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14 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 11
ACTIVITY 1.4
continued
America’s Voices
ASSESS
Title
Tone
Diction and Imagery That Reveal Tone
“I Hear America Singing”
Celebratory, praising, optimistic, hopeful, patriotic, admiring, triumphant, hearty, vibrant, strong, chauvinistic
“Singing,” “carols,” “strong melodious songs,” “mouths open,” “mechanics ... each one
singing ... / Blithe and strong.”
“I, Too, Sing America”
Proud, confident, beautiful, assertive, unafraid
“But I laugh,” “Nobody’ll dare / Say to me,” “They’ll see how beautiful
I am”
ADAPT
ACTIVITY 1.4 continued
8 After students have read and analyzed both poems, have pairs collaborate to fill out the chart in the Working from the Text activity.
9 Have students complete the Check Your Understanding section and the writing prompt.
10 Draw students’ attention to the Independent Reading Link.
Review students’ answers (in writing or discussion) to the Check Your Understanding question. Answers should reveal an understanding that the America in Whitman’s poem is still a future vision for the speaker in Hughes’s poem, not a present reality.
Review students’ responses to the writing prompt to determine how well students understand the relationship between diction and imagery. They should also demonstrate that they can distinguish between a word’s connotation and its denotation.
If students need more practice analyzing a poem, assign them an additional text, such as “America” by Claude McKay, “Indian Singing in 20th Century America,” by Gail Tremblay, or “next to of course god america i,” by e. e. Cummings.
My Notes
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.
3. Craft and Structure: What effect do the short lines in Hughes’s poem have on its rhythm, as compared to the long lines in Whitman’s poem?
The short lines in Hughes’s poem make it sound more concise, tougher, and less effusive and romantic than Whitman’s poem. Hughes’s poem sounds like a terse answer to Whitman’s song. RL.11–12.5
4. Key Idea and Details: What change does the speaker hint at in lines 8–10? How will life be different for the speaker after “Tomorrow”?
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker is sent to the kitchen to eat when company comes, but after “Tomorrow,” the speaker will eat at the table and “Nobody’ll dare / Say to me, / ‘Eat in the kitchen.’” The speaker will be accepted and admired. RL.11–12.1
Working from the Text
5. Use the chart to compare tone, diction, and imagery in the two poems.
14 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 11
INDEPENDENT
READING LINK
Read and Connect
Select a person in your independent reading who identifies an important symbol that keeps the American Dream alive. Compare this symbol to
a symbol selected by an author of a reading in this unit. In your Reader/Writer Notebook, note similarities and differences.
Check Your Understanding
Note Hughes’s very deliberate allusion to Whitman’s poem. What does the speaker in “I, Too, Sing America” want us to know about the promise of America?
Writing to Sources: Explanatory Text
Write a short essay comparing and contrasting what the two poems “I Hear America Singing” and “I, Too, Sing America” mean in referring to singing. Think about both the denotative and connotative meanings of the word sing. In your writing, be sure to:
• begin with a clear thesis that states your position about what the two poems mean by the word sing.
• include examples of diction and imagery from both texts to support each specific claim you make about similarities and differences in meaning.
• include clear transitions between points and a concluding statement that reinforces your thesis.
SCAFFOLDING THE TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS
3. Craft and Structure (RL.11–12.5) What effect do the short lines in Hughes’s poem have on
its rhythm as compared to the long lines in Whitman’s poem? Read aloud the first five lines of each poem. What impression does each poem make? Which has lines that flow? Which has a more staccato or emphatic beat?
4. Key Idea and Details (RL.11–12.1) What change does the speaker hint at in lines 8–10? How will life be different for the speaker after “Tomorrow”? What does the speaker do in lines 1 to 7? What does the speaker do in lines 8 to 10?
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© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.