourages other students to move to
different signs if their opinion changes.
The students answer the questions by
standing in the appropriate corner of the
room. They discuss their reasons why they
chose the answers that they did. As they
discuss their opinions, other students change
their answers and therefore, walk to different
corners of the room.
The teacher then divides students into groups The students line themselves up according to
by having them line up according to height;
height (shortest to tallest) without speaking.
shortest to tallest without speaking. As
students are organizing themselves, the
teacher creates six activity centers by placing
six different coloured folders around the
classroom. Each folder contains poems that
represent different types of poetry. For
example, the first folder contains examples
of sonnets, the second folder contains
examples of limericks, the third folder
contains concrete poems, the fourth folder
contains sound poems, the fifth folder
contains free verse poems, and the sixth
contains odes.
The teacher then numbers off the students
(from one to six) and assigns each group a
folder.
The students are numbered off and put into
groups. They sit in the desks around their
assigned folder.
The teacher then distributes the worksheet
and explains the following instructions. As a
group, students are required to examine the
poems in the folder and discuss their
similarities and differences. They are then to
answer the questions on the sheet. They will
have 6-10 minutes at each station to do this.
The students take the sheets and get out a
pen or pencil. After the teacher explains the
instructions the students begin the task. They
take the poems out of the folder, read them
and then discuss their thoughts with the
group. They then complete part of the
worksheet. After six minutes (or so) they
move along to the next folder and repeat the
process.
Once, all the groups have gone through all of The students share some of the thoughts,
the folders, the teacher debriefs the students feelings, and responses that they wrote down
by getting some of them to share their
on their worksheets.
responses and talking about the activity.
The teacher then collects the worksheets to
analyze for diagnostic purposes.
Students then hand in their worksheets into
the teacher so he/she can use them for
diagnostic assessment purposes.
STRONGLY
AGREE
AGREE
STRONGLY
DISAGREE
DISAGREE
4 Corners Statements
1. Poetry ALWAYS rhymes.
2. Most poetry is about love.
3. There are few vey professional poets in today’s society.
4. Poetry is a dead medium.
5. All poems have a profound message or moral.
6. All poems use flowery language and is therefore confusing.
7. Poetry can only be enjoyed by scholars-everyday people do not read poetry.
8. Most poems are about the poet; they are autobiographical.
9. Poetry is too complex for teens to write.
10. Poetry does not tell stories, it only describes emotions.
“Is this Poetry?” Worksheet
FOLDER #1
Genre:
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Description:
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Something I like about this genre is:
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Something I do not like about this genre is:
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Is this poetry? Why/why not?:
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FOLDER #2
Genre:
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Description:
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Something I like about this genre is:
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Something I do not like about this genre is:
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Is this poetry? Why/why not?:
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FOLDER #3
Genre:
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Description:
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Something I like about this genre is:
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Something I do not like about this genre is:
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Is this poetry? Why/why not?:
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FOLDER #4
Genre:
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Description:
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Something I like about this genre is:
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Something I do not like about this genre is:
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Is this poetry? Why/why not?:
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FOLDER #5
Genre:
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Description:
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Something I like about this genre is:
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Something I do not like about this genre is:
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Is this poetry? Why/why not?:
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FOLDER #6
Genre:
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Description:
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Something I like about this genre is:
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Something I do not like about this genre is:
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Is this poetry? Why/why not?:
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Sonnet 18
William Shakespeare
(Folder #1)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 79
Edmund Spencer
(Folder #1)
Men call you fair, and you do credit it,
For that yourself you daily such do see:
But the true fair, that is the gentle wit
And virtuous mind, is much more praised of me.
For all the rest, however fair it be,
Shall turn to naught and lose that glorious hue:
But only that is permanent and free
From frail corruption that doth flesh ensue,
That is true beauty; that doth argue you
To be divine and born of heavenly seed;
Derived from that fair spirit, from whom all true
And perfect beauty did at first proceed:
He only fair, and what he fair hath made:
All other fair, like flowers, untimely fade.
Sonnet 21
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(Folder #1)
Say over again, and yet once over again,
That thou dost love me. Though the word repeated
Should seem 'a cuckoo-song,' as thou dost treat it,
Remember, never to the hill or plain,
Valley and wood, without her cuckoo-strain
Comes the fresh Spring in all her green completed.
Beloved, I, amid the darkness greeted
By a doubtful spirit-voice, in that doubt's pain
Cry, 'Speak once more—thou lovest! 'Who can fear
Too many stars, though each in heaven shall roll,
Too many flowers, though each shall crown the year?
Say thou dost love me, love me, love me—toll
The silver iterance!—only minding, Dear,
To love me also in silence with thy soul.
Holy Sonnet X: Death Be Not Proud
John Donne
(Folder #1)
Death, be not proud, though some have callèd thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which yet thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee much more, must low
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men
And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then ?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Sonnet XIX
John Milton
(Folder #1)
When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest He returning chide,
'Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?'
I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, 'God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait.'
Sonnet- to Genevra
Lord Byron
(Folder #1)
Thy cheek is pale with thought, but not from woe,
And yet so lovely, that if Mirth could flush
Its rose of whiteness with the brightest blush,
My heart would wish away that ruder glow:
And dazzle not thy deep-blue eyes---but, oh!
While gazing on them sterner eyes will gush,
And into mine my mother's weakness rush,
Soft as the last drops round Heaven's airy bow.
For, though thy long dark lashes low depending,
The soul of melancholy Gentleness
Gleams like a Seraph from the sky descending,
Above all pain, yet pitying all distress;
At once such majesty with sweetness blending,
I worship more, but cannot love thee less.
Crowded Tub
Shel Silverstein
(Folder #2)
There’s too many kids in this tub.
There’s too many elbows to scrub.
I just washed a behind
That I’m sure wasn’t mine,
There’s too many kinds in this tub.
Untitled
Edward Lear
(Folder #2)
There was a Young Lady whose chin,
Resembled the point of a pin;
So she had it made sharp,
And purchased a harp,
And played several tunes with her chin.
Brown Dog Called Spot
Rebecca Telford
(Folder #2)
There was a brown dog called Spot,
Who tied up his tail with a knot
To remember his bone
Which he'd left back at home
When he sometimes went out for a trot.
Old Man Of Quebec
Edward Lear
(Folder #2)
There was an Old Man of Quebec,
A beetle ran over his neck;
But he cried, 'With a needle,
I'll slay you, O beadle!'
That angry Old Man of Quebec.
Our Happy Hands
Herbert Nehrlich
(Folder #2)
Is there something this life can provide
that would have you or me satisfied?
As they chase after gold
our happy hands hold
better jewels by far and by wide.
An Old Man From The Cape
Shadigo Claws
(Folder #2)
There was an old man from the Cape,
Who made himself garments of crepe.
When asked if they tear
he replied, 'Here and there,
But they keep such a beautiful shape! '
“The Mouse’s Tale”
(From “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”)
Lewis Carroll
(Folder #3)
Untitled (1958)
Haroldo de Campos
(Folder #3)
Silence
Eugen Gomringer
(Folder #3)
l(a…(a leaf falls on loneliness)
E.E Cummings
(Folder #3)
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
Exhausted
Jennifer Kathleen Phillips
(Folder #3)
Easter Wings
George Herbert
(Folder #3)
Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
Though foolishly he lost the same,
Decaying more and more,
Till he became
Most poore:
With thee
Oh let me rise
As larks, harmoniously,
And sing this day thy victories:
Then shall the fall further the flight in me.
My tender age in sorrow did beginne:
And still with sicknesses and shame
Thou didst so punish sinne,
That I became
Most thinne.
With thee
Let me combine
And feel this day thy victorie:
For, if I imp my wing on thine
Affliction shall advance the flight in me.
Pavlovs Dog 1
Bill Bissett
(Folder #4)
wud yu rathr onlee b
ths happee thn fullee
trusting agen n gettin
whackd whappd wun
mor time as yu cirkul th
reel prize yr own focus
on yrself innr serenitee
yr love happee being
without goal attainment
alredee is not self having
bells ar ringing great smells
b careful sumthing mite
not work having can b valu
n thers no food nun not
dont care abt things yu have
no powr ovr agen n get reelee
miserabul sew thers a ringing
sum wundrful perfumeree from
th larkspur hydrangea roses n
plums pears n a kleer lake neer
by valu can protekt its virtual
realitee sumwun may honor
theyr agreement with yu if they
dont sum thing els may still
cum up gud
happeeness is sew tempting yu
dont want 2 fall apart if yu dont
get it meditating tails or heds
oftn its not binaree its in th 7th
or third opsyun th magik resides
wait 4 it hungree awkward re
wired agilitee taking yr time
fr sure but redee 2 leep
The Loch Ness Monster’s Song
Edwin Morgan
(Folder #4)
Sssnnnwhuffffll?
Hnwhuffl hhnnwfl hnfl hfl?
Gdroblboblhobngbl gbl gl g g g g glbgl.
Drublhaflablhaflubhafgabhaflhafl fl fl gm grawwwww grf grawf awfgm graw gm.
Hovoplodok - doplodovok - plovodokot - doplodokosh?
Splgraw fok fok splgrafhatchgabrlgabrl fok splfok!
Zgra kra gka fok!
Grof grawff gahf?
Gombl mbl bl blm plm,
blm plm,
blm plm,
blp
After the Sea-Ship
Walt Whitman
(Folder #5)
After the sea-ship, after the whistling winds,
After the white-gray sails taut to their spars and ropes,
Below, a myriad myriad waves hastening, lifting up their necks,
Tending in ceaseless flow toward the track of the ship,
Waves of the ocean bubbling and gurgling, blithely prying,
Waves, undulating waves, liquid, uneven, emulous waves,
Toward that whirling current, laughing and buoyant, with curves,
Where the great vessel sailing and tacking displaced the surface,
Larger and smaller waves in the spread of the ocean yearnfully flowing,
The wake of the sea-ship after she passes, flashing and frolicsome
under the sun,
A motley procession with many a fleck of foam and many fragments,
Following the stately and rapid ship, in the wake following.
Autumn
T.E Hulme
(Folder #5)
A touch of cold in the Autumn night
I walked abroad,
And saw the ruddy moon lean over a hedge
Like a red-faced farmer.
I did not stop to speak, but nodded;
And round about were the wistfl stars
With white faces like town children.
The Embankment
T.E Hulme
(Folder #5)
(The fantasia of a fallen gentleman on a cold, bitter night.)
Once, in finesse of fiddles found I ecstasy,
In the flash of gold heels on the hard pavement.
Now see I
That warmth’s the very stuff of poesy.
Oh, God, make small
The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,
That I may fold it round me and in comfort lie.
The More Loving One
W.H Auden
(Folder #5)
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total darkness sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
Irony
D.H Lawrence
(Folder #5)
Always, sweetheart,
Carry into your room the blossoming boughs of cherry,
Almond and apple and pear diffuse with light, that very
Soon strews itself on the floor; and keep the radiance of spring
Fresh quivering; keep the sunny-swift March-days waiting
In a little throng at your door, and admit the one who is plaiting
Her hair for womanhood, and play awhile with her, then bid her depart.
A come and go of March-day loves
Through the flower-vine, trailing screen;
A fluttering in of doves.
Then a launch abroad of shrinking doves
Over the waste where no hope is seen
Of open hands:
Dance in and out
Small-bosomed girls of the spring of love,
With a bubble of laughter, and shrilly shout
Of mirth; then the dripping of tears on your glove.
Ode To Tomatoes
Pablo Neruda
(Folder #6)
The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhaustible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it's time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent
and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.
Ode To Stephen Dowling
Mark Twain
(Folder #6)
And did young Stephen sicken,
And did young Stephen die?
And did the sad hearts thicken,
And did the mourners cry?
No; such was not the fate of
Young Stephen Dowling Bots;
Though sad hearts round him thickened,
'Twas not from sickness' shots.
No whooping-cough did rack his frame,
Nor measles drear, with spots;
Not these impaired the sacred name
Of Stephen Dowling Bots.
Despised love struck not with woe
That head of curly knots,
Nor stomach troubles laid him low,
Young Stephen Dowling Bots.
O no. Then list with tearful eye,
Whilst I his fate do tell.
His soul did from this cold world fly,
By falling down a well.
They got him out and emptied him;
Alas it was too late;
His spirit was gone for to sport aloft
In the realms of the good and great.
Ode to a Grecian Urn
John Keats
(Folder #6)
Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunt about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal - yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
DAY 2:
Literary Terms and Modern Poetry
Materials:
 Photocopied handouts of literary terms and found poetry activity
 Markers/ pencils/ crayons
 Chart paper
 A list of topics on which students can base their graffiti
 Chalkboard/ whiteboard
 Chalk/whiteboard markers
 Chalkboard/whiteboard eraser
 Participation rubric
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Before class begins, the teacher must place
various pieces of chart paper around the
room at six possible stations. This paper is
provided for the graffiti “found” poetry
activity to come. In addition, a list of
different thought provoking topics will be
posted at each station to provide students
with a starting point for their graffiti
designs regarding content. Additionally, all
handouts for the lesson will be arranged in
a packaged form and placed on the
students’ desks before class
Students’ Actions
At the beginning of class, the teacher will
take roughly 5 minutes to debrief
yesterday’s lesson, reflecting on the
various types of poetry introduced and the
activities explored. In particular, there will
be focus on student interest and
engagement in these types of activities, as
well as their overall grasp and comfort
level with the poetry introduced. In doing
so, the teacher will write the titles of the
poetry forms and ask students to list what
they remember about that particular style or
any initial impressions of that style.
Students enter the room and take their
seats. Students will express their likes and
dislikes about the activities, and will be
asked to recap their knowledge of the
various poetry forms introduced. Students
will review the forms of poetry by offering
comments about the styles explored as well
as their initial thoughts or similarities and
differences found between the various
poetic forms.
After debrief, the teacher will erase the
board and write literary terms on the board,
Students will be given roughly 2 minutes
and asked to work with an elbow partner to
namely; characterization, irony, figurative
language, theme, and symbol.
Throughout the students’ paired
brainstorming sessions, the teacher will
circle the room and probe students about
their brainstorming ideas and give help
where needed by perhaps offering hints or
examples that may better their
understanding of the terms being explored.
quickly jot down any known knowledge or
related terms, definitions, ideas, examples
etc. In doing so, it provides students with
the opportunity to assess their knowledge
and understanding of these terms, as well
as practice brainstorming ideas in a paired
setting
Next, students will be given roughly 2
minutes switch partners, and as a result,
exchange ideas and knowledge concerning
the literary terms on the board.
Upon completion of paired brainstorming,
the teacher will then invite students to
share their ideas and knowledge with the
remainder of the class in a similar, yet class
collaborative brainstorming technique.
With each participant, the teacher will
record on the board any information
shared, providing students with a visual
representation of the terms explored.
Additionally, after developing basic
definitions, the teacher will invite the class
to offer any examples they have come up
with; if feedback and examples are limited,
the teacher will then have prepared
examples and mind and attempt to present
the students with relatable material so that
a strong association can be made between
term, definition, and example. This step
should take approximately 6 minutes of the
lesson.
After completing the paired brainstorming
activity, students will offer their findings
and conclusions towards the class
brainstorm found on the board.
Next, the teacher will briefly explore the
literary terms package found at each
students desk and discuss unfamiliar terms
in greater detail with examples where
applicable. In addition, the teacher will
explain that some of the terms are straight
forward and that students should put aside
time to read over the package. This
component of the lesson should take
roughly 20 minutes to complete.
