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ACTIVITY 1.4 continued
4 Based on the observations you made during the first reading, you may want to adjust the reading mode. For example, you may decide for the second reading to read the poem aloud, or you may group students differently.
5 SECOND READ: During the second reading, students will be returning to the text to answer the text- dependent comprehension questions. You may choose to have students reread and work on the questions in a variety of ways:
• independently
• in pairs
• in small groups
• together as a class
6 Have students answer the text-dependent questions. If they have difficulty, scaffold the questions by rephrasing them or breaking them down into smaller parts. See the Scaffolding the Text Dependent Questions boxes for suggestions.
7 After responding to the text- dependent questions, allow students to freewrite an initial interpretation of the text. Ask students to mark the text to signal words or phrases that support their interpretation.
8 After freewriting, instruct students to pair up and discuss their interpretations with a partner.
9 Have one volunteer share his or her interpretation. Ask students, “Is this the only interpretation of the poem, or are there any other ways this poem could be read?” Ask for a volunteer who has a different interpretation of the poem to read it from that perspective and provide a rationale. Encourage students to cite evidence that supports their interpretations.
10 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Senior English
SCAFFOLDING THE TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS
9178.14K57e30y468I2d_TeCBa_sSEa_Gn12d_UD1_Be1.tinaddils10 (RL.11–12.1) What physical experience does the speaker describe in the poem? What specific words, phrases, or lines convey the experience? Reread the poem. What action verbs describe how the father was acting and what the son was experiencing?
2. Craft and Structure (RL.11–12.4) What words or phrases in stanzas 1 and 2 hint at emotional tension among the family members in the poem?
In the first stanza, how does the speaker describe the experience of waltzing? Is it a positive or negative experience? In the second stanza, which lines reveal the mother’s feelings about the waltz?
10/2/15 11:08 PM
10 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Senior English
ACTIVITY 1.4
continued
Introducing Reader Response Criticism
My Notes
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt, 15 Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Second Read
• Reread the poem to answer these text-dependent questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the text in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
1. Key Ideas and Details: What physical experience does the speaker describe in the poem? What specific words, phrases, or lines convey the experience?
The speaker remembers that when he was a boy, his father would dance with him. The boy clung to his father’s shirt as they waltzed and “romped” around the house, upsetting dishes in the kitchen. As they danced, the boy’s “right ear scraped” against his father’s belt buckle and the father “beat time on” the boy’s head. RL.11–12.1
2. Craft and Structure: What words or phrases in stanzas 1 and 2 hint at emotional tension among the family members in the poem?
In stanza 1, the boy feels “dizzy” smelling the whisky on his father’s breath, and he hangs on “like death” as they dance. The boy’s mother “could not unfrown” her face as the father and the boy dance. RL.11–12.4
3. Craft and Structure: What connections can you make between the rhythm of the poem and the dancing of the waltz, a ballroom dance set in triple time? How is the poem structurally like and unlike a waltz?
Most lines in the poem have three beats, emulating a waltz’s three-step pattern. However, the pattern breaks several times in the poem (lines 2, 4, 10, 12, 14), mirroring the imperfect, clumsy, and perhaps uneasy nature of the waltz in the poem. RL.11–12.5
4. Key Ideas and Details: What is the conflict at the center of the poem? How does the speaker reveal it?
The poem reveals a conflicted childhood memory. While the waltz represents a moment of closeness and fun between father and son (“hung on,” “romped,” and “clinging”), it is simultaneously marked by darkness (lines 1–4), the father’s violence (lines 9–12), and the mother’s disapproval (lines 7–8). RL.11–12.3
Working from the Text
5. After studying the poem, freewrite to explore your initial perception or interpretation of the text. Mark the text to identify words and phrases that support your interpretation.
Possible interpretations: pleasant memory of an interaction between a child and an affectionate father: papa, waltz, romped, cling as opposed to unpleasant memory of an interaction between a scared child and an abusive father: whisky, death, battered, missed, beat, dirt.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.