Page 41 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade8_Flipbook

Close Reading of poetry (continued)
40 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
Check your Understanding
1. Pair with another student and, using context clues and reference resources,
determine the meaning of any new words you need to define. Then choose six words from the vocabulary that have been underlined, bolded, and/or you have circled, and discuss how the definitions help you understand the meaning of the poem.
2. Choose two or three of the words you have examined that you think are significant to understanding the poem. Use the words in sentences as part of a summary explaining the central ideas in the poem and explain how these words contribute to your understanding of the poem.
3. With a small group of your peers, plan and rehearse a choral reading of the poem by following these steps:
• Separate the poem into sense units by drawing a slash mark after any end
punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation points).
• Divide up the sense units so that at least one person is speaking each one,
and have each person highlight the lines to be spoken out loud.
• Decide how you will perform the lines to emphasize tone and meaning;
for example, you may choose to emphasize lines by having more than one speaker read at the same time, or you may want to vary your loudness, rate of speech, and/or tone of voice.
Third Reading: Text-Dependent Questioning
Now read the poem again, this time with the focus of reading to respond to the Key Ideas and Details interpretive questions. Write your responses to each question
and highlight or underline the textual evidence that supports your answer. During class discussion, you may also want to annotate the text to record a new or different meaning of the poem.
Background Information: “The Star-Spangled Banner” is familiar to most people
as the national anthem of the United States of America. However, many Americans are unaware that the song’s lyrics were first written as a poem. In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote “The Defence of Fort McHenry” after he watched the British Royal Navy attack Fort McHenry on the Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. Like other American patriotic songs, “The Star-Spangled Banner” took its tune from a well-known British song of the time, and the combination grew in popularity over the next one hundred years. On March 3, 1931, President Herbert Hoover signed the resolution that named “The Star-Spangled Banner” our official national anthem.
© 2014 College Board. All rights reserved.