Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-65 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Read the storm report below. Rewrite its third sentence twice: once so the storm sounds frightening, and once so it sounds almost friendly. Keep the facts the same and change only the words."

   1Storm report, Ridge Road Trail. A windstorm crossed the area from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, with gusts of about 50 miles per hour. Rangers counted 14 fallen trees along the first two miles of trail. Most were pines with shallow roots in wet soil. Two of the trees blocked the trail and were cut and removed on Sunday. No one was hurt, and the trail reopened on Monday morning. Hikers should watch for loose branches overhead for the next week.

   Share a few rewrites. A frightening version might say the storm "tore down" or "flattened" 14 trees; a friendly one might say the wind "brought down" or "laid down" 14 trees. Ask: did the facts change? (No.) What changed? (The feeling.) Write denotation (the dictionary meaning) and connotation (the feeling a word carries) on the board. Point out that the report uses plain words on purpose: its job is to inform hikers, not to make them feel anything. Tell students that today they will read a writer who described a storm like this one in a completely different way, and they will explain how his words work.

2. Direct Instruction15 minutes

   Teach five terms and leave them on the board:

   • Literal meaning: what the words mean exactly.
   • Figurative meaning: a meaning beyond the literal one. Similes compare with "like" or "as"; metaphors compare without them; personification gives human actions or feelings to something that is not human.
   • Connotation: the feelings and associations a word carries. "Curious" and "nosy" have almost the same denotation, but one sounds good and one sounds bad.
   • Technical meaning: the exact meaning a word has in a particular field, such as botany (the study of plants) or geology (the study of rocks and the earth).
   • Tone: the writer's attitude toward the subject, such as admiring, joyful, worried or matter-of-fact. Word choice is the main way a writer creates it.

   Introduce the text. John Muir (1838-1914) was born in Scotland and grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. He walked and climbed through the Sierra Nevada, the mountain range along eastern California, for years, and he wrote to persuade Americans to protect wild places; he helped found the Sierra Club in 1892. The Mountains of California (1894) was his first book. Passage 1 is the opening of his chapter on windstorms. Words to know: bestowed (given as a gift), restricted (limited), scope (range), universal (reaching everything), swoop (one quick, sweeping move), furrowed (marked with deep grooves), buttresses (supports that brace a wall; here, rock ridges that seem to brace the peaks), retiring (shy), dells (small wooded valleys), lusty (strong and full of energy), ineffable (too great to describe), ever and anon (every now and then), thickset (short and sturdy), unscathed (unharmed), manifest (plain to see), deplore (be sorry about) and implement (tool).

   1The mountain winds, like the dew and rain, sunshine and snow, are measured and bestowed with love on the forests to develop their strength and beauty. However restricted the scope of other forest influences, that of the winds is universal. The snow bends and trims the upper forests every winter, the lightning strikes a single tree here and there, while avalanches mow down thousands at a swoop as a gardener trims out a bed of flowers. But the winds go to every tree, fingering every leaf and branch and furrowed bole; not one is forgotten; the Mountain Pine towering with outstretched arms on the rugged buttresses of the icy peaks, the lowliest and most retiring tenant of the dells; they seek and find them all, caressing them tenderly, bending them in lusty exercise, stimulating their growth, plucking off a leaf or limb as required, or removing an entire tree or grove, now whispering and cooing through the branches like a sleepy child, now roaring like the ocean; the winds blessing the forests, the forests the winds, with ineffable beauty and harmony as the sure result.

   2After one has seen pines six feet in diameter bending like grasses before a mountain gale, and ever and anon some giant falling with a crash that shakes the hills, it seems astonishing that any, save the lowest thickset trees, could ever have found a period sufficiently stormless to establish themselves; or, once established, that they should not, sooner or later, have been blown down. But when the storm is over, and we behold the same forests tranquil again, towering fresh and unscathed in erect majesty, and consider what centuries of storms have fallen upon them since they were first planted,—hail, to break the tender seedlings; lightning, to scorch and shatter; snow, winds, and avalanches, to crush and overwhelm,—while the manifest result of all this wild storm-culture is the glorious perfection we behold; then faith in Nature’s forestry is established, and we cease to deplore the violence of her most destructive gales, or of any other storm-implement whatsoever.

