Page 43 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade8_Flipbook

Close Reading of poetry (continued)
42 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
Check your Understanding
Now that you have read closely and worked to understand challenging portions of this poem, choose one line that you think is important to understanding what the poem is about and why the author wrote it. Explain in your own words what the sentence means and why it is important to understanding the poem.
Synthesizing your Understanding
Now that you have read the poem three times and studied its vocabulary and sentences, synthesize your understanding by applying the TP-CASTT strategy.
T—Title: Before reading a poem, stop to consider its title. Revisit the predictions you made about the poem before reading “The Defence of Fort McHenry.”
P—Paraphrase: Number the four stanzas of the poem, and then work with a partner to paraphrase the main idea of each stanza in your own words.
Stanza 1: Stanza 2: Stanza 3: Stanza 4:
C—Connotation: What words or phrases suggest something beyond their literal meanings? What do you think the poet is saying in this poem? Go beyond the literal meanings or the plot of the poem.
A—Attitude: Describe the speaker’s attitude or tone. Use specific adjectives and explain your choices.
Introducing the Strategy: TP-CASTT
TP-CASTT is a strategy for close reading of poetry. This reading strategy is used to guide analysis of a text through exploration of each topic in the acronym: Title (preview), Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shift, Title (revisited), and Theme.
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