Students will follow along with the literary
terms package and are invited to points out
terms they find confusing or foreign. In
addition, questions concerning the terms
directly are welcomed.
Upon completion of the literary terms
Students will be introduced to the idea of
discussion, the focus on words and their
meaning will then be directed towards an
activity that utilizes random words drawn
from other literary pieces in the form of
“found” poetry. This style of poetry will be
demonstrated to the students by the teacher
through exploration of an example and a
brief explanation of how found poetry is
created. This exemplar and explanation
should take 5 minutes of the class.
found poetry and will be invited to read
over the hand out as it is being discussed,
as well as pose questions for clarification.
Next, the teacher will explain the “Graffiti
and Found Poetry” activity, where students
will be asked to rotate every 2-3 minutes
from each of the six stations set up around
the room (this was done before class, as
previously mentioned). Before the activity
begins, the teacher will explain that at each
station, there are pencils/markers/crayons
available for students to write graffiti, in
the form of words or short phrases, which
will later be used to create found poetry.
The teacher will allot 15 minutes for the
rotations and student participation at each
station. Not only will the teacher keep track
of the time in terms of rotation, but they
themselves will also roam the room,
providing students with feedback,
observing the appropriateness and
completeness of the graffiti pieces,
ensuring students are on task and perhaps
adding their own input to add to the overall
process. Additionally, the teacher will help
students if they are unsure of the task, or
need a push in the right direction.
After listening to the teacher’s instructions,
the students will be given the opportunity
to select which stations they visit, yet are
encouraged to work at that station for
roughly 2-3 minutes. After completing
their graffiti piece for a station, they will
rotate to the next station, upon the cue by
the teacher, and continue to use the helpful
cues posted on the wall to create their
graffiti. Questions and clarification are
always encouraged from the students.
After the graffiti station rotations are
completed, the teacher will divide the
students into six groups (random
numbering techniques will be used,
numbering each student as a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or
6) and will assign each group one of the
chart papers from a graffiti station. Next,
the teacher will ask students to review the
content of their chart paper, and begin to
create their own found poetry (with
Upon being divided into their respective
groups, students will review the content
found on the chart paper and refer to the
example discussed in class in order to
construct their own found poetry. Each
student will be responsible for his/her
contribution, as it will be monitored by the
teacher, and the students will present their
group poem in the next class.
frequent reference to the exemplar for
indirect guidance) within the 15 minutes
allotted. The teacher will also explain that
it is important to have their poems
complete as a group, as they will be read
aloud the next day in class. Additionally,
the teacher will roam the room to ensure
that students are contributing, on task, and
that any questions are addressed. During
this time, the teacher will also fill out a
formative assessment rubric for
participation for each student. Also, the
teacher will record group members in case
this is forgotten
Lastly, the teacher will assign a small
homework assignment, where the students
are required to create their own found
poetry (individually) and submit it the next
day as part of their portfolio. The teacher
will allow 5 minutes for a quick debrief of
the activity and explanation of the
homework assignment which will call upon
the students to find a random article, blog,
book, short story, etc., or essentially any
written piece at home, and extract words to
create found poetry, using a similar process
as demonstrated by the initial exemplar.
At this point, the students are invited to
share their comments and overall
impressions of found poetry and the
activity in general. Additionally, they are
able to begin thinking about their
homework assignment and ask questions if
needed.
Literary and Poetic Terms Handout
Allegory - An allegory is a form of story in which the characters represent not only
themselves, but also an abstract concept such as greed or jealousy or justice or peace.
George Orwell’s Animal farm or John Bunyon’s Pilgrim’s Progress are both examples of
allegories
Alliteration - A variety of sound devices are used in both poetry and prose. One of these,
alliteration, is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of a series of
words. “She sells seashells by the seashore” is an example of alliteration.
Allusion - An allusion is a reference to a well-known literary work or public icon. Usually all
the ideas and connotations connected with the referenced work or icon are packaged up
within the allusion and meant to inform the reader’s understanding of whatever the allusion
is included in.
Analogy - A comparison that, usually, explains an abstract concept by applying the
attributes of a physical concept is an analogy.
e.g. A street light is like a star. Both provide light at night, both are in predictable
locations, both are overhead, and both serve no function in the daytime.
Antagonist - An antagonist is a character who opposes the protagonist of a story. As a
protagonist is the main character with a conflict to resolve, an antagonist usually blocks or
opposes the protagonist in this resolution of the conflict.
Antithesis - A contrast to a thesis or set of ideas
Apostrophe - Addressing a divine being or an abstract concept is an example of apostrophe.
For example, if you were worried about passing an exam, you might exclaim, “Oh brain, do
your best!” Or, you might pray, “God, please help me remember.” Both are examples of
apostrophe.
Assonance - Assonance is a sound device. It is the repetition of vowel sounds. For
example, the phrase “How now brown cow.” contains assonance.
Audience - Audience is the reader for whom the piece of writing is intended. One might
write differently, for example, when addressing a group of professionals in a given field as
opposed to the general public.
Atmosphere - The overall emotional quality created by the setting is the atmosphere of a
piece of literature.
Bias - A bias is a particular slant or narrow position taken on an issue. This slant might be
apparent through the language chosen to describe certain things or people. It could be
apparent through the things that are not addressed.
Blank Verse - Blank verse is a form of unrhyming poetry that has a regular rhythm. This
rhythm is Iambic pentameter: a pattern of stressed and unstressed beats that occur five
times per line. Shakespeare used blank verse to indicate the importance of a particular
speaker in his drama.
Cacophony - The creation of harsh jangling sounds through imagery or pronunciation is
cacophony. For example,
Jabberwocky
by
Lewis Carroll
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Characterization - Characterization is the creation of a fictional individual through a
description of their appearance, speech, thoughts, and behavior. It may be direct
characterization—being told outright what a character’s attributes are—or indirect—having
to conclude what a character’s traits are because of their actions or speech
Chronological Order - A story in which the events are told in the order they actually
occurred in time is told in chronological order. A story that begins by telling the reader the
outcome— such as a murder that has occurred—and then goes back to fill in what happened
before the outcome is not in chronological order
Cliché - A cliché is a phrase that has lost its freshness through over use. Writing that
uses clichés is considered to be lacking in creativity and originality.
Comedy - The dramatic form in which everything turns out “happily ever after” is a
comedy. In Ancient Greece a comedy usually involved a young person at odds with society’s
demands who uses subterfuge to solve the dilemma.
Conflict - Conflict is the struggle between two opposing forces. As a literary device,
conflict is often categorized as man against man, man against himself, and man against
nature.
Connotation - The connotation is the underlying or understood meaning of a word as
opposed to the denotation which is the dictionary meaning of a word. Connotations are
often more easily perceived by native speakers of a language.
Consonance - Consonance is similar to alliteration in that it is a repetition of consonant
sounds. However, unlike alliteration, consonance does not have to happen at the beginning of
a word. For example, ”book, plaque, thick”.
Couplet - A set of two rhyming lines is a couplet.
Denotation - The dictionary definition of a word is its denotation. See connotation.
Dialect - Dialect is the pronunciation and phraseology of a language that differs between
native speakers of a language who live in different regions.
Diction - This term indicates the choice a writer or speaker makes between wording and/or
sentence structure. Most commonly, one differentiates between informal and formal
diction. Informal diction is the language you might use in an everyday conversation with
friends. Formal diction is what you might use in presenting to an audience of adults.
Didactic - A didactic essay, for example, instructs or teaches what is considered to be
morally right or proper behaviour. A narrative essay that ends with the conclusion “Don’t
drink and drive” is didactic
Dilemma - A choice between two equally unfavourable outcomes.
Dissonance - One of the sound devices, dissonance Is the creation of tones that seem
harsh or disagreeable.
Dramatic Irony - Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows that something is about
to or is occurring that the characters are not aware of
Editorial - Literally, an editorial is the expression of a particular opinion of an editor.
However, a writing instructor might also suggest less editorializing in your writing which
suggests you should show rather than tell.
Elegy - An elegy mourns the loss of something or someone. This could be a character who
has died or a general loss, such as a “loss of innocence
Emotional Appeal- Persuasive essay writing, and advertisements, in particular, appeal to
human emotional responses. These appeals are not exclusive to, but may take the form of
images—kittens and babies, for example—that appeal to a particular protective or tender
side or wording designed to inflame indignation.
Epic - A long narrative poem that tells of a hero’s deeds is an epic. Homer’s Odyssey and
the Anglo Saxan poem Beowulf are both epics.
Epiphany - An epiphany is a sudden realization or illumination. Can be thought of as an “ah
ha” or “ah!” moment.
Epigram - Two literary definitions are acceptable for epigram. One definition is that it is a
short witty poem and the other definition is that it is a short witty saying. Either way, the
following by John Dryden is a good example of an epigram. Here lies my wife: here let her
lie! Now she's at rest — and so am I.
Euphemism - Rather than say things bluntly that could be considered offensive or crude or
too blunt, we soften harsh realities by using euphemisms. For example, you might excuse
yourself to the washroom rather than toilet
Fable - A fable is a brief narrative that contains a specific lesson or moral to be learned.
Often animals are used as the characters. Aesop’s fables are a well-known collection.
Farce - Farce is a type of comedy that often mocks something or someone through light
satire and/or unlikely events. CBC’s production, The Royal Canadian Air Farce has examples
of this literary device
Figurative Language - Figurative language is any imaginative comparison, such as a metaphor,
simile, or personification.
Flashback - A flashback is an interruption in the narrative sequence of events into past
occurrences. A simply recollection of a memory or things that happened in the past is not
flashback. Ondaatje’s The English Patient is interwoven with flashback.
Foreshadowing - Hints at events about to occur are foreshadowing. For example, in Earle
Birney’s poem “David”, Bob’s comment “that’s the first I knew that a goat could slip”
presages the mountain climbing accident he and David have.
Free verse - Poetry with no regular rhythm and no regular rhyme is free verse.
Irony - There are several kinds of irony, but common to each is the notion of something
other that what was expected to a wryly humourous effect. E.g. dramatic irony, situational
irony and verbal irony.
Jargon - Jargon is the set of technical terms associated with a particular profession or
group of people. An essay that is intended for a general audience but is loaded with jargon
would be considered badly written.
Juxtaposition - Two characters or images or settings, for example, may be described in
close proximity to one another in order to emphasize their similarities or their differences.
This is juxtaposition.
Lyric - Although there are many definitions for a lyric poem, they all seem to have in
common the expression of a deeply felt emotion or personal response. The tone of a lyric
poem is frequently expressed as reflective.
Metaphor - A metaphor is defined as a comparison between two or more seemingly unalike
things that does not include the words “like or as”. For example:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
— (William Shakespeare,
As You Like It)
Meter - The meter is the pattern of rhythm—the repetition of stressed and unstressed
syllables—in a line of poetry. Iambic pentameter is a type of meter.
Mood - Mood is the overall emotional quality created by a piece of literature.
Myth - Myths are stories that may have some historical fact in them but tend to include
the supernatural or the improbable. More importantly, perhaps, are the cultural values and
universal truths about human nature revealed by the stories
Narrator - A narrator is the teller of story. The narrative voice may be from various
points of view such as first person, third person, omniscient.
Objective tone - An objective tone is created by the writer’s wording so that the piece of
writing seems to be unbiased and unemotional. The antonym of objective is subjective which
means personal experience and opinions are expressed.
Octave - In poetry, an eight line stanza is an octave. See sonnet.
Ode - An ode is a lyrical poem of complex structure that often is written in praise of
something or someone
Onomatopoeia - “Crash, bam, boom” are examples of onomatopoeic words as they sound like
the sounds they represent.
Oxymoron - An oxymoron is a phrase that has an inherent contradiction in it. For example,
jumbo shrimp, boneless ribs, global village.
Paradox - A paradox is a statement that seems to contain a contradiction, but has an
underlying truth. For example, “To find yourself, you must lose yourself.”
Parody - Mimicking something or someone by exaggerating or copying certain traits with a
satirical intent is a parody.
Pathos - Writers create pathos when they develop sympathy in the reader through imagery
or events.
Personal Essay - As the name suggests, a personal essay is about a person’s life. It is,
therefore, subjective and reflective.
Personification - If you noted that the “wind whispered through the trees” you would be
using personification as it is attributing human characteristics to inanimate things.
Persuasive essay - The goal of this style of essay is to convince the reader to think or act
differently. It may, therefore, contain emotional appeals and be written in a style that is
designed to grab a reader’s attention.
Prologue - Before a drama or a narrative might come a prologue. It might explain a brief
background that is pertinent but not integral to the plot.
Propaganda - This is a message or set of messages designed to specifically shape public
opinion or thinking in order to accomplish a certain set of goals, usually political in nature.
Protagonist - The protagonist is the main character with a conflict to resolve. See
antagonist.
Proverb - A short, easily understood phrase that expresses a common sense truth is a
proverb.
Purpose - Purpose is the intent of the writer in using the style he/she chose.
Pun - Puns are plays on words and usually take advantage of words that are spelled
differently but are pronounced similarly. For example, “Why did she want to date a
mushroom? She’d heard he was a “fungi”. (fun guy)
Quatrain - A quatrain is a stanza that is four lines in length.
Refrain - A refrain is a repeated set of lines or words.
Rhetorical question - A rhetorical question is not meant to be literally answered but to
provoke thought.
Rhyme - Rhyme is the repetition of a similar sound in words. A rhyme may be internal—
within a line—but, in English poetry, is more commonly at the end of a line. For example,
Jack and Jill went up a hill, to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke his crown, and
Jill came tumbling after.
Rhythm - Rhythm is the beat of a line of poetry or prose.
Satire - A scathing piece of literature than points out human folly
Sestet - A six line stanza in a poem
Simile - A simile is an imaginative comparison using “like” or “as”. For example, “She ran
like a leopard.” is a simile comparing a runner to a leopard.
Soliloquy - A soliloquy is an extended and uninterrupted speech by a character who is
usually alone on the stage and speaking his/her innermost thoughts. Hamlet’s “To be or not
to be” speech is a very famous soliloquy.
Sonnet - Sonnets are 14 line poems that have a specific meter and rhyme scheme. The
Shakespearean sonnet contains four quatrains and ends with a couplet. The Petrarchan
sonnet begins with an octave and ends with a sestet. As well, sonnets follow a pattern of
development for the ideas they express.
Speaker - When discussing poetry, one refers to the narrator as the speaker of the poem.
Do not assume that the poet is the speaker of the poem
Stanza - A stanza is a group of lines in a poem.
Stereotype - A stereotypical has a specific set of traits usually associated with a group of
people. These traits might be either positive or negative. Rightly or wrongly, stereotypes
are too general to be true of everyone in a group.
Style - In a literary sense, style is the way a writer puts together the words he/she
chooses. For example, Hemmingway is noted for his use of sparse dialogue and
understatement.
Symbol - Symbols are images that represent something else. For example, the symbol for
poison is a skull and crossbones. Similarly, in Hemmingway’s “Hills like White Elephants”,
“white elephants”
represent things a person is given but that no one seems to want, which is symbolic of the
central tension of the short story.
Theme - This is the statement that describes the “big picture” or the universal truth about
human nature or existence
Thesis - All essays have a thesis which is the underlying or explicit statement being
proved.
Tone - Tone is the emotional attitude toward a subject conveyed by the writer’s word
choice.
Tragedy - In literary terminology, a tragedy contains certain elements: a protagonist of
high position or esteem who has a fatal character flaw and events that reveal that fatal
flaw, resulting in the downfall and / or death of the protagonist and those around him/her.