   • Figurative meaning: personification

     Paragraph 1: the winds go to every tree, "fingering every leaf and branch and furrowed bole" and "caressing them tenderly." Winds do not have fingers. What do these words mean here?

     Result: Literally, fingering and caressing are things a hand does with care. Figuratively, Muir means the wind touches every part of every tree, gently and one by one. The personification turns the wind into a careful, loving caretaker, which matches the first sentence: the winds are "bestowed with love on the forests."

   • Figurative meaning: simile

     Paragraph 1: "avalanches mow down thousands at a swoop as a gardener trims out a bed of flowers." What does the comparison suggest about avalanches?

     Result: An avalanche that knocks down thousands of trees sounds like pure destruction, but a gardener trims a flower bed to help it grow. The simile asks readers to see even the most violent event as a kind of tending. Its impact on meaning: destruction becomes care. Its impact on tone: calm and approving instead of alarmed.

   • Technical meaning

     Paragraph 1 lists "every leaf and branch and furrowed bole." What is a bole?

     Result: Context helps: the list moves from the smallest part of a tree (a leaf) to a bigger part (a branch) to the biggest, which is "furrowed," with deep grooves like bark. In forestry and botany, a bole is the main trunk of a tree. Muir uses the exact term a naturalist would use, which tells readers he knows trees closely.

   • Connotation and tone

     Paragraph 2 calls the result of centuries of hail, lightning and avalanches "this wild storm-culture." Why "culture" and not "damage"?

     Result: Both words could name what storms do to a forest, but they carry opposite feelings. "Damage" connotes loss. "Culture" connotes growing and tending, as in agriculture, the way a farmer raises crops. With one word Muir changes the meaning (storms help make the forest) and sets an admiring tone, which he makes explicit when he names "Nature’s forestry" in the same sentence.

   Meaning, kind, impact. Show Diagram 1 and model the three moves with the fourth example: give the meaning as used, name the kind of meaning (figurative, connotative or technical), and explain the impact of the choice on meaning and tone. Give students one sentence frame: "When Muir writes ___, the word ___ means ___ here. It is a (figurative / connotative / technical) choice, and it makes the passage sound ___ because ___." Then show Diagram 2 and ask where the plain storm report's words would sit on the line.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read Passage 2 aloud. It follows Passage 1 directly and turns from the winds to the trees themselves. Muir names trees as people did in his time; his Yellow or Silver Pine is the tree now called the ponderosa pine. Words to know: Juniper and Dwarf Pine (small, tough trees of the highest peaks), ledges (narrow shelves of rock), lithe (bending easily), agent (a force that causes something), admirable (worth admiring), lower zones (the lower belts of the mountains), densely foliaged (covered thickly with leaves or needles), blast (a strong gust), overturned (knocked over), sparsely (thinly, with space between) and ice-sheet (a huge layer of ice covering land).

   1There are two trees in the Sierra forests that are never blown down, so long as they continue in sound health. These are the Juniper and the Dwarf Pine of the summit peaks. Their stiff, crooked roots grip the storm-beaten ledges like eagles’ claws, while their lithe, cord-like branches bend round compliantly, offering but slight holds for winds, however violent. The other alpine conifers—the Needle Pine, Mountain Pine, Two-leaved Pine, and Hemlock Spruce—are never thinned out by this agent to any destructive extent, on account of their admirable toughness and the closeness of their growth. In general the same is true of the giants of the lower zones. The kingly Sugar Pine, towering aloft to a height of more than 200 feet, offers a fine mark to storm-winds; but it is not densely foliaged, and its long, horizontal arms swing round compliantly in the blast, like tresses of green, fluent algae in a brook; while the Silver Firs in most places keep their ranks well together in united strength. The Yellow or Silver Pine is more frequently overturned than any other tree on the Sierra, because its leaves and branches form a larger mass in proportion to its height, while in many places it is planted sparsely, leaving open lanes through which storms may enter with full force. Furthermore, because it is distributed along the lower portion of the range, which was the first to be left bare on the breaking up of the ice-sheet at the close of the glacial winter, the soil it is growing upon has been longer exposed to post-glacial weathering, and consequently is in a more crumbling, decayed condition than the fresher soils farther up the range, and therefore offers a less secure anchorage for the roots.

