Page 12 - ELA_CA_HighSchool_Sampler_Flipbook

16 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 9
ACTIVITY 1.5
Defining Experiences
PLAN TEACH
LEARNING STRATEGIES:
Guided Reading, Close Reading, Marking the Text, Note-taking, Visualizing, Word Map
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eugenia Collier (b. 1928) grew up and continues to live in Baltimore. Retired now, she taught English at several universities. She has published two collections of short stories, a play, and many scholarly works. Her noteworthy and award-winning story “Marigolds” powerfully captures the moment of the narrator’s coming of age.
Literary Terms
Juxtaposition is the arrangement of two or more
Short Story
Marigolds
ACTIVITY 1.5
Materials: markers for students Suggested Pacing: 2 50-minute class periods
1 This activity scaffolds the central theme of coming of age while also reinforcing students’ understanding of voice, inference, flashback, and juxtaposition.
2 Draw or project a line and label the beginning of the line “Childhood,” and the end of the line “Old Age.” Ask students where “coming of age” happens. When does the process of “coming of age” starts and end? (Students might not agree on a specific number; the discussion is meant only to inspire them to think about approximate ages.)
3 Pose a discussion question: How old you have to be to write your own coming of age story?
4 Explain juxtaposition and provide examples. Then explain flashback as a narrative device, especially when used in coming-of-age stories.
5 Read the Preview and the Setting a Purpose for Reading sections with your students. Help them encounter how a writer’s choice of words and phrases creates imagery and voice.
6 FIRST READ: Based on the complexity of the passage and your knowledge of your students, you may choose to conduct the first reading in a variety of ways:
• independent reading • paired reading
• small group reading • choral reading
• read aloud
Text Complexity Overall: Complex
Lexile: 1120L
Qualitative: Moderate Difficulty Task: Moderate (Analyze)
My Notes
Learning Targets
• Explain how a writer creates effects through the connotations of words and images.
• Use textual details to support interpretive claims.
Preview
In this activity, you will read a short story and note any words or phrases that create imagery and voice.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• Write an exclamation point (!) next to words or phrases that create interesting imagery.
• Highlight words or phrases that create the narrator’s voice.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
16 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 9
things for the purpose of comparison.
A flashback is an interruption or transition to a time before the current events in a narrative.
shantytown: a run-down town in which most of the people are poor
by Eugenia Collier
1 When I think of the home town of my youth, all that I seem to remember is dust— the brown, crumbly dust of late summer—arid, sterile dust that gets into the eyes and makes them water, gets into the throat and between the toes of bare brown feet. I don’t know why I should remember only the dust. Surely there must have been lush green lawns and paved streets under leafy shade trees somewhere in town; but memory is an abstract painting—it does not present things as they are, but rather as they feel. And
so, when I think of that time and that place, I remember only the dry September of the dirt roads and grassless yards of the shantytown where I lived. And one other thing I remember, another incongruency of memory—a brilliant splash of sunny yellow against the dust—Miss Lottie’s marigolds.
2 Whenever the memory of those marigolds flashes across my mind, a strange nostalgia comes with it and remains long after the picture has faded. I feel again the
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
RL.9–10.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
Additional Standards Addressed:
RL.9–10.1; RL.9–10.10; W.9–10.2a; W.9–10.2b; W.9–10.2c; W.9–10.2d; W.9–10.2f; W.9–10.4; W.9–10.5; L.9–10.4a; L.9–10.5b; L.9–10.6
Focus Standards:
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RL.9–10.5: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
RL.9–10.3: Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.