Topics/ Helpful Suggestions for
“Found” Poetry Group Graffiti Activity
1. What is the title of your favourite song? OR Write a lyric or two from a song you like/
have stuck in your head.
2. Write a few words about a wish or dream you may have.
3. Write a few words about your favourite concert/ class/ road trip/ vacation.
4. Write a few words about the hardest thing you have ever done.
5. Write a few words about the strangest or most interesting dream you’ve ever had.
6. Write a few words about how you see yourself in 5 years.
Student Participation Rubric
Name of Student:____________________________
COMMENTS:
DAY 3
Found Poetry Presentation and Traditional Poetry
Materials:
 Photocopies of types of poetry handout with poem examples
 Thought-provoking questions (found on types of poetry handout)
 Photocopies of peer evaluation form
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Before class begins, the teacher will
handout photocopy packages at each
students’ desk containing the “types of
poetry” handout, as well as a peer
evaluation form for each student
Upon student arrival, the teacher will
remind students of the group “found”
poetry presentations, which consist of
reading the poem created as a group.
Groups are encouraged to volunteer their
participation; however, if there are no
volunteers to present first, the teacher will
decide which groups precede. Before
presentations, the teacher will explain that
observing groups are to fill out the peer
evaluation form which will essentially ask
students to comment on what they liked
about the poem, what stood out, what the
poets meant, and any helpful suggestions.
The teacher will allot 20 minutes for
presentations to take place, assigning
roughly 3 minutes for each group
presentation. During these three minutes,
the teacher has the students introduce their
group members, the graffiti piece they
based their poem off of, a reading of the
poem and its title, and finally leaving room
for some students to offer components of
their evaluation to the group. The teacher
will collect this peer feedback at the end of
presentations so that this feedback can be
made available for students when selecting
portfolio items to showcase.
Students’ Actions
Students enter the classroom and sit at their
desks. Upon request, the students re-enter
their “found” poetry group. Students will
take a minute to review their group poem
and prepare to read it aloud to the class
when called upon or volunteering. When
presenting, the students must briefly
introduce their group members and discuss
the graffiti item they had based their poem
off of, followed by a reading of their poem.
This can be accomplished in anyway
decided by the students; however, all must
participate in at least one aspect of their
presentation. If the group is observing
another presentation, students within each
group have their own evaluation form, but
can work within their group to
constructively critique other presentations
according to the format provided. After a
presentation ends, students will then share
these comments with the class if called
upon.
For the next component of the lesson, the
teacher will review various forms of
traditional poetry with the class, alongside
the examples used to explore each type.
Notably, the exemplars are nature based in
order to address environmental literacy,
and the authors vary in culture to promote
multicultural literacy. There are ten poem
types to be explored, and as a result, 35
minutes will be assigned to explore the
various types. The teacher will introduce
the type of poem and offer a brief
explanation, meanwhile asking students to
read parts or the entire example offered for
the poem type being examined. For each
type of poem, the teacher will ask the
students if they notice any patterns,
rhyming schemes, figurative language, etc.
In order to accomplish this, the teacher will
ask students to have their literary terms
package available for review for discussion
of the poems and various styles.
Students will explore various types of
poetry through discussion based learning.
In addition to participating in discussion,
students are encouraged to read the
example poetry and answer questions
posed by the teacher. In their discussion
and dissection of traditional poetry, they
are also responsible for having their literary
terms package with them to “hunt” for
figurative language, rhyming schemes, etc.
to further the discussion and practice these
terms on a frequent basis.
For the remaining 20 minutes, the teacher
will ask the students to pair with an elbow
partner and reflect on the following
questions; Who are the authors of these
poems? Where do you think their story
comes from? What do these poems have in
common? What sets them apart from one
another? In doing so, the teacher is asking
his/her students to think critically about
these pieces and reflect on what makes
each type of poetry unique. Lastly, after
reviewing the answers to these questions,
the teacher will assign a homework
component, asking students to select a style
of poetry and produce a poem in that style
for the next class. During these 20 minutes,
the teacher allows time to work on the
homework, and is constantly conferencing
with students to check for understanding
and providing additional support.
After reviewing the handout, students will
conference with an elbow partner by
answering the questions found at the
bottom of the handout (Who are the authors
of these poems? Where do you think their
story comes from? What do these poems
have in common? What sets them apart
from one another?). After this discussion,
students will then have an opportunity to
select a preferred style of poetry and create
their own as a homework assignment. This
poem is to be completed for the next class
as time in class is given.
Forms of Poetry
Poetry is the expression of a thought, an idea, a concept or a story in a structured form
which has a flow and a music created by the sounds and syllables in it.
All types of poetry are often written in several styles. These styles are defined by the
number of lines in each stanza, the syllables used in each line or the structures of rhyme
used and so on. Here is a list of the main types of poetry commonly used by poets all over
the world.
Basic Forms of Poetry:
Ballad: This is an old style of writing poetry, which was used to tell stories. A ballad
usually has stanzas made up of either seven or eight or ten lines, and ends with a short
four or five line stanza. Each stanza ends with the same line, which is called ‘a refrain’.
Example:
THE ARCTIC INDIAN’S FAITH.
By Thomas D’Arcy McGee (A Famous Canadian)
I.
We worship the spirit that walks unseen
Through our land of ice and snow:
We know not His face, we know not His place,
But His presence and power we know.
II.
Does the Buffalo need the Pale-face word
To find his pathway far?
What guide has he to the hidden ford,
Or where the green pastures are?
Who teacheth the Moose that the hunter’s gun
Is peering out of the shade—
Who teacheth the doe and the fawn to run
In the track the Moose has made?
III.
Him do we follow, Him do we fear—
The spirit of earth and sky;—
Who hears with the Wapiti’s* eager ear
His poor red children’s cry.
Whose whisper we note in every breeze
That stirs the birch canoe—
Who hangs the reindeer moss on the trees
For the food of the Caribou.
IV.
That Spirit we worship who walks unseen
Through our land of ice and snow:
We know not His face, we know not His place,
But His presence and power we know.
*Wapiti—the Elk.
Couplet: Perhaps the most popular type of poetry used, the couplet has stanzas made up
of two lines which rhyme with each other.
Example: Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening, By Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Another example?
Ode to Autumn, By John Keats
1.
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.
2.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
3.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies
Quatrain: This kind of poem has four lines in a stanza, of which the second and fourth
lines rhyme with each other and have a similar syllable structure.
CALL OF THE SEA (PANTOUM) By: Hema Ravi, India
The waves are dancing with joy,
Urging fisher folk to come along.
Hidden treasures are there to enjoy,
Mother Nature’s lap is where they belong.
Urging fisher folk to come along,
To cast their nets into the depths,
Mother Nature’s lap is where they belong,
As they wait for a catch with bated breaths.
Casting their nets into the depths,
Swiftly rowing their boats along.
As they wait for a catch with bated breaths,
Their voices gently break into song.
Swiftly rowing their boats along
Hidden treasures are there to enjoy,
Their voices gently break into song,
The waves are dancing with joy.
Cinquain: This is another unique type of poetry style. As the name suggests, it is made
up of five lines. The first line is just one word, which is often the title of the poem. The
second line has two words which describe the first line. The third line has three words,
and is mostly the action part of the poem. The fourth line is four words describing the
feelings. And the fifth line, again, has just one word which is the title of the poem.
For example: “Forest’, By: Marinela Reka
Forest
Precious, sublime
Swaying, prancing, leaping
Beauty which humbles everyone
Nature
Iambic Pentameter: This is a very complicated style of writing poetry, but was often
used by classical poets. This style uses the syllable stresses to create the musical sound.
There is one short sounding syllable followed by one long sounding syllable, at the end of
each of the five stanzas in a row.
THE SONG OF LIFE (IN STRICT IAMBIC PENTAMETER) Koyel Mitra, India
When cherry flowers spread their pink array,
Then spring comes with its charming, lovely grace.
A zephyr fondles the lush green display
And gently holds them in a tight embrace.
A respite from the chilly winter snow,
Its pleasant, cheerful nature welcomes all.
The golden sun shines with a mellow glow,
With beauty tulips blossom; large and small.
Lambs frisk about while shepherds pipe sweet songs,
The dulcet tunes of cuckoos reach my ears,
The happy bell of my heart booms and dongs,
Resounds through air that dries my glassy tears.
My gloom effaced with fast approach of spring,
Heart full of glee, the song of life I sing.
Sonnet: This type of poem contains fourteen lines and follows conventional structures of
rhyme.
“Don’t Blame Nature”, by: John Celes
Why challenge Mother Nature, man, in vain?
Accept her superiority and pow’r;
One can’t traverse with equal speed each lane;
Take blame for every flood, wind, drought and show’r!
When hot, the excess steam must be let off;
When cold, one needs to cover to gain heat;
When Nature’s in a furious mood, don’t scoff;
Find solutions better and don’t retreat.
When Nature sends a breeze, man loves her touch;
When Nature blows a wind fierce, men rant, rave;
Yet, Nature balances her acts so much;
From natural disasters, man ought to save.
Align with Nature: Love the way she works;
But cursing God brings man more Nature’s jerks!
Haiku: This is again a very structured method of writing poetry. This has its origins in
Japan. This method does not use rhyme. There are three lines of five, seven and five
syllables each. The poem must essentially talk about some aspect of Nature.
"Unity" by: Lily Wang
Stretching meadows The soul breathes in unison with
The pulse of wind
Free Verse: This is a method of writing poetry, which does not essentially follow any
structure or style. There is no fixed meter and no structure regarding rhyme and lines in
each stanza. This kind of poetry is quite popular with modern poets.
“Waterfall” by Hugh Cook (Britain/ New Zealand)
Under extremest skies, asundered mountains
Rift through the mist and are gone.
Marooned on a wall of vertigo, a single tree
Hangs long pause. Below, a plummet down,
Launching from a ravenous gorge,
Oiled in a slide of moil and whirl,
A river quickens,
Its smooth intent of impetus and purpose
Marbled with the lighter-darker
Darker-lighter weave and shift
Of switchback gravity flecked with foam.
In thrust of flood it threats from force to force
Until momentum,
Pitched by a rock, a heave of opposition,
Bursts splinter-spree, brief ice
Collapsing as it falls and spills
To the kick and jolt of lurch and gone,
As rapids in a boiling purge
Lynch down a chute to the avalanche leap
Where water rolling water sprints a cliff.
Crashing in sheer concussions,
Brute water falls as waterfall,
Gusting in spray and topple,
Plumed with the gush of foam, with whitest gash.
Hanging forever on the keynote of descent,
It falls,
The plunge of freezing steam
Booming in broils, in light cascading
To the terminal ravish of the rocks of descent.
Epic: This poem is usually a long and descriptive one which tells a story. Epics usually
are longer than most poems and may even take up a book. Example: Homer’s ‘Iliad’.
Hiawatha's Departure from The Song of Hiawatha
by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
All the air was full of freshness,
All the earth was bright and joyous,
And before him through the sunshine,
Westward toward the neighboring forest
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo,
Passed the bees, the honey-makers,
Burning, singing in the sunshine.
Bright above him shown the heavens,
Level spread the lake before him;
From its bosom leaped the sturgeon,
Aparkling, flashing in the sunshine;
On its margin the great forest
Stood reflected in the water,
Every tree-top had its shadow,
Motionless beneath the water.
From the brow of Hiawatha
Gone was every trace of sorrow,
As the fog from off the water,
And the mist from off the meadow.
With a smile of joy and triumph,
With a look of exultation,
As of one who in a vision
Sees what is to be, but is not,
Stood and waited Hiawatha.
Limerick: This is a very witty and often vulgar kind of a poem, which is quite short. This
poem has five lines in a stanza. The first, second and fifth line have the same metrical
structure and they rhyme with each other. They contain seven to ten syllables each. The
second and fourth lines have the same metrical structure and rhyme with each other.
These contain five to seven syllables.
TWO TREES (Limerick) William Thomas Dodd, Germany
The willow and the oak
both went up in smoke.
Nature destroyed,
mother annoyed,
fire starters think it’s a joke
These are by no means, all types of poetry forms used. But these are the basics. Most
poets use these forms and structures while writing their poems. The form and structure of
the poem, ideally should not limit the thought or the idea conveyed by the poet. However,
these styles of writing help make the poem more musical in its flow.
Something to think about…
Who are the authors of these poems?
Where do you think their story comes from?
What do these poems have in common? What sets them apart from one another?
Class Activity: Looking at Modern Poetry
“Found Poetry”
What is it?
Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as
poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper
articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems.
A pure found poem consists exclusively of outside texts: the words of the poem remain as
they were found, with few additions or omissions. Decisions of form, such as where to
break a line, are left to the poet.
Example?
Two articles are examined, and interesting words are selected, or “found” by the author.
These words can then be used, in anyway, to construct the author’s own poem, such as
the following:
Finding Home
gray territories
cover vast miles
do not
migrate
hunt your
boundaries
learn your way
home
Performance Task:
We will create our own “found” poetry! How? Through the art of graffiti! There will
be six stations set up around the classroom, each having a piece of chart paper and a variety
of markers to use for designing your graffiti. In addition, there are also helpful suggestions
posted beside the chart paper. It is your job to produce words and phrases that reflect the
ideas presented at each work station. Remember; be creative, respectful, and have fun!
Eventually, we will have enough graffiti to construct our own found poetry!
Found Poetry Evaluation Form
Group Members:
Title of “Found” poem:
What did you like about the poem?
What parts of the poem stood out for you? Why?
What do you think the poets are talking about in their poem?
Do you have any helpful suggestions for the poets?
DAY 4:
Imagery & Concrete Poems
Materials:
 Pieces of lined paper (a 1/2 page for each student)
 Pictures of different landscapes, animals, and/or plants
 Examples of concrete poems on PowerPoint or transparency (can use the concrete
poems from the previous folder activity)
 Laptops (if available)
 Magazines
 Glue
 Scissors
 Bristol board
 Markers, crayons, and/or pencil crayons
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Students’ Actions
Before class begins the teacher tapes up
pictures of landscapes, animals, and/or
plants around the classroom. He/She could
also play some relaxing nature sounds or
soundscapes.
The students enter the room and take their
seats.
To begin class, the teacher asks the
students what they think the most popular
themes in poetry are. As the class answers,
the teacher writes their responses on the
board.
The students answer the teacher’s
question(s).
The teacher then begins talking about the
importance of the environment and nature
imagery in various genres of poetry. This
can be done with the use of a PowerPoint,
transparency, or any other type of
presentation technology. The main idea is
to discuss how words are used to create
images (imagery), and that concrete pomes
actually do this.
Students sit and take notes and ask
questions when they need information to be
clarified or expanded on.
The teacher will then show students
examples of concrete poem either in print,
with the projector, or on a transparency.
Some students volunteer to read the poems
aloud.
The teacher then hands out the ½ pieces of
paper to the students. The teacher explains
the next activity. He/She tells the students
to think about an image from nature (it can
be a landscape, a place, a plant or an
animal). The teacher then tells the students
to write their word on their piece of paper
and then crumple it up into a ball.
The students sit and listen to the teacher’s
instructions. They look at the pictures
around the room for inspiration and then
write their word on their piece of paper.
They then crumple their papers into small
balls.
The teacher then tells students to stand up
The students throw their balls and then pick
and throw their balls (not at anyone) across up a new one.
the room. After they have thrown their ball,
they are to pick up a different ball.