   Pairs fill in the three-column chart (Diagram 1) for four words or phrases, one at a time. Ask for the meaning first, then the kind, then the impact, and share the teacher note after pairs have tried:

   1. "The other alpine conifers" (technical). Teacher note: conifers are trees that bear cones, most with needles; alpine describes high mountains near or above the tree line. Context helps: every tree named after the dash is a pine, a spruce or a hemlock, all cone-bearing trees. The technical terms make the paragraph sound like careful science.
   2. "grip the storm-beaten ledges like eagles’ claws" (figurative). Teacher note: a simile. The roots hold the rock the way an eagle's claws hold its perch: tightly, with strength. It explains the meaning (the roots cannot be pulled free) and makes these small trees sound fierce and proud.
   3. "The kingly Sugar Pine" (connotative). Teacher note: "tall" would give the fact, but "kingly" adds the feelings of a king: power, dignity and rank above others. The choice makes the tree seem noble and sets an admiring tone.
   4. "keep their ranks well together in united strength" (figurative and connotative). Teacher note: ranks are rows of soldiers. Muir pictures the Silver Firs as an army standing shoulder to shoulder, so they cannot be pushed over one by one. Ask pairs: what does this word choice suggest about why they survive storms? (They protect each other by growing close together.)
4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Passage 3 on their own. It comes from the middle of the chapter: on a warm, bright day in December 1874, in a valley that drains into the Yuba River, Muir hears the storm begin and walks straight out into it. Words to know: mottled (marked with spots), pine-tassels (clusters of pine needles), plumes (feathery sprays), pollen (the fine powder that flowering and cone-bearing plants release to make seeds), withered (dried up), bracken (a large fern), boles (trunks), tried (tested), fluently (smoothly, in a flowing way), keen (sharp), lances (long spears), sprays (small branches with their needles), tresses (long locks of hair), in bold relief (standing out sharply against the background), spangles (small shiny pieces), colossal (huge), supple (bending easily), golden-rods (tall wildflowers with yellow plumes), tremulous (trembling), kindled (set on fire), steadfast (firm and loyal), monarch (a king or queen) and perceptible (able to be noticed). The rest of the words are for you to work out.

   1It was still early morning when I found myself fairly adrift. Delicious sunshine came pouring over the hills, lighting the tops of the pines, and setting free a steam of summery fragrance that contrasted strangely with the wild tones of the storm. The air was mottled with pine-tassels and bright green plumes, that went flashing past in the sunlight like birds pursued. But there was not the slightest dustiness, nothing less pure than leaves, and ripe pollen, and flecks of withered bracken and moss. I heard trees falling for hours at the rate of one every two or three minutes; some uprooted, partly on account of the loose, water-soaked condition of the ground; others broken straight across, where some weakness caused by fire had determined the spot. The gestures of the various trees made a delightful study. Young Sugar Pines, light and feathery as squirrel-tails, were bowing almost to the ground; while the grand old patriarchs, whose massive boles had been tried in a hundred storms, waved solemnly above them, their long, arching branches streaming fluently on the gale, and every needle thrilling and ringing and shedding off keen lances of light like a diamond. The Douglas Spruces, with long sprays drawn out in level tresses, and needles massed in a gray, shimmering glow, presented a most striking appearance as they stood in bold relief along the hilltops. The madroños in the dells, with their red bark and large glossy leaves tilted every way, reflected the sunshine in throbbing spangles like those one so often sees on the rippled surface of a glacier lake. But the Silver Pines were now the most impressively beautiful of all. Colossal spires 200 feet in height waved like supple golden-rods chanting and bowing low as if in worship, while the whole mass of their long, tremulous foliage was kindled into one continuous blaze of white sun-fire. The force of the gale was such that the most steadfast monarch of them all rocked down to its roots with a motion plainly perceptible when one leaned against it. Nature was holding high festival, and every fiber of the most rigid giants thrilled with glad excitement.

   On the handout, students (1) choose one word in Passage 3 that they did not know and that is not on the list above, and use context to write its meaning as used, then check it in a dictionary; (2) find two figurative phrases and explain what each compares and what the comparison suggests; (3) choose one word with a strong connotation and explain its impact on the tone of the passage. The quiz uses Passages 2, 3 and 4.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Read Passage 4, the last three paragraphs of the chapter, aloud. Words to know: the milky way (our galaxy, which carries the earth and everything on it through space), extensive (long or far-reaching), abate (grow weaker), dismounted (climbed down), beheld (saw), amber (golden yellow) and immortal (living forever).

