Unit 1, Week 3
Close Reading: Poetry
Close Reading of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”:
Learning Objectives:
Students will...
Distribute a copy of the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” to each student and encourage them to read the text with a pen in hand. Have a conversation about the importance of reading a text more than once, each time with a different purpose in mind. Pose the following guiding questions before they read each time:
Review “theme” with the students and ask what they think is the theme of the poem and why (cite evidence to support their claims). Have them discuss in partners first. then share out in whole-group discussion. Guide as needed and lead a discussion around how the evidence students cite does or does not support their claims.
Learning Objectives:
Students will...
- determine a theme or central idea of a text.
- cite textual evidence to support the analysis of what the text says explicitly.
- cite textual evidence to support the analysis of inferences drawn from the text.
- review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.
- delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims.
- distinguish claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
Distribute a copy of the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” to each student and encourage them to read the text with a pen in hand. Have a conversation about the importance of reading a text more than once, each time with a different purpose in mind. Pose the following guiding questions before they read each time:
- First Read: What is the poem about? What words make you think so? Mark any parts of the text that interest you.
- Second Read: What is the dilemma the speaker of the poem faces?
- Third Read: Which road does the speaker take in the end? What is his reasoning?
- Fourth Read: What do the last two lines of the poem mean? What do the roads symbolize? Why is the title of the poem “The Road Not Taken?”
Review “theme” with the students and ask what they think is the theme of the poem and why (cite evidence to support their claims). Have them discuss in partners first. then share out in whole-group discussion. Guide as needed and lead a discussion around how the evidence students cite does or does not support their claims.