The teacher tells the students to uncrumple
their new ball, think about another (new)
image from nature, and write it underneath
the first word on the paper. The teacher
then tells the students to once again,
crumple up their paper into a ball and
throw it across the room.
The students write their new word on the
paper, crumple it up again, and throw it
across the room.
This is repeated until there are 3 nature
words on the paper.
This is repeated until there are 3 nature
words on the paper.
The teacher then tells the students that they
will be creating their own concrete poems
based on one of the three words on their
papers. They may draw their poem, use a
laptop to create it, or cut out words from
magazines and newspapers and paste them
on Bristol board to make their poem.
Students use the rest of the period to start
(and hopefully finish) their concrete poems.
At the end of class, the teacher collects the
poems so he/she can give the students
meaningful feedback that they can use
during the editing process.
The students hand in their poems to receive
feedback.
DAY 5:
Sound Poetry
Materials:
 A digital copy (on PowerPoint) of Edwin Morgan’s The Loch Ness Monster’s
Song
 Audio recording of Edwin Morgan’s The Loch Ness Monster’s Song (can be
found at
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=1683
 Projector and/or Smartboard
 Copies of blank T chart template (1 for every student)
 A poem recited in a different language (Russian) for T chart activity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU0VlNBboTA
 Bristol board or large blank paper
 Markers, crayons, and/or pencil crayons
 Optional: Youtube Videos of sound poetry performances
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Students’ Actions
The teacher puts a Edwin Morgan’s The Loch Ness
Monster’s Song on the projector or transparency.
He/She asks the students what they think the poem
is about.
The students give their impressions
about the poem. They may make
general comments or ask questions.
The teacher gives the students some important
background information about sound poetry
including: the time period in which it became
popular, some famous poets/artists, some unique
features of the genre, etc.
The students take notes if they feel
it is appropriate.
The teacher then asks the class if anyone wants to
attempt to read the poem aloud. The teacher leads a
discussion about the possible ways in which the
poem could be read/performed.
A brave student may volunteer to
read the poem, but this is unlikely.
With some guidance from the
teacher, the students talk about how
some of the words might sound and
how the poem could be read.
The teacher writes down some of the students’
predictions, ideas, and opinions on the board. The
teacher then plays the audio The Loch Ness
Monster’s Song being read by the Edwin Morgan.
This is available online at:
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive
/singlePoem.do?poemId=1863
The teacher then asks the students how their
The students listen to the audio
and/or watch the video.
Students debate and discuss their
predictions were different from the actual reading
prediction compared to the actual
of the poem. This discussion should lead to the idea reading of the poem.
that the poems really need to be performed and
heard rather than read.
The teacher then distributes a T chart to each of the
students. He/She instructs the students to write
“sound poetry” at the top of the left column and
“International poetry” at the top of the right
column.
The students write “sound poetry”
at the top of the left column and
“International poetry” at the top of
the right column.
To reinforce the importance of sound (and to
include multicultural literacy) the teacher then
displays a poem written in a different language.
(This could be a famous poem, or could be a poem
in the first language of a student in the class. If this
is the case, ask the teacher asks the student to read
it aloud in their language to the rest of the class, if
they are comfortable doing so. If this is not the
case, the teacher must find audio (or video) of a
person reading the poem in its original language. A
good resource can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU0VlNBboTA)
The teacher then asks the students what similarities
and differences there are between sound poetry and
poetry written in a different language. He/She
writes down the students’ answers in a T chart on
the board.
The students raise their hands and
share their ideas when they are
called on by the teacher. They write
the same information on their T
charts as the teacher writes on the
board.
The teacher then divides the class into groups of 4- The students break into groups and
5 students. The teacher instructs each group to push push their desks together to make a
4 desks together (facing each other) and sit around bigger working surface.
them.
As the students are organizing themselves, the
teacher gives each group a large piece of bristol
board or paper, markers, crayons, and/or pencil
crayons.
The students sit around the desks
and wait for further instruction.
The teacher then tells the students that they are
going to listen to another sound poem but that this
time, they are to draw what they hear and feel. If
the poem makes them feel mad or confused, they
must find a way to visually represent their feelings.
If they think the poem is about love or friendship,
they have to find a way to visually represent the
The students sit and listen to the
instructions.
themes. The teacher also explains that the group
can draw one cohesive image, or each person can
draw whatever they wish on the same sheet.
He/She also explains that students can be as literal
or abstract as they want with their artwork.
The teacher turns off some of the lights in the
classroom to set the mood and then plays only
audio of a sound poem.
The students being drawing and
writing.
When the poem is finished, the teacher asks the
first group to stand up where they are and share
their pictures.
The students finish their drawing.
Each student in the group explains
their interpretation of the poem and
how they visually represented it.
The teacher then asks the next group to do the same
thing, and so on and so forth until all of the
students have shared their interpretations and
artwork. As the students share their work, the
teacher should help them to make connections
between each others’ interpretations and drawings.
(I.E if the students are all using the colour green, or
mention feeling confused the teacher should try to
encourage the students to find these connections).
The students stand up and explain
their artwork, how they felt about
the poem, and what they think the
poem was about. They ask each
other questions and attempt to
make connections between each
others’ work.
The teacher then asks the students to respond to the
following questions in their journals:
1. How is sound poetry different from other genres
of poetry that we have studied?
2. When you were listening to the poetry, how did
it make you feel? What images came to mind?
The teacher then assigns the class homework; each
student must write their own sound poem to put in
their portfolio at the end of the unit.
The students take 10-15 minutes to
respond the questions in their
journals. If there is time remaining,
they then begin to work on their
sound poems until the end of the
class.
T-Chart
1.
. 2.
.
DAY 6
Famous Poets, Poetry Analysis, and
“Writing in the style of” Group Activity
Materials:
 Computer access
 Famous Poets package and Poetry analysis worksheet (photocopied for each
student)
 Pieces of paper and a hat for a draw
 Chalk/ whiteboard marker
 Chalkboard/ whiteboard
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Before class begins, teacher will distribute
handout package containing famous poets
and their poems, as well as a poetry
analysis sheet.
Students’ Actions
Teacher will take 2 min to debrief the
Students will discuss sound poetry,
sound poetry; activities explored the
likes/dislikes about activities,
previous day, and what students have learnt
as a result.
Teacher will introduce the idea of famous
poets by having a brief brainstorming
activity, roughly 3 minutes in length,
asking students about poets they are
familiar with.
Students will, as a class, brainstorm poets
that they are familiar with, as well as
famous poets they made have encountered
or heard of.
Teacher will then refer to the famous poets
package and ask students to look over the
poems to see which titles appear most
interesting. The teacher will then select two
poems to be read by the class (individual
volunteers or selected by teacher), and
discuss similarities and differences in style,
content, format, etc. This discussion and
reading is assigned 10 minutes.
Students will briefly glance over poems by
famous poets in their handouts and vote
about which two poems will be read by the
individuals selected from the class. They
will then discuss similarities and
differences in style, content, format, etc.
Since a poetry analysis is to be completed,
the teacher will have the students pick one
of the two poems read and conduct a
thorough analysis of the poem according to
Students will refer to the worksheet
provided upon voting which of the two
selected poems will be analyzed. Students
will participate in the double journal entry
the worksheet provided. This is to
exemplify the necessary steps in dissecting
the poem. The teacher will start by
“translating” the poem, stanza by stanza, in
a double journal entry fashion displayed on
the chalk/whiteboard (one column is the
lines from the poem, and the neighbouring
column consists of comments). Next, the
teacher will work through the poetry
analysis worksheet with the class in a
stepwise manner, guiding the students in
the process but relying heavily on their
responses. This activity will take 15
minutes.
style dissection of the poem, followed by
answering questions posed by the teacher,
which are directly from the poetry analysis
worksheet.
The teacher will then arrange students into
8 groups, numbering students at random
(from 1 to 9), and have the various poems
and poets written on small pieces of paper
(excluding the poem discussed in class) for
one of the group members to select on their
group’s behalf. Upon selection, the teacher
will assign the poetry analysis handout
activity, previously completed as a class, to
the individual group members. The teacher
will allow the groups 25 minutes to work
on their poetry analysis, and will frequently
visit groups to check on progress and
answer questions.
Students will get into their assigned groups
and designate one group member to select a
poem and poet from the hat.
The teacher will then direct attention to
having individual students work within
their groups on creating their own poem in
the style of the author their group has
explored. The teacher will provide help if
needed, as well as answer any additional
questions. 20 minutes are assigned for this
task, and the poem is due the next day.
Students will then attempt to create their
own poetry in the style of the famous poet
their group has explored. They are
responsible for their own poems, but can
discuss and edit each others’ work to help
one another out. Students will conference
with teacher to assess progress and ask
questions if needed.
In their groups, students will explore the
selected author and text according to the
poetry analysis handout. Computer access
may be required (practice research skills
and technology literacy). Students will
complete their analysis for homework if it
is not done in class time allotted.
Don’t You Know It? They’re a Famous Poet!
Below are a few notable poets that present varying writing styles of poetry.
Examine each one closely. You will be responsible for analyzing at least one of the
following poems using the worksheets provided.
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS by: T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
The broad-backed hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems so firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.
Flesh-and-blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.
The hippo's feeble steps may err
In compassing material ends,
While the True Church need never stir
To gather in its dividends.
The 'potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree;
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.
At mating time the hippo's voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.
The hippopotamus's day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way-The Church can sleep and feed at once.
I saw the 'potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.
Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of gold.
He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all the martyr'd virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.
Journey Of The Magi by T. S. Eliot
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sore-footed,
refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the
terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and
grumbling
And running away, and wanting their
liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the
lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns
unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high
prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all
night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears,
saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a
temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of
vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill
beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped in
away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with
vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for
pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no imformation, and so
we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment
too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say)
satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I
remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth,
certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had
seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different;
this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like
Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these
Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old
dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their
gods.
I should be glad of another death.
Ashes of Soldiers. by Walt Whitman
ASHES of soldiers!
As I muse, retrospective, murmuring a chant in thought,
Lo! the war resumes—again to my sense your shapes,
And again the advance of armies.
Noiseless as mists and vapors,
From their graves in the trenches ascending,
From the cemeteries all through Virginia and Tennessee,
From every point of the compass, out of the countless unnamed graves,
In wafted clouds, in myraids large, or squads of twos or threes, or single ones, they
come,
And silently gather round me.
Now sound no note, O trumpeters!
Not at the head of my cavalry, parading on spirited horses,
With sabres drawn and glist’ning, and carbines by their thighs—(ah, my brave
horsemen!
My handsome, tan-faced horsemen! what life, what joy and pride,
With all the perils, were yours!)
Nor you drummers—neither at reveille, at dawn,
Nor the long roll alarming the camp—nor even the muffled beat for a burial;
Nothing from you, this time, O drummers, bearing my warlike drums.
But aside from these, and the marts of wealth, and the crowded promenade,
Admitting around me comrades close, unseen by the rest, and voiceless,
The slain elate and alive again—the dust and debris alive,
I chant this chant of my silent soul, in the name of all dead soldiers.
Faces so pale, with wondrous eyes, very dear, gather closer yet;
Draw close, but speak not.
Phantoms of countless lost!
Invisible to the rest, henceforth become my companions!
Follow me ever! desert me not, while I live.
Sweet are the blooming cheeks of the living! sweet are the musical voices sounding!
But sweet, ah sweet, are the dead, with their silent eyes.
Dearest comrades! all is over and long gone;
But love is not over—and what love, O comrades!
Perfume from battle-fields rising—up from foetor arising.
Perfume therefore my chant, O love! immortal Love!
Give me to bathe the memories of all dead soldiers,
Shroud them, embalm them, cover them all over with tender pride!
Perfume all! make all wholesome!
Make these ashes to nourish and blossom,
O love! O chant! solve all, fructify all with the last chemistry.
Give me exhaustless—make me a fountain,
That I exhale love from me wherever I go, like a moist perennial dew,
For the ashes of all dead soldiers.
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -- by Emily Dickinson
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant -Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind --
Nobody knows this little Rose by Emily Dickinson
Nobody knows this little Rose -It might a pilgrim be
Did I not take it from the ways
And lift it up to thee.
Only a Bee will miss it -Only a Butterfly,
Hastening from far journey -On its breast to lie -Only a Bird will wonder -Only a Breeze will sigh -Ah Little Rose -- how easy
For such as thee to die!
The Best Thing In The World by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
What's the best thing in the world?
June-rose, by May-dew impearled;
Sweet south-wind, that means no rain;
Truth, not cruel to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end;
Beauty, not self-decked and curled
Till its pride is over-plain;
Light, that never makes you wink;
Memory, that gives no pain;
Love, when, so, you're loved again.
What's the best thing in the world?
—Something out of it, I think.
The Soul's Expression by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
WITH stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling interwound
And inly answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground.
This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air:
But if I did it,--as the thunder-roll
Breaks its own cloud, my flesh would perish there,
Before that dread apocalypse of soul.
This Is A Photograph Of Me by Margaret Atwood
It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;
then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.
In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.
(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.
I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.
It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion
but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)
Name_______________
Period_____Date_____
__
Poetry Analysis Worksheet
Title of
Poem___________________________________________
Author__________________________________________________
Five Important Facts About The Author:
1].
2].
3].
4].
5].
Literal Meaning
After you read the poem, what does the literal meaning seem to be?
What is happening in the poem?
Imagery
Pick out three uses of imagery and write them below (this will most
likely be a phrase or line from the poem), then explain what the poet
is trying to convey with this image.
1].
IMAGE:____________________________________________
MEANING:_________________________________________
2].
IMAGE:____________________________________________
MEANING:_________________________________________
3].
IMAGE:____________________________________________
MEANING:_________________________________________
Lyric Qualities
Describe the sound of this poem. You will use terms like: internal
rhyme, rhyme scheme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and repetition.
Find two specific lines or elements of the poem to discuss. List them
and then tell what you think they mean.
1]. Lyric Device:________________________________________
Meaning:___________________________________________
2].
Lyric Device:________________________________________
Meaning:___________________________________________
Figurative Meaning
Find at least two figurative devices and explain what they mean. You
are looking for terms like: simile, metaphor, allusion, symbolism and
personification.
1]. Figurative Device:____________________________________
Meaning:___________________________________________
2].
Figurative Device:____________________________________
Meaning:___________________________________________
Theme
What do you think is the message of this poem?
Why do you think this is the message? Give at least two reasons from
the poem—these should be answers you’ve already written on this
sheet
Personal Response
Did you like this poem? _________
Why/Why not?
DAY 1, WEEK 2:
Short Stories Introduction
Materials:
 Elements of a story diagnostic quiz photocopies
 Slide show projector
 Copies of student note package (elements of a short story with fill in the blanks)
 Chalk/whiteboard markers
 Chalkboard/ whiteboard
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Teacher will distribute the Introductory
Quiz (Diagnostic) on short stories before
students enter the classroom. By creating
this diagnostic quiz, the teacher examines
student’s previous knowledge and
experience with the elements of style in a
short story and general story components,
getting students thinking about various
components and how they are used within
short stories; the quiz will be 10 minutes in
length. While students are writing the quiz,
all handouts (fill in the blank note, sight
passages, sight passage handout) needed
for today’s class will be distributed in
booklet fashion by the teacher; ordered,
stapled, and hole-punched so that all
necessary components are contained and in
a format that allows students to easily place
this package in their binders; this way, the
package will be less likely to be misplaced;
Also, at the top of each of their note
packages will be a number that will place
them in their sight passage groups. 10
minutes will be allotted for the quiz.
Students’ Actions
Students enter the room and take their
seats. Upon instruction by the teacher, they
begin to write their short story diagnostic
quiz.
After the quiz, the teacher will ask students
to brainstorm the elements of a short story,
creating a idea web on the chalkboard/
whiteboard, visually representing
components to be discussed. This should
take 5 minutes.
Students will participate in brainstorming
the elements of a story, reflecting on the
quiz just completed and pooling prior
knowledge to create the idea web as a
class.
Teacher will conduct a lecture-style lesson
(Exploring the elements of style using a
slideshow presentation; teachers will give
students the hand out. This handout is
specifically designed to engage students by
not only having them complete the fill-inthe-blank components, but students will be
asked to read aloud certain parts to
maintain their attention, as well as offer a
change of voice so that the teacher isn’t the
only one speaking. Additionally, the fill-inthe-blanks style allows for the instructor to
ask students questions along the way and
keep them engage in the material). This
lesson will take 35 minutes to complete.
Throughout lesson, students are
encouraged to attempt to fill in the blanks
and ask questions where needed.
Elements of Style in Short Stories Quiz
Looking at WHAT a Short Story is…
In one sentence, describe what a short story is:
Name a few short stories that you may be familiar with or enjoy to read:
Looking at HOW a Short Story is composed:
What is the plot of a story?
Name at least three components of the plot of a story. Explain what they are.
What is the difference between the theme of a story, and its conflict? (Define both theme
and conflict to strengthen your explanation)
What is a literary device? How is it used in short stories (how does it affect the plot,
characters, or overall meaning)? Give at least one example and define it.
Elements of A Short Story
Methods of Characterization
1.____________ Characterization
the author develops the __________________of a character by
____________statements (e.g. He was an extrovert who loved to play
music)
2. ____________Characterization
Revealing a character’s _________________through:
the character’s thoughts, words, actions
 the comments of other characters
 the character’s physical appearance
1.
Setting and Atmosphere –_________and __________the story
is set and what type of story is this. (Mystery? Romance?
Adventure?)
2.
Point of View – a short story is told
from______________________. This person or voice is called
the____________. The narrator may be an active character in
the story or just an observer. The point of view is the
_________________from which the story is told; perspectives
of the same story can differ drastically. When thinking about point
of view, consider the following questions:
Q1: Who is telling the story? (is it a player on the home team, or
someone watching the game?) Q2:How do we know what is happening?
(for instance, does a character tell us?)
There are five main different points of view:
a. Omniscient Point of View-The ________is telling the story
directly
b. Limited Omniscient Point of View - __________person, told
from the viewpoint of a character in the story
c. First Person Participant – the person who tells the story is also
a __________________; uses pronoun “I”
d. Third Person Observer – the story is told from the point of
view of someone watching the action,
e. Third Person Omniscient – the story is told by a godlike figure
who knows exactly what everyone is thinking and doing at all
time
Symbolism – this is a literary device that short story writers often use to
bring a message home. Because short stories are short it is often useful for
the writer to write in “short hand” and short hand often includes symbol –
for example a cross as a symbol of the church, the colour white as a symbol
for purity, the maple leaf as a symbol of Canada. Basically, a symbol…
THEME – This is the term used for the __________________or idea in a
piece of fiction. It usually contains some insight into the human condition—
telling us something about humans and life. It is often the implied idea or
truth about life which the writer wishes to convey to the reader. The theme
can be stated directly or implied by the events and actions in the story.
Basic Literary Devices:
***To be discussed tomorrow! Read them over tonight and try to find
some examples in Jack London’s, “To Build A Fire”. If you come up with
three examples, you will be awarded an extra 2% on your short story
assignment! YAY!!!***
 Alliteration - the repetition of the initial consonant. There should be at
least two repetitions in a row.
i.e. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
 Allusion – A reference to a famous person or event in life or literature.
i.e. She is as pretty as the Mona Lisa.
 Analogy - the comparison of two pairs which have the same relationship.
i.e. shoe is to foot as tire is to wheel
 Foreshadowing - hints of what is to come in the action of a play or a story
 Hyperbole - a figure of speech involving exaggeration.
 Metaphor - A comparison in which one thing is said to be another.
i.e. The cat's eyes were jewels, gleaming in the darkness.
 Onomatopoeia - the use of words to imitate the sounds they describe.
i.e. The burning wood crackled and hissed.
 Oxymoron - putting two contradictory words together.
i.e. bittersweet, jumbo shrimp, and act naturally
 Personification - is giving human qualities to animals or objects.
i.e. The daffodils nodded their yellow heads.
 Pun - A word is used which has two meanings at the same time, which
results in humor.
 Simile - figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things using
like, as, or as though. i.e. She floated in like a cloud.
Elements of A Short Story Answer Key
Methods of Characterization
1. Direct Characterization
the author develops the personality of a character by direct statements
(e.g. He was an extrovert who loved to play music)
2. Indirect Characterization
Revealing a character’s personality through:
the character’s thoughts, words, actions
 the comments of other characters
 the character’s physical appearance
3.
Setting and Atmosphere – where and when the story is set and
what type of story is this. (Mystery? Romance? Adventure?)
4.
Point of View – a short story is told from someone’s vantage point.
This person or voice is called the narrator. The narrator may be an
active character in the story or just an observer. The point of view
is the perspective from which the story is told; perspectives of
the same story can differ drastically. When thinking about point of
view, consider the following questions:
Q1: Who is telling the story? (is it a player on the home team, or
someone watching the game?) Q2:How do we know what is happening?
(for instance, does a character tell us?)
There are five main different points of view:
a. Omniscient Point of View-The author is telling the story
directly
b. Limited Omniscient Point of View - Third person, told from
the viewpoint of a character in the story
c. First Person Participant – the person who tells the story is also
a character; uses pronoun “I”
d. Third Person Observer – the story is told from the point of
view of someone watching the action,
e. Third Person Omniscient – the story is told by a godlike figure
who knows exactly what everyone is thinking and doing at all
time
Symbolism – this is a literary device that short story writers often use to
bring a message home. Because short stories are short it is often useful for
the writer to write in “short hand” and short hand often includes symbol –
for example a cross as a symbol of the church, the colour white as a symbol
for purity, the maple leaf as a symbol of Canada. Basically, a symbol…
represents an idea, quality, or concept larger than itself.
THEME – This is the term used for the central message or idea in a piece of
fiction. It usually contains some insight into the human condition—telling us
something about humans and life. It is often the implied idea or truth about
life which the writer wishes to convey to the reader. The theme can be
stated directly or implied by the events and actions in the story.
Short Story Notes: Elements of Style
What Is a Short Story?
The short story is a _______or type of literature. These are not just
any stories that are short. Short stories can vary in length and usually follow
a specific pattern of plot or the action of the story. Also, these stories
usually only have a small number of characters.
Plot components of a Short Story:
Throughout the
development of the story,
___________and
___________are
introduced
The___________, or
central problem of story,
reaches a high point, or the
___________of the story,
and is then resolved or
solved somehow in the
____________.
Elements of Short Stories/Fiction:
5.
Conflict –______________________________. It is the
dramatic struggle between two forces in a story; without conflict,
there is no plot. Types of conflict include two main types:
A. ___________________Conflict
Human vs. Human
Human vs. Nature
Human vs. Society
B. ________________Conflict
Human vs. Self
6.
Plot – this is ________happens in the story. It is the literary
element that describes the structure of a story. It shows
arrangement of events and actions within a story
 Exposition: the _____________of the story, the situation before the
action starts
 Rising action: the series of _____________and ______________in
the story that lead to the _______________.
Climax: the “_____________________”, the most intense moment—
either mentally or in action
Falling action/ Denouement: all of the action following __________the
climax
 Resolution: the_________________, the tying together of all the
“threads”
7.
Character – this is _________is in the story. There are different
types of characters in short stories, but usually only one central
character, and few other characters. This is one main
classification of characters in short stories:
a. _________________– the central character or hero of the
story who undergoes a conflict and a change in his or her life
b. _________________– the character who helps or hinders the
protagonist in his or her struggle. This is often the character
who creates the conflict in the story.
Another way to distinguish between characters is saying how much we know
about them:
a. Round character – a character who is well developed by the
writer. We get a clear idea of what he or she looks and acts and
is like.
b. Flat character – a flat character is someone we are not told
much about, but he or she serves a purpose in the story.
Still another way to differentiate characters in short stories is based on
what happens to them in the story.
a. Dynamic character – a character who ___________through
the course of the story.
b. Static character – a character who
_________________________in the story.
Based on these classifications, you could have various combinations
of characters, but some are more likely than others. Most often a
protagonist will be round and dynamic, but antagonists can be flat
or round and dynamic or static.
Tomorrow’s Lesson?
Methods of Characterization
Symbolism
Peer Editing
Theme
Literary Devices
Short Story Notes: Elements of Style Answer Key
What Is a Short Story?
The short story is a genre or type of literature. These are not just
any stories that are short. Short stories can vary in length and usually follow
a specific pattern of plot or the action of the story. Also, these stories
usually only have a small number of characters.
Plot components of a Short Story:
Throughout the
development of the story,
characters and setting are
introduced
The conflict, or central
problem of story, reaches a
high point, or the climax of
the story, and is then
resolved or solved somehow
in the resolution.
Elements of Short Stories/Fiction:
8.
Conflict –the main problem in the story. It is the dramatic struggle
between two forces in a story; without conflict, there is no plot.
Types of conflict include two main types:
A. Interpersonal Conflict
Human vs. Human
Human vs. Nature
Human vs. Society
B. Internal Conflict
Human vs. Self
9.
Plot – this is what happens in the story. It is the literary element
that describes the structure of a story. It shows arrangement of
events and actions within a story
 Exposition: the start of the story, the situation before the action
starts
 Rising action: the series of conflicts and crisis in the story that lead
to the climax.
Climax: the “turning point”, the most intense moment—either mentally
or in action
Falling action/ Denouement: all of the action following after the climax
 Resolution: the conclusion, the tying together of all the “threads”
10.
Character – this is who is in the story. There are different types
of characters in short stories, but usually only one central
character, and few other characters. This is one main
classification of characters in short stories:
a. Protagonist – the central character or hero of the story who
undergoes a conflict and a change in his or her life
b. Antagonist– the character who helps or hinders the protagonist
in his or her struggle. This is often the character who creates
the conflict in the story.
Another way to distinguish between characters is saying how much we know
about them:
c. Round character – a character who is well developed by the
writer. We get a clear idea of what he or she looks and acts and
is like.
d. Flat character – a flat character is someone we are not told
much about, but he or she serves a purpose in the story.
Still another way to differentiate characters in short stories is based on
what happens to them in the story.
c. Dynamic character – a character who changes through the
course of the story.
d. Static character – a character who does not change in the
story.
Based on these classifications, you could have various combinations
of characters, but some are more likely than others. Most often a
protagonist will be round and dynamic, but antagonists can be flat
or round and dynamic or static.
Tomorrow’s Lesson?
Methods of Characterization
Symbolism
Peer Editing
Theme
Literary Devices
DAY 2:
Short Stories
Materials:
 Photocopies of an excerpt from Salvage by Orson Scott Card (1 for each student)
 Photocopies of “Short Story Questions” (1 for each student)
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Students’ Actions
Before class begins, the teacher places a
copy of the story on each student’s desk,
face down. As the students enter the room,
the teacher tells them not to turn over or
look at their papers.
The students sit down at their desks and
wait for further instructions.
The teacher tells the class that they are to
silently read the piece of paper on their
desk.
The students silently read the story.
After all the students are finished reading
the story, the teacher then tells them that
they will read it aloud together as a class.
The teacher begins reading. As the teacher
reads, he/she vocalized his/her inner
thought processes to model good reading
strategies for the students. The teacher then
calls on different students volunteers to
continue reading the excerpt until it is
finished.
The students sit and follow along as the
story is read aloud. They volunteer to read,
or read when they are called on by the
teacher.
The teacher then distributes the question
sheet that the students are to complete
individually.
The students answer the questions on the
worksheet provided.
The teacher then instructs the students to
work with a partner and compare their
answers. They are to take 10-15 minutes
and discuss what they story is about and
some possible endings.
The students find a partner and discuss the
answers they have written down. They also
discuss and brainstorm what the story is
about and some possible endings.
The teacher takes up the worksheet with
the class. He/She asks the students to share
their answers and promotes some
The students share their answers and
discuss the elements within the story and
possible meanings of the story.
meaningful discussion.
The teacher then poses the next activity as
a challenge. He/She tells the students that
they must write the next part of the story.
They can choose to finish it, or just write
the next chapter/section. When they are
completed, the best stories will be read
aloud to the class and the students will vote
for the one that they like the best. The
winner will then receive a prize; in this
case, he/she will get their story published
in the school anthology and will receive an
extra 1% on their final grade.
The students then begin their stories.
Short Story Excerpt
The road began to climb steeply right from the ferry, so the truck couldn’t build up any speed.
Deaver just kept shifting down, wincing as he listened to the grinding of the gears. Sounded like
the transmission was chewing itself to gravel. He’d been nursing it all the way across Nevada,
and if the Wendover ferry hadn’t carried him these last miles over the Mormon Sea, he would
have had a nice long hike. Lucky. It was a good sign. Things were going to go Deaver’s way for a
while.
The mechanic frowned at him when he rattled in to the loading dock. “You been ridin the clutch,
boy?”
Deaver got down from the cab. “Clutch? What’s a clutch?”
The mechanic didn’t smile. “Couldn’t you hear the transmission was shot?”
“I had mechanics all the way across Nevada askin to fix it for me, but I told em I was savin it for
you.”
The mechanic looked at him like he was crazy. “There ain’t no mechanics in Nevada.”
If you wasn’t dumb as your thumb, thought Deaver, you’d know I was joking. These old
Mormons were so straight they couldn’t sit down, some of them. But Deaver didn’t say anything.
Just smiled.
“This truck’s gonna stay here a few days,” said the mechanic.
Fine with me, thought Deaver. I got plans. “How many days you figure?”
“Take three for now, I’ll sign you off.”
“My name’s Deaver Teague.”
“Tell the foreman, he’ll write it up.” The mechanic lifted the hood to begin the routine checks
while the dockboys loaded off the old washing machines and refrigerators and other stuff Deaver
had picked up on this trip. Deaver took his mileage reading to the window and the foreman paid
him off.
Seven dollars for five days of driving and loading, sleeping in the cab and eating whatever the
farmers could spare. It was better than a lot of people lived on, but there wasn’t any future in it.
Salvage wouldn’t go on forever. Someday he’d pick up the last broken-down dishwasher left
from the old days, and then he’d be out of a job.
Well, Deaver Teague wasn’t going to wait around for that. He knew where the gold was, he’d
been planning how to get it for weeks, and if Lehi had got the diving equipment like he promised
then tomorrow morning they’d do a little freelance salvage work. If they were lucky they’d come
home rich.
Deaver’s legs were stiff but he loosened them up pretty quick and broke into an easy, loping run
down the corridors of the Salvage Center. He took a flight of stairs two or three steps at a time,
bounded down a hall, and when he reached a sign that said SMALL COMPUTER SALVAGE, he
pushed off the doorframe and rebounded into the room. “Hey Lehi!” he said. “Hey it’s quittin
time!”
Lehi McKay paid no attention. He was sitting in front of a TV screen, jerking at a black box he
held on his lap.
“You do that and you’ll go blind,” said Deaver.
“Shut up, carpface.” Lehi never took his eyes off the screen. He jabbed at a button on the black
box and twisted on the stick that jutted up from it. A colored blob on the screen blew up and split
into four smaller blobs.
“I got three days off while they do the transmission on the truck,” said Deaver. “So tomorrow’s
the temple expedition.”
Lehi got the last blob off the screen. More blobs appeared.
“That’s real fun,” said Deaver, “like sweepin the street and then they bring along another troop of
horses.”
“It’s an Atari. From the sixties or seventies or something. Eighties. Old. Can’t do much with the
pieces, it’s only eight-bit stuff. All these years in somebody’s attic in Logan, and the sucker still
runs.”
“Old guys probably didn’t even know they had it.”
“Probably.”
Deaver watched the game. Same thing over and over again. “How much a thing like this use to
cost?”
“A lot. Maybe fifteen, twenty bucks.”
“Makes you want to barf. And here sits Lehi McKay, toodling his noodle like the old guys use to.
All it ever got them was a sore noodle, Lehi. And slag for brains.”
“Drown it. I’m trying to concentrate.”
The game finally ended. Lehi set the black box up on the workbench, turned off the machine, and
stood up.
“You got everything ready to go underwater tomorrow?” asked Deaver.
“That was a good game. Having fun must’ve took up a lot of their time in the old days. Mom says
the kids used to not even be able to get jobs till they was sixteen. It was the law.”
“Don’t you wish,” said Deaver.
“It’s true.”
“You don’t know your tongue from dung, Lehi. You don’t know your heart from a fart.”
“You want to get us both kicked out of here, talkin like that?”
“I don’t have to follow school rules now, I graduated sixth grade, I’m nineteen years old, I been
on my own for five years.” He pulled his seven dollars out of his pocket, waved them once,
stuffed them back in carelessly. “I do OK, and I talk like I want to talk. Think I’m afraid of the
Bishop?”
“Bishop don’t scare me. I don’t even go to church except to make Mom happy. It’s a bunch of
bunny turds.”
Lehi laughed, but Deaver could see that he was a little scared to talk like that. Sixteen years old,
thought Deaver, he’s big and he’s smart but he’s such a little kid. He don’t understand how it’s
like to be a man. “Rain’s comin.”
“Rain’s always comin. What the hell do you think filled up the lake?” Lehi smirked as he
unplugged everything on the workbench.
“I meant Lorraine Wilson.”
“I know what you meant. She’s got her boat?”
“And she’s got a mean set of fenders.” Deaver cupped his hands. “Just need a little polishing.”
“Why do you always talk dirty? Ever since you started driving salvage, Deaver, you got a gutter
mouth. Besides, she’s built like a sack.”
“She’s near fifty, what do you expect?” It occurred to Deaver that Lehi seemed to be stalling.
Which probably meant he botched up again as usual. “Can you get the diving stuff?”
“I already got it. You thought I’d screw up.” Lehi smirked again.
“You? Screw up? You can be trusted with anything.” Deaver started for the door. He could hear
Lehi behind him, still shutting a few things off. They got to use a lot of electricity in here. Of
course they had to, because they needed computers all the time, and salvage was the only way to
get them. But when Deaver saw all that electricity getting used up at once, to him it looked like
his own future. All the machines he could ever want, new ones, and all the power they needed.
Clothes that nobody else ever wore, his own horse and wagon or even a car. Maybe he’d be the
guy who started making cars again. He didn’t need stupid blob-smashing games from the past.
“That stuff’s dead and gone, duck lips, dead and gone.”
“What’re you talking about?” asked Lehi.
“Dead and gone. All your computer things.”
It was enough to set Lehi off, as it always did. Deaver grinned and felt wicked and strong as Lehi
babbled along behind him. About how we use the computers more than they ever did in the old
days, the computers kept everything going, on and on and on, it was cute, Deaver liked him, the
boy was so intense. Like everything was the end of the world. Deaver knew better. The world was
dead, it had already ended, so none of it mattered, you could sink all this stuff in the lake.
They came out of the Center and walked along the retaining wall. Far below them was the harbor,
a little circle of water in the bottom of a bowl, with Bingham City perched on the lip. They used
to have an open-pit copper mine here, but when the water rose they cut a channel to it and now
they had a nice harbor on Oquirrh Island in the middle of the Mormon Sea, where the factories
could stink up the whole sky and no neighbors ever complained about it.
Short Story Questions
1. Who are the main characters in the story?
2. Where does the story takes place?
3. List some of the important words and symbols in the story.
4. In your opinion, what is the main theme of the story?
5. If you had to create a title for the story, what would it be and why?
DAY 3:
Sight Passage and Jigsaw of Short Stories
Materials:
 Numbers to place on desktops of each student (1, 2, 3, or 4)
 Four different sight passages (one copy for each member of the expert group)
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Teacher will place one number (1, 2, 3, or
4) on the desk of each student, as well as a
copy of a sight passage story before the
beginning of class.
Students’ Actions
At the start of class, the teacher will
conduct debrief of their interpretations of
the previous lesson’s stories. Also, the
teacher encourages students to share what
they had written for the next part of the
story, calling upon at least three students to
share their work. This debrief and activity
should take 20 minutes. At the end of this
sharing period, the teacher collects the
class work for feedback and later editing so
they can place their work in their
portfolios.
Students will share their interpretations of
the story, as well as some of the “next part”
pieces they have created the day before.
Students will then submit their work to add
to their portfolio.
Teacher allows students to arrange
themselves into their “Expert groups”
based on the number placed on their desk;
this number is strategically placed so that
group members are a variety of learning
styles and abilities so that they
cooperatively learn with one another.
Students to arrange themselves into their
“Expert groups” based on the number
placed on their desk; this number is
strategically placed so that group members
are a variety of learning styles and abilities
so that they cooperatively learn with one
another.
Teacher has the students read the assigned
passage, fill out the handout, and reflect
within their groups; the teacher will move
from group to group and activate prior
knowledge in order to help complete the
assignment. Also, teacher will model how
to read the short story through “think
aloud” talk, as well as use verbal cues to
prompt students answers for the worksheet.
Students read their assigned passage within
their expert groups and fill out the handout,
reflecting on their answers within their
groups and asking questions when needed.
This activity will take 40 minutes to
complete.
The teacher will then have a group member
(selected by the groups themselves) move
to another group and explain their story by
going over the group completed handout.
The teacher then has the students return to
their groups and discuss what they have
learned about the other groups’ stories
(depending on what group interactions
occurred). This should take 20 minutes to
complete.
Students select a group member from their
“expert” group to go and discuss their story
with another group. The “expert” member
will enter a neighbouring group, share their
findings about their group’s story, listen to
the new group’s findings about their own
story, and then the “expert” member will
return to their original “expert” group to
share their findings of the neighbouring
group’s story.
Reading Passage #1
A Horse for Matthew
by William J. Buchanan
1. My name is Tommy Silva. I am 14. I live in a large adobe house on the Jemez Indian
Reservation in New Mexico, the ancient home of my people. For as long as I can
remember, one room in that old house has been a world apart, an enchanted place of
exciting smells and sights and things—my grandfather’s room. There, shelves on two
walls are heavy with silver trophies, jeweled belts and medallions, awards recognizing
Señor Martino Silva as the greatest rodeo champion ever to emerge from the Indian
nations.
2. In this room my father was born, my grandmother died, and as a young boy I had often lain at
night with my head cradled in Grandpa’s arm, listening to tales of an era that I could
never know.
3. It was to this room one morning that I came to the past in hopes of shaping the future.
4. Grandpa was bent forward in his rocker, poking a pinion log burning in the fireplace. This was
the first year he had kept a fire going during the summer. I settled into a nearby chair and
stared silently into the amber flames.
5. Grandpa pulled his woolen coat tighter. “So, are you going to tell me what is troubling you?”
6. “It’s my friend, Grandpa. Matthew.”
7. “The Anglo boy the horse fell on?”
8. “They removed his cast last week. He was in it three months, Grandpa. He won’t even go near
a horse now.”
9. Grandpa nodded. “I’ve seen this kind of fear in grown men, much less a 14-year-old boy.”
10. “It’s not right, Grandpa. I mean, down here in the valley, a kid not riding. He’ll be left out of
everything.”
11. Grandpa rocked, saying nothing. I let the silence hang for a while, then said, “Grandpa, you
know more about horses than anybody. Would you find a horse for Matthew?”
12. It took him by surprise. He leaned back in his chair and shook his head. “My eyes are tired. . .
. ” He noticed the hurt on my face and stopped. Then, with a deep sigh, he said, “Tell me
about the boy.”
13. It poured from me in a torrent of words: Matthew’s skill with horses before the accident, how
we rode the mesa together, how he tended sick calves as if they were from his father’s
ranch instead of the Jemez Pueblo. At last Grandpa put a leathery hand on mine. “I will
try, because it is you who ask.”
14. THAT EVENING AFTER CHORES I rode across the Rio Jemez to the Cannon ranch. I tied
Cheyenne to the hitching post and walked around to the back patio. Matthew was seated,
resting his wounded leg atop a low wall. In the corral Mr. Cannon was working with two
young colts. I pulled up a chair. “Your dad breaking yearlings?”
15. “Halter breaking,” Matthew replied.
16. “Hey, man, let’s go help.”
17. “Oh, sure,” he said. There was both fear and remorse in his voice.
18. We sat like that for a while. Leaden silence. Then, figuring it was now or never, I broke the
news. “I’ve asked my grandpa to find you a horse.”
19. “You what?”
20. I told him everything that was said that morning in Grandpa’s room.
21. “I thought you were my friend,” he snapped.
22. “I am your amigo. Look, the Pueblo trail ride is in six weeks. Unless you’re riding, it won’t—”
23. “Look, amigo”—he spit out the word with sarcasm—“I’m not going on any trail ride in six
weeks, or six years, or anytime again. You get that?” He shoved his chair back and
stood. “Do me a favor: Tend to your business and let me tend to mine.” He stalked into
the house and slammed the door.
24. It was as if I’d been slapped.
25. “What was that all about?” a familiar voice asked. I looked around and saw Matthew’s dad. I
told him what had taken place.
26. He thought for a moment. “Thanks, Tommy. If your granddad finds anything, call me.”
27. EACH DAY FOR TWO WEEKS, Mama would drive Grandpa to a different ranch, and they
would return with nothing to report. Then, one evening, Grandpa said, “Have the boy and
his father meet me tomorrow at Broadbents.”
28. “Broadbents?” I said, puzzled. “Grandpa, that’s a slaughterhouse.”
29. “Just be there.” He sipped his coffee without another word.
30. Broadbents Stockyard was west of Albuquerque on old Route 66. Grandpa and I were talking
to the owner when Mr. Cannon arrived. Matthew had refused to come.
31. Grandpa pointed to a pinto standing alone. She was small. Her glossy summer coat shone
like a burnished checkerboard. “There is the horse for Matthew,” Grandpa said.
32. MR. CANNON STEPPED around for a closer look. The owner eyed him carefully, then said,
“Mister, you don’t want that mare.”
33. Mr. Cannon turned. “Oh? Why?”
34. “Those are slaughter horses. Something wrong with all of them. Someone’s mistreated that
little paint. You can’t get close to her.”
35. “I don’t understand,” Mr. Cannon said. “Señor Silva, are you sure this is the horse for me?”
36. Grandpa shook his head. “Not for you,” he said firmly. “For the boy.”
37. Their eyes met for a moment, then Mr. Cannon turned to the owner. “How much for the
mare?”
38. The owner shrugged. “She was going for four cents a pound for dog meat. Forty dollars and
she’s yours.”
39. It took some doing, but we got her back to Cannon’s ranch and led her into the small corral.
We set out to gain her confidence, but nothing tempted her. Open the gate and she’d bolt
madly to the far end of the lot. The mere sight of a rope caused her to panic.
40. At first, Matthew watched from the safety of the patio. Then one day he started coming to the
corral. Favoring his wounded leg, he’d pull himself atop the fence. One day he yelled,
“She jumps around like a Pueblo sun dancer.”
41. The name stuck: “Sundance.”
42. IN THE BEGINNING, Matthew would leave the corral when we did. Then he started lingering
behind, closely studying Sundance. And she studied him. Sensing that he was as
apprehensive of her as she was of him, she began to accept his presence. One day he
picked a handful of clover and held it over the fence. She cocked her head, hesitated a
moment, then quickly nibbled it from his hand. In a few days she was coming to the fence
to meet him. But the fence was always there, always between them.
43. Then came the day Mr. Cannon asked me to help trim Sundance’s hooves. Before we could
corner her, she spotted the lariats. Emitting a sharp cry, she lowered her head and
dashed toward the barbed-wire fence. Flexing her powerful muscles she tried to clear the
barrier. Her rear fetlocks caught. She crashed to the ground, savagely entangled in the
sharp wire. In a few minutes she would cut herself to ribbons.
44. “Hold her still! I’ll get the wire cutters!” Mr. Cannon yelled.
45. Suddenly, he was there, limping toward the terrified mare. “Matthew! Stop!” I cried.
46. Dodging flailing hooves, he put a hand on her face, softly, gently speaking to her. For an
agonizing moment, she froze. Then, slowly, she exhaled a shuddering moan and lay
back, quiet.
47. “The rope,” Matthew said.
48. I put the lariat in his hand. He eased the noose over Sundance’s head and held her while his
dad snipped the wire from her legs. Matthew coaxed her and she stood.
49. WHILE MR. CANNON AND I watched from the porch, Matthew washed and treated
Sundance’s wounds. All that day, and in the days that followed, he tended her while she
healed.
50. But he still wouldn’t ride, still wouldn’t approach other horses. I decided my efforts were in
vain.
51. One morning before dawn, three weeks later, the annual Pueblo trail ride set out from Pueblo
Plaza. We were crossing the Rio Jemez heading for Red Rock Canyon when I heard the
cry: “Hey, amigo, wait up!”
52. They came at full gallop, Matthew astride Sundance, wounded boy and wounded horse. I
reined up and tried to speak. All that would come was a reverent whisper: “Madre de Dios
. . . Madre de Dios (Mother of God).” Tears stung my cheeks. I wondered if Matthew
could see them.
53. WE RODE SIDE-BY-SIDE, lagging behind the others. I said, “You’ve been working with her in
secret, haven’t you?”
54. “Yeah,” he admitted. He patted Sundance. “She wouldn’t have much to do with you or Dad,
would she?”
55. “No,” I chuckled, “she sure wouldn’t.”
56. “She took to me right off, though. Guess I’m the only one who really understood her.”
57. “No, amigo, not the only one,” I replied. And I thought of a soft-spoken old man in his rocking
chair staring into a pinion fire. Grandpa had understood the little horse—and more
besides.
Reading Passage #2
Hello, Old Paint
by Jeanne Marie Laskas
1. The check bounced. “Insufficient funds,” says the little note attached. Well, I’m sure it’s just a
mistake. Probably the people didn’t make a transfer in time or something. “No big deal,” I
keep saying to myself, standing at the mailbox.
2. But the check bounced! Isn’t that strange? I mean, is there a message here? The check was
payment to us for the sale of Cricket, our ex-horse, and Sassy, our ex-mule. A sale, truth
be told, I’ve been regretting. And now the check has bounced. Is it a sign?
3. No, of course not. Probably just a clerical error.
4. Even so, as I take the long walk back home, I get a picture in my head. I imagine that
somehow Cricket and Sassy understand that the check bounced, that they understand
the legal ramifications of this, that technically the deal is null and void, and in one burst of
horse energy they leap over the buyer’s fence and come bounding in slow motion, as if in
a shampoo commercial, up our driveway, toward me, kicking and snorting with glee, and I
run toward them and we hug and live happily ever after. Together. As it was meant to be.
5. When I get home I snap out of it. No, we did the right thing, selling Cricket and Sassy. They’re
in a better place now. Cricket will be a brood mare. A mom!
6. And Sassy, her friend, will be at her side. It’s better for them. Better for us. Cricket, a registered
American saddlebred, is too much horse for novices like us. And Sassy is too short for an
adult to ride. And we have another horse and mule that we do ride. So this really is the
best thing for all concerned. And what did I tell myself ? Yes, some friendships are meant
to end. That’s it. Never mind that Cricket was our love-horse, the horse that walked up
our driveway on our wedding day. And Sassy was our love-mule, the mule that walked up
our driveway beside her. They had flowers in their hair. Never mind! Because some
friendships are just meant to end. And I am a mature person with a logical head who
understands this.
7. So I call Cricket and Sassy’s new owners. “The check bounced,” I say.
8. “Oh, that’s our stupid bank,” the woman says. Then she gives me her bank’s stupid phone
number, should I want to call for proof that her account is in good standing, which I don’t
really, but I write the number down anyway. “Just resubmit the check, okay?” she says. I
ask her how Cricket and Sassy are doing, and she says, “Great!” Nothing more. I wish
she had said more.
9. Meantime, all this horse thinking gets my mind on Billy. Because not all fading friendships are
meant to end. Billy is the neighbor who sold Cricket and Sassy to us. He’s the one who
rode Sassy up the driveway on our wedding day, his feet dragging on the ground. Tom,
his son, rode Cricket. They’re the ones who put the flowers in their hair. Billy and I used
to see each other more. I don’t know why we’ve drifted. There never seems to be a real
reason for friendships to fade. Friendships take work. Maybe that’s all there is to it.
10. I call Billy just to say hi. He seems happy to hear from me. “We got a donkey!” he says. “She’s
so goofy. You’d love her.” I tell him the news about Cricket and Sassy, and when I
mention the buyers he seems concerned: “Did you happen to insist on a certified check?”
11. Oh.
12. Sure enough, a few days later, I’m at the mailbox. “Insufficient funds.” I can’t believe it. What
do they think, I’m an idiot or something? I stomp into the house. What about that bank
phone number? I’ll call that bank, I’ll get to the bottom of this. What did I do with that
number? I must have thrown it out. I start picking through the trash.
13. Here it is! But the paper is wet and the number is blurred.
14. Isn’t that strange? I mean, is there a message here? It’s hard not to think of disappearing ink
as a message from above. I start getting shampoo commercials in my head again. Oh,
dear.
15. Why am I putting myself through all of this? Why can’t I just admit that I made a mistake? Not
just the part about selling my beloved pets to, well, some questionable buyers. But selling
them at all. And, anyway, why can’t we breed Cricket? A lot of work, perhaps. But
wouldn’t that be an amazing experience?
16. I imagine Cricket back in our barn. I imagine brushing her, telling her everything I’ve learned.
“Well, Cricket, friendships take work,” I’ll say. “That’s all there is to it.”
17. So I call the woman, sound very businesslike. “The check bounced again,” I say calmly. “The
deal is off.” Strangely, she doesn’t sound surprised. I get the distinct sense she and her
husband have been through this before.
18. I call Billy. “Would you be able to go pick up Cricket and Sassy in your horse trailer and bring
them back home?” I ask. He says of course. No questions asked. And I think that’s what
friends are for. And I say yeah, I’d love to stop over and meet his new donkey.
The Friendship
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1. The little boy had a policeman for a friend. He acquired him out of a clear sky. He ran out of the
schoolyard to go home for his noon lunch, tripped over a rough spot on the sidewalk, and
fell so hard and so flat that for gasping moments he could not draw a breath. The
policeman happened to be passing by. Robert felt himself being lifted and pounded on
the back. The first breath that came was agony and wonder, for drawing it had seemed
impossible. It was only with the third that he realized his knees were hurting, and he
looked down to see them torn and bleeding. He became aware of the policeman and then
it was unthinkable to cry.
2. He was not afraid, like the defiant older boys who gave themselves away by bragging of what
they had done and intended to do to policemen. His father had often told him that the law
was a protector, and if he ever found himself lost, for he was something of a roamer, he
was to ask for a policeman and give his name and address. This seemed appropriate
now.
3. He said, “My name is Robert Wilkinson and I live on Newton Street. I’ve forgotten the number.”
4. The policeman nodded his head gravely. “I know your father,” he said. “Isn’t your house the
large green-and-white one?”
5. “Oh, yes. With a big snow-apple tree in the yard.”
6. The policeman again inclined his head. “My duties take me that way, Robert. I’ll walk along
with you.”
7. The little boy was enchanted. The policeman’s gravity was pleasing and complimentary.
8. “That was a bad tumble, young man. Are your knees painful?”
9. “Yes, sir, they hurt terribly.”
10. “Will there be someone at home to fix you up?”
11. “Oh, yes; my mother. She’s always there when I come home for lunch.”
12. “You’re lucky, Robert. I didn’t have a mother when I was your age. Eight, I’d guess?”
13. “Just six. I almost wasn’t old enough to begin the first grade.” He glowed with pride that the
policeman thought he was eight years old. “I thought everybody had a mother.”
14. “Everybody has a mother to begin with.”
15. “Even kittens and puppies and little birds.”
16. “And colts and calves and baby elephants,” said the policeman, and smiled. “But sometimes a
mother can be lost.”
17. Robert was puzzled. “I thought only little boys got lost. I never have been, quite, but my father
says he’s always expecting it.”
18. “Just ask for me if you’re lost. I am Sergeant Masters.”
19. “That’s what my father told me, to ask for a policeman and tell my name and where I live. But
I can’t ever remember the number.”
20. “The name and the street are what matter. Your father is well known in the area where you
would presumably stray.”
21. Robert did not quite understand all the words, but he was charmed with the truly adult
conversation, with his father’s being well known, and above all with the policeman. He
sighed happily, and when the policeman took his hand in crossing a street, his cup of joy
ran over, and he left his small hand inside the vast one. They walked in silence down
another block.
22. He asked, “Do you have a little boy?”
23. “No, Robert. I should have liked a dozen, but I shall never have a single one.”
24. “How can you tell?”
25. “Sometimes,” the policeman said, “it is possible to know.”
26. The sergeant at once took third place in omniscience behind God and his father, and it
occurred to Robert that perhaps he should put him first. The only flaw in everything was
that his protector had been unimpressed by his not crying when his knees did hurt so
intensely. They reached the gate of his house. His mother stood anxiously on the front
porch, since the accident had delayed him. He waved to her and she waved back.
27. The policeman said, “You might say to your mother that I suggest hot water first, and then an
antiseptic and bandages.” He cleared his throat. “You are a very brave young man. Many
boys would have cried. I usually pass your school during the noon recess, and when we
meet again, I hope we may walk together.”
28. “Oh, I hope so too.” He recalled his manners. “Thank you, sir,” he said.
29. “And you are polite too. I’m sure we shall be friends.”
30. He tipped his cap to the lady coming down the path and strolled impressively away.
31. Robert cried out, “Mother, I fell down and I couldn’t breathe, and see my knees, all bleeding,
and a policeman picked me up and came home with me.”
32. “How nice of him. Oh, darling, this is dreadful. You can’t go back to school this afternoon.”
33. “Of course I can go back. I’m a very brave young man.”
34. His mother laughed and hugged him to her, and treated his injuries as the policeman had
suggested, although he forgot to tell her.
35. He was a little late for the afternoon session, but he went boldly into the classroom with his
bandaged knees. They were their own apology, and the teacher nodded to him and went
on with the lesson. He was disappointed that she did not ask him any questions, so that
he could tell of his peril and of his friend.
36. In the evening he could hardly wait for his father to come home. He hung on the gate,
watching for him. When he saw him coming down the street, he ran to him and clasped
him around the legs.
37. “Father, I fell down and hurt myself, and a policeman brought me home.”
38. His father lifted quizzical eyebrows. “A policeman brought you home? Well, well. In chains, no
doubt. What bad thing had you done?”
39. “Oh, father.” He was accustomed to his father’s jokes, and nothing could spoil his pleasure.
“The policeman is my friend.”
40. “Well, that may come in handy someday when you’ve done something really bad.”
41. “Father.” The jesting was adult, too, and he ate his vegetables at dinner without his mother’s
urging.
42. He was unable to avoid boasting at school, just a little, for Sergeant Masters was waiting for
him almost every noon.
43. The tough boys sneered, “Who wants a cop for a friend? Yah. Bet your mamma pays him to
take baby home. Yah. ’Fraid we’ll beat you up. We don’t beat up babies. Bet she pays
him a dollar a week.”
44. The idea had its unspeakable possibilities. His mother was often unduly solicitous. He did not
dare approach her on the subject, but he did sound out the sergeant.
45. “Do you know my mother?” he asked one day.
46. “I don’t have that pleasure. But as I said before, I am acquainted with your father.”
47. Perhaps his father had hired the policeman. Perhaps his father had enemies and was
threatened with the kidnapping of his son. This thought was exciting and acceptable, but
it invalidated the friendship. He pondered over his next question. He felt very sly and
clever as he asked it.
48, “A good policeman wouldn’t take money for walking home with anybody, would he?”
49. The sergeant stopped and stared down at him. “Somebody has been putting ideas in your
head. No, Robert, a good policeman doesn’t take money for anything.” He laid a huge
gentle hand on the little boy’s shoulder. “I am your friend. Always remember that
friendship is a noble thing.”
50. He was comforted. And then the snow apples on the tree in the yard began to ripen and fall.
They lay each morning like rosy flowers in the soft grass. By family custom these were
his own, the windfalls. He invited the policeman into the yard every day and insisted on
his putting an apple in all his pockets.
51. Sergeant Masters said invariably, “Thank you, Robert. I wish I had a little boy to take them
home to. But I’ll think of you and enjoy them.”
52. One day the windfalls were scarce and the policeman would not take any, but said that he
would prefer to think of Robert’s eating them. The next noon there was only one snow
apple on the ground. This was unreasonable, as the tree was still loaded. Robert
watched from behind the hedge that evening, and saw Jimmy Thomas and his sister
dash into the yard and swoop to the grass and dash away again. He was in a rage. It was
his apple tree, his apples. He not only liked to use them as tribute to his friend but he was
passionately fond of snow apples himself.
53. He ran toward the house to tell his father, then halted, and in triumph decided on a superior
plan. Of what avail to have a policeman for a friend, if not to use him for his vengeance?
54. The next noon he prayed there would be no apples on the ground. There was a
disappointingly large number, but still, he was sure, not nearly so many as usual. He
turned haughtily to Sergeant Masters.
55. “Well,” he said, “those Thomases have been over here again, stealing. I want you to arrest
them and put them in jail. Right now.”
56. “Arrest the Thomases for stealing? Who are the Thomases?”
57. “A horrid boy across the street and his nasty little sister. They’ve been stealing my snow
apples.”
58. “I see. Robert, do they have an apple tree?”
59. “No. But they don’t have any right to mine.”
60. “Have you ever given them any of your apples?”
61. “I don’t have to. I don’t like them. And you’re my friend, you said so, and I want you to arrest
them.”
62. Sergeant Masters slowly took out from his pockets the apples that Robert had pressed on him
and dropped them to the autumn earth.
63. “It’s a very large tree, Robert,” he said, “but perhaps you’d better just keep all the apples for
yourself.”
64. Robert stared at the gift apples discarded on the ground, then up at the beloved face far
above him. It was sad and stern. He drew a gasping breath more painful than the one
when he had fallen flat and the policeman had pounded him on the back and had
become his friend. In a moment now Sergeant Masters would walk out of the gate and be
lost to him forever. He threw his arms around the strong legs and gripped them tight and
hid his face against them.
65. A sparrow flew into the tree and chirped cheerfully in the dreadful silence. An apple dropped
with a thump. A cloud drifted across the sun and the autumn air was chill. He shivered.
The big hand of the policeman dropped slowly to his head and ruffled his hair. A great
arm encircled him.
66. “It’s all right, Robert.”
67. The little boy burst into loud sobs of relief and shame. Friendship was a noble thing and he
had proved unworthy.
“Magic” Pablo
by Mark Brazaitis
1. Pablo and I liked to play “Let’s imagine.” We’d be walking down the street, a basketball cradled
under one of our arms. Clouds would be gathering in the east, as they tended to do in
early evening. A light rain—chipi-chipi is what everyone in town called it—might even be
falling.
2. “Let’s imagine,” Pablo would say, “that Michael Jordan is walking with us.” He would smile.
“What would these people say?” he would ask, pointing to the woman in the dark blue
cortes and white huipiles, the native dress in this town in the Northern mountains of
Guatemala. “What would they do?”
3. “They’d be amazed,” I’d say. “They wouldn’t know what to do.” Pablo agrees.
4. “They’d probably run. But we’d just keep walking down the street, the three of us, to the
basketball court.”
5. Then Pablo would ask, “And how would we divide the teams?”
6. “Michael Jordan versus the two of us.”
7. Pablo would consider this. “No,” he’d say, “it’d be you and Michael Jordan versus me.”
8. Pablo was sixteen when I met him, another indistinguishable face in my English class of fortyfive students.
9. I was twenty-five when I arrived as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Santa Cruz
Verapez, a town of 4,000 people. I was prepared to be alone during my entire
two-year service. I figured this was the way my life was supposed to be: silent sacrifice. I
wasn’t, at any rate, expecting to make a friend my first night in town.
10. But the night after my first English class, Pablo knocked on my door. I invited him in, and he
entered, looking around shyly. On a table in my dining room, he saw a copy of Sports
Illustrated that my stepfather had sent from home. He pointed to the cover photo.
11. “Robert Parish,” he said. “The Chief.”
12. Pablo, it turned out, knew as much about basketball and the NBA as I did, and I was a former
sportswriter.
13. I don’t know where he got his information. El Grafico, the only daily newspaper from the
capital sold in our town, rarely had stories about American basketball. A Mexican TV
station that reached Santa Cruz showed NBA games on Saturday mornings, but the
town’s electricity was so unpredictable—occasionally it would be off for three or four days
in a row—that I wondered how many of these games he could have seen. Pablo just
seemed to know, and he was familiar not just with Robert Parish and other All-Stars; he
could talk about obscure players like Chris Dudley and Jerome Kersey as if he were an
NBA beat reporter.
14. Pablo would come to my house at night and we would draft imaginary line-ups.
Pablo liked non-American players. Hakeem Olajuwon was his favorite. He liked Mark
Aguirre because he’d heard that Aguirre’s father was born in Mexico. Dikembe Mutombo.
Manute Bol. Drazen Petrovic. Selecting our imaginary teams, he’d always draft these
players first.
15. I didn’t get it. Why would he pick Vlade Divac instead of Charles Barkley?
But the longer I lived in Guatemala, the better I understood.
16. The American presence in Guatemala is about as subtle as a Shaquille O’Neal slam dunk.
The Pepsi logo covers entire storefronts. In Santa Cruz, the town basketball court is
painted with a Coca-Cola motif, right down to the backboards. In some remote villages,
children wear “Ninja Turtles” tee-shirts.
17. We had long arguments about who was the best player in the NBA. Hakeem Olajuwon versus
Michael Jordan. Hakeem versus Patrick Ewing. Hakeem versus Magic Johnson.
18. Pablo stuck by his man.
19. Pablo and I played basketball on the court next to the cow pasture. Pablo was taller than
Muggsy Bogues but shorter than Spud Webb, both of whom played in the NBA. When we
first began playing, I could move him around with my body, backing him close to the
basket. If I missed, I was tall enough to get a rebound. In games to twenty-one, I would
beat him by nine, eleven, thirteen points.
20. Pablo was the first to tell me about Magic Johnson. He came over to my house one night,
late.
21. “What is it?” I asked.
22. His head was bowed.
23. “What is it?”
24. He looked up. He wasn’t crying, but he looked like he might need to. He said,
“Magic has the AIDS virus.”
25. We mourned together. Feeling sentimental, Pablo admitted, “Magic might be better than
Hakeem.”
26. Pablo’s dream was to dunk a basketball. We calculated how many feet he would need to
jump—about four.
27. Pablo drew up a training plan. He would jump rope two hours a day to build his leg strength.
Every other day, Pablo would ask his younger brother to crouch, and he would leap, back
and forth, for half an hour.
28. Two weeks later, Pablo came to my house and asked me to set up a hurdle in my courtyard. I
stacked two chairs on top of each other, then another two chairs a few feet away. I
placed a broom across the top of the chairs and measured: the broom was four feet off
the ground.
29. “I’m going to jump it,” Pablo said.
30. “You sure?” I asked.
31. “Yes, I’m sure.”
32. We stood there, gazing at the broom.
33. “You sure?” I asked again.
34. “I’m sure.”
35. More gazing.
36. Then he backed up, took a few quick steps, and jumped. His knees shot to his chest. He leapt
over the broom like a frog.
37. “You did it!” I yelled.
38. “I can dunk now,” he said, grinning.
39. The next morning, we went to the basketball court. Pablo dribbled from half court and leapt.
The ball clanked off the rim. He tried it again. Same result.
40. “I don’t understand,” he said.
41. I didn’t have the heart to admit I’d misled him: to dunk, he’d have to jump four feet without
bending his knees.
42. As a player, though, Pablo was getting better. He couldn’t dunk, but he’d learned to use his
quickness to drive by me and score. He had grown stronger. I could not back into him as
easily.
43. Also, he had developed a jump shot.
44. “Let’s imagine,” Pablo would say, “that David Robinson came to visit us.”
45. “All right,” I’d say.
46. “Where would he stay?”
47. “I don’t know. At a hotel, probably.”
48. “No,” Pablo would say, “he’d stay at your house. You’d let him sleep in your bed.”
49. “Yeah, that would be better.”
50. “And you’d make him dinner.”
51. “Sure.”
52. “And at night,” Pablo would say, “we’d sit around and talk about basketball.”
53. Pablo was not my best student. He was more interested in basketball than books.
But he knew how to make his teacher laugh.
54. When he missed a quiz, I allowed him to make it up by writing five sentences — any five
sentences of his choice — in English.
55. He wrote:
1. Charles Barkley sang a song in my house.
2. I beat Patrick Ewing in slam dunk.
3. I beat David Robinson in block.
4. Hakeem Olajuwon is my brother.
5. Magic and Pablo are the best friends of Mark.
56. Despite his interest in basketball, Pablo’s best sport was soccer. He played for San Pedro
Carcha, a nearby town. Pablo was a good play-maker. Quick dribbler. Good passer.
Soccer’s equivalent of a point-guard, not a power forward.
57. I’d seen several of Pablo’s games and had watched him make gorgeous passes, beautiful
sky-touching passes that his teammates batted into the net for goals.
58. My last week in Guatemala as a Peace Corps Volunteer, I attended a game Pablo’s team
played against San Cristobal, a town nine kilometers west of Santa Cruz. The game was
tied 1–1 going into the final minutes. Pablo’s team had a corner kick. The crowd, about a
thousand strong, was silent.
59. The ball soared into the air. A mass of players, including Pablo, gathered to receive it. Pablo
jumped, his body shooting up like a rocket off a launcher. His timing was perfect. His
head met the ball and the ball flew past the goalie.
60. Pablo’s teammates paraded him around the field on their shoulders. People from the crowd,
per custom, handed him money.
61. When I talked to him later, I didn’t need to point out why he’d been able to jump that high. He
said it himself. “It’s basketball. I learned it from basketball. From trying to dunk.”
62. We played our last game the day before I left Guatemala. We played in the evening, as a light
rain—a chipichipi— fell.
63. He had learned to play defense. I tried to back him toward the basket, but he held his ground.
I was forced to use my unreliable jump shot. I could no longer get every rebound because
he’d learned to block out. And, of course, he could jump now.
64. I got lucky and hit two straight jumpers to pull ahead by four. But he countered with a reverse
lay-up. He scored again on a long jump shot, a shot he never would have made when we
first played.
65. The rain fell harder now. Puddles were beginning to form on the court. Pablo and I were both
panting. It was getting dark; we could barely see the basket.
66. “Let’s quit,” I said. “Let’s leave it like this.”
67. “If you want,” he said.
68. “Yeah, let’s leave it like this. A tie.”
69. “All right,” he said. “A tie. Good. Let’s leave it.”
70. We hugged each other.
71. “Let’s imagine,” Pablo said, as we walked to my house for the last time, “that you and I played
against Michael Jordan. Who would win?”
72. “Jordan,” I said.
73. “No,” Pablo said. “We would. Believe me, we would.”
DAY 4:
Writing Original Short Stories
Materials:
 Copies of the “Short Story Writing Guide” (1 for each student)
 Computers/laptops
 Encyclopedias and/or literary criticism text books
 Short story anthologies
 Examples of past students’ short stories
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Students’ Actions
The teacher begins class by explaining that
today’s period will be a work period for the
students to use in order to start researching
and writing their short stories. The teacher
then takes the class to the library for a
research/work period. When they enter the
library, a table is already set up; it has
literary criticism encyclopedias and text
books, short story anthologies, and short
stories written by past classes. The teacher
instructs the students to sit down at a table.
The students sit at a table.
The teacher then distributes the short story
writing guide handout to the students and
explains how it is to be used. He/She says
that before the students start writing they
need to organize and write down all their
ideas on the writing guide provided. The
teacher encourages the students to do
research and get inspiration from other
stories and novels but to NOT plagiarize.
The students sit and listen to the teacher’s
instructions. They ask any questions that
they might have. They then use the rest of
the period to get ideas and organize them
using their writing guide. They use all the
resources available to them in the library to
do research and find some inspiration.
Before the end of the period, the teacher
goes around and checks each individual
student’s progress. He/She records each
student’s progress.
Each student shows the teacher how much
work they have accomplished and share
their ideas for their stories.
Short Story Writing Guide
Characters (include detailed descriptions)
Setting (date, time, place, etc)
Symbol(s)
Tone/Atmosphere
Narrative Voice
Theme(s)
Plot Summary (be as detailed as possible)
Plot Graph
Reading Passage “Expert of My Story” Worksheet- Elements of Style
Reading Passage Number:
Title of Passage:
Author:
Group Members:
In groups of 3-4 students, read and discuss the assigned passage while exploring
the elements of style introduced this class. You are responsible for becoming the
“experts” of your story, looking at plot, setting, themes, literary devices, point of view
and characters. After each group member completes this “Expert of My Story”
worksheet, you must present your findings, as a group, to another group with a different
story. After explaining and discussing the story amongst your peers, the other group will
then present their passage, covering the same components as listed below since they are
the “experts” of their story. Read carefully, and become experts! The following are the
questions that need answering:
PLOT and CHARACTERS
In 3-4 sentences, summarize the overall plot of the story:
What was the climax of your sight passage?
List the main characters, as well as a few traits to describe them to your peers: (what do
they look like? Likes/dislikes? Interests? Personality? Temperament?). Also, mention
who the antagonists and protagonists are and why you know this.
What is the conflict of the story? Is it interpersonal or internal?
SETTING AND ATMOSPHERE
Where is the story taking place? Provide a brief description.
What type of story is this? (Mystery? Romance? Adventure?)
POINT OF VIEW and THEME
Who is telling the story? (for instance, is it a player on the home team, or someone
watching the game?) Decide what point of view is used and explain your choice in a few
sentences.
How do we know what is happening? (for instance, does a character tell us?)
What is the overall message/ idea/ theme of the story? How can we apply this to our own
lives?
LITERARY DEVICES (if applicable); construct a brief list of any literary devices and
give the exact example from the story; what kind of device is it and how did you know?
Explain your choices.
DAY 5
Portfolio Submission and Coffee House Cumulative Presentation Introduction
Materials:
 Photocopies of student note package; writing portfolio reflection worksheet,
portfolio evaluation rubric, coffee house presentation outline.
Procedures:
Teacher’s Actions
Today’s lesson is self-reflection driven.
Before class, the teacher will place a note
package on the desk of each student
containing the following; writing portfolio
reflection worksheet, portfolio evaluation
rubric, and coffee house presentation
outline.
Students’ Actions
The teacher explains that today’s class is
meant to reflect on the work completed up
to this point. The teacher briefly reviews
the components of the writing portfolio
reflection worksheet, and gives verbal
examples demonstrating how each section
may be completed. This should take 5
minutes.
The students enter the class, then sit and
listen to the teacher’s instructions. They
ask any questions that they might have.
Next, the teacher reviews the various parts
of the portfolio evaluation rubric,
explaining each section and each
expectation in a clear and concise manner.
This should take 5 minutes.
The students enter the class, then sit and
listen to the teacher’s instructions. They
ask any questions that they might have.
Lastly, the teacher introduces the coffee
house presentation outline, explaining its
various components and discusses and
appropriate due date. This should take 5
minutes.
The students enter the class, then sit and
listen to the teacher’s instructions. They
ask any questions that they might have.
The teacher roams around the classroom to
check on individual progress and observe
how students reflect on their work, as well
as discuss their future plans for the coffee
house presentation.
Students then use the rest of the period to
get organize their work and reflect on in
terms of the guidelines and expectations
provided. Students ask questions and
conference with the teacher when needed
Before the end of the period, the teacher
goes around and checks each individual
student’s progress. He/She records each
student’s progress.
Each student shows the teacher how much
work they have accomplished and share
their reflections on their portfolio work.
COFFEE HOUSE POETRY READINGS
Your Presentation Date: _____________________
A coffee house is different from a place where you can just buy coffee. A coffee house is
a place where creative people gather to share their talents, in the arts, over coffee. One
common aspect of a coffee house is sharing poetry; the person’s personal poetry or their
interpretation, orally and through other creative forms, of a poem. We are going to have
our own coffee house poetry readings – so bring coffee!
Activity Description – The first and foremost thing to know about poetry is that it is
meant to be read aloud. You will each choose one poem or piece of work from your
portfolio and present it to the class.
Presentation Requirements:
 The poem/piece must be meaningful to you.
 It must be at least 15 lines long.
 Deal with appropriate content.
 The portfolio piece should be memorized, but you will be permitted to have a
copy with you (in case you need it) during the presentation.
 Above all you are to focus on how YOU feel your piece is meant to be read.
What words should be emphasized? How should the words be said? What
rhythm do the words have?
 You may choose to be creative in your reading by incorporating one or several of
the following into your interpretation: Music, Dance, Mime, Art, Drama, Props
or costumes, Other approved by [teacher].
 The final component of the presentation will be your commentary on the poem
(not memorized). This discussion should address the following:
1. Why you chose the poem and what, specifically, you like about it (poet’s choice of
words, topic, imagery, use of figurative language, etc.)
2. What you think the poem is about, and why you think that.
Presentaion Evaluation
These presentations will be evaluated on the following rubric-based criteria:
Poor satisfactory good v.good excellent
a. Memorization
1
2
3
4
5
(5)
b. Vocal Interpretation
2
4
6
8
10
(10)
c. Eye Contact
1
2
3
4
5
(5)
d. Vocal Clarity
1
2
3
4
5
(5)
e. Appropriate Gestures 1
2
3
4
5
(5)
f. Commentary
2
4
6
8
10
(10)
g. Overall Impression
2
4
6
8
10
(10)
total 50
Writing Portfolio: Student Reflection
For each of the items to be included in your final portfolio, please provide a one page
response containing answers to the questions below.
My Name: ________________________________ Date: ________________
Title of Piece:
_____________________________________________________________




This piece was chosen for my portfolio because…
The things I like most about this piece of writing are...
If I worked more on this piece of writing or started over, I would change...
While working on this piece of writing, I did the following things to help me do
my best work...
Overall, I would rate this piece of writing as:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Terrific; this is one of my best papers and a must read for others.
Good; I’m happy with it and I think it would please an audience.
Fair; it could use a little more work before being read by others.
Poor; it would need lots of work before being published.
UNIT SUMMARY
The unit we have designed involves a large number of activities and student
interaction. We attempted to limit the amount of traditional teacher-led instruction while
increasing more student-led and collaborative learning. The lesson plans in this package
cover the first two weeks of a four week creative writing unit. Week one is focused on
poetry and week two is focused on short stories. Depending on your needs and your
students’ interests, weeks three and four would be used to teach other types of writing
such as persuasive and expository writing including (but not limited to): newspaper
articles, songs, advertisements, greeting cards, editorials, research papers etc.
The three literacies that we have selected to integrate within our unit are critical
literacy, multicultural literacy, and environmental literacy. We believe that all of these
literacies fit well with our lessons, activities, and content. The first literacy, critical
literacy, is one that is often used within English and literature studies because it
encourages students to challenge previously held assumptions, analyze power structures,
inherent biases, and multiple perspectives in what they read. This is important in
analyzing poetry and interpreting the themes within short stories.
The second literacy we included is multicultural literacy. Multicultural literacy is
paramount in a unit which relies so heavily on the work of international authors; men and
women of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Further, this unit attempts to give
students the multiple perspectives of diverse cultures from around the world, encouraging
them to identify connections between themselves and others. It is of the upmost
importance that students learn and understand the connections between themselves as
individuals, and people from other cultures around the world if they are to become
compassionate global citizens.
The third literacy imbedded within the unit it environmental literacy. As we
designed the unit, we realized that a great deal of poetry was based on the environment
and natural systems. We thought it was important to focus on this theme because the
environment has become a major issue within our changing world. Students need to be
able to appreciate the natural beauty of the environment and understand the impact of
their actions (and decisions) upon said environment.
In terms of individual learning, students are given the opportunity to engage in
activities by themselves. They are required to create, think, and analyze on their own. It is
important that they learn autonomy and accountability. For example, on day
This allows individual students to experiment and develop their own skills with the
website before getting together with other learners. At several points students are asked
questions, and brainstorm answers on their own, and they are asked to share their
thoughts.
There is also a strong emphasis on cooperative learning throughout the unit.
Students are encouraged to participate in a variety of activities in pairs, groups, and as an
entire class. Our goal was to support scaffolding through collaborative learning and to
encourage students to create meaningful relationships with each other in order to make a
strong classroom culture. In fact, the success of culminating task—the coffee house—is
entirely dependant on the supportive environment of the classroom because students need
to feel safe and secure in order to share their written work aloud with others.
Overall, this unit is designed with the student in mind. Academic students in
grade 10 need to acquire both independent and collaborative learning strategies and we
feel that our lessons/unit plan target these specific needs. Also, we tried to incorporate
different instructional strategies to appeal to different types of learners; we incorporated
movement to appeal to kinaesthetic learners, visual aids and images to appeal to visual
learners, lectures to appeal to auditory learners and collaborative activities to appeal to
interpersonal learners. Hopefully, the activities, experiences, and instruction that this unit
offers students will be memorable for years to come.