   1We all travel the milky way together, trees and men; but it never occurred to me until this storm-day, while swinging in the wind, that trees are travelers, in the ordinary sense. They make many journeys, not extensive ones, it is true; but our own little journeys, away and back again, are only little more than tree-wavings—many of them not so much.

   2When the storm began to abate, I dismounted and sauntered down through the calming woods. The storm-tones died away, and, turning toward the east, I beheld the countless hosts of the forests hushed and tranquil, towering above one another on the slopes of the hills like a devout audience. The setting sun filled them with amber light, and seemed to say, while they listened, “My peace I give unto you.”

   3As I gazed on the impressive scene, all the so-called ruin of the storm was forgotten, and never before did these noble woods appear so fresh, so joyous, so immortal.

   Exit ticket: (1) In one sentence, explain how a technical meaning is different from a figurative one, using one example from today. (2) Choose one word or phrase from Passage 4 and write one sentence about how it affects the tone.

   Teacher note on history, science and safety: The Mountains of California was published in 1894, twenty years after the storm, and Muir writes as a naturalist who wanted readers to love wild places. He often writes about Nature, the winds and the trees as if they had feelings; that is a figurative choice, not a scientific claim, and students can say so. Some of his science is of his time: Muir believed a great ice sheet once covered the whole range. Geologists today describe ice fields and valley glaciers in the higher Sierra, while much of the lower western slope, where the Yellow Pine grows, was never covered by ice. His "Douglas Spruce" is the tree now called the Douglas-fir. Make clear to students that climbing a tall tree in a windstorm is extremely dangerous and that Muir was an experienced climber; the right response to a real windstorm is to stay away from trees. Passage 4 quotes the Bible, "My peace I give unto you" (from the Gospel of John); Muir, raised in a strict religious home, often used such allusions, and the quiz asks only what the words suggest in the passage.

   For homework: students read Passage 5, printed below. It comes from the middle of the chapter, a little after Passage 3, when Muir reaches the top of a ridge around midday. Words to know: tingling (prickling with excitement), copses (thickets of small trees), hazel and ceanothus (shrubs; ceanothus is also called California lilac), outlook (a view), casting about (searching), comparatively (compared with others), brushy (covered with small branches), swished (moved with a soft rushing sound), vertical (straight up and down) and horizontal (flat, side to side). Leave the other words for students to work out: the homework asks about them.

   1Toward midday, after a long, tingling scramble through copses of hazel and ceanothus, I gained the summit of the highest ridge in the neighborhood; and then it occurred to me that it would be a fine thing to climb one of the trees to obtain a wider outlook and get my ear close to the Aeolian music of its topmost needles. But under the circumstances the choice of a tree was a serious matter. One whose instep was not very strong seemed in danger of being blown down, or of being struck by others in case they should fall; another was branchless to a considerable height above the ground, and at the same time too large to be grasped with arms and legs in climbing; while others were not favorably situated for clear views. After cautiously casting about, I made choice of the tallest of a group of Douglas Spruces that were growing close together like a tuft of grass, no one of which seemed likely to fall unless all the rest fell with it. Though comparatively young, they were about 100 feet high, and their lithe, brushy tops were rocking and swirling in wild ecstasy. Being accustomed to climb trees in making botanical studies, I experienced no difficulty in reaching the top of this one, and never before did I enjoy so noble an exhilaration of motion. The slender tops fairly flapped and swished in the passionate torrent, bending and swirling backward and forward, round and round, tracing indescribable combinations of vertical and horizontal curves, while I clung with muscles firm braced, like a bobolink on a reed.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which word has the most positive connotation for a person who is careful about spending money?

   Astingy Bcheap Ctight-fisted Dthrifty

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In which sentence is drowning used figuratively?

   AThe lifeguard pulled in a swimmer who was drowning near the rocks. BMaya is drowning in homework this week, with three tests on Friday. CThe old story tells of a sailor who was saved from drowning at sea. DSwimming lessons help young children stay safe from drowning.

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A science article says, "The nucleus controls what the cell does and how it grows." What does nucleus mean in this sentence?

   AThe small group at the center of a club or team BThe central part of an atom, made of protons and neutrons CThe part of a cell that holds its genetic instructions DThe thin outer layer that surrounds a living cell

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Passage 2, the Juniper's and Dwarf Pine's branches "bend round compliantly, offering but slight holds for winds." What does compliantly mean here?

   AStubbornly, refusing to move no matter how hard the wind blows BLoudly, creaking and cracking with every gust of the wind CNeatly, growing in straight and even rows along the ridge DYieldingly, giving way to the wind instead of fighting it

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Passage 2 says the soil under the Yellow Pine "offers a less secure anchorage for the roots." What does anchorage mean in this sentence?

   AA place in a harbor where ships drop anchor BA firm hold that keeps something in place CA supply of water and food for the roots DA layer of rock buried deep under the soil

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Muir writes that the Sugar Pine's long branches "swing round compliantly in the blast, like tresses of green, fluent algae in a brook" (Passage 2). What does this simile suggest about the branches?

   AThey move smoothly, the way long water plants sway in a stream. BThey are weak and slimy, and they rot away quickly in the wet winter. CThey are covered with water after every winter storm in the mountains. DThey break off easily and float away down the mountain streams.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Short Answer

   Passage 2 says the ground under the Yellow Pine "has been longer exposed to post-glacial weathering." Explain what post-glacial weathering means, using the parts of the phrase, and how it helps explain why this pine falls more often.

   Show model answer

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Passage 3 begins, "It was still early morning when I found myself fairly adrift." What does fairly adrift mean here?

   AFloating on the river in a small boat after the flood BWandering freely out in the storm, carried along by it CLost and frightened in the woods, far from any trail DAlmost asleep after a long night spent in the forest

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Muir writes that pine-tassels and plumes "went flashing past in the sunlight like birds pursued" (Passage 3). What does this simile add?

   AIt shows that birds were eating the pine seeds. BIt shows that the needles were brown and gray. CIt shows that the storm had frightened the birds away. DIt shows how fast and wild the flying needles were.

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Muir calls the oldest Sugar Pines "the grand old patriarchs, whose massive boles had been tried in a hundred storms" (Passage 3). What connotation does patriarchs give the trees?

    AThey are sick and close to falling after so many storms. BThey are the youngest and fastest-growing trees nearby. CThey are respected elders who lead a family or a group. DThey are bossy and push the smaller trees out of the way.

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Passage 3 says, "The madroños in the dells, with their red bark and large glossy leaves tilted every way, reflected the sunshine." Using context, what are madroños?

    ATrees with red bark and shiny leaves BSmall streams that run through the valleys CBirds that nest in the low valleys DRocks that shine in the winter sun

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Near the end of Passage 3, Muir writes, "Nature was holding high festival." What is the impact of the word festival on the tone?

    AIt makes the storm sound like a frightening punishment. BIt makes the storm sound like a sad farewell to winter. CIt makes the storm sound like a joyful celebration. DIt makes the storm sound like an event to measure.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Muir writes that the Silver Pines "waved like supple golden-rods chanting and bowing low as if in worship" (Passage 3). Which tone do these words create?

    ACalm and scientific, like a report on how trees move BReverent and joyful, like a group of worshipers CWorried and fearful, like people who are in danger DPlayful and silly, like children who are showing off

14. Question 14 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose two words or phrases in Passage 3 with strong positive connotations. For each, explain the feelings it carries, and then name the tone the two words help create.

    Show model answer

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Passage 4, Muir writes, "all the so-called ruin of the storm was forgotten." What is the impact of the word so-called?

    AIt shows that the storm had ruined the whole forest beyond repair. BIt shows that he had forgotten the name people used for the storm. CIt shows that the ruin had been given an official name by rangers. DIt shows that he doubts the storm really ruined the forest at all.

16. Question 16 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Passage 4, Muir sees the forests "towering above one another on the slopes of the hills like a devout audience." What does the simile suggest?

    AThe trees are noisy, like a crowd cheering at a game. BThe trees are bent and broken after the storm has passed. CThe trees are still and hushed, like people at a service. DThe trees are lined up in rows, like seats in a theater.

17. Question 17 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Passage 4 ends with the setting sun seeming to say, "My peace I give unto you," a line from the Bible. What does this allusion add?

    AA feeling of calm and blessing after the storm BA warning that another storm is on its way CA reminder that Muir is lost and needs help DA joke about how noisy the storm had been

18. Question 18 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Passage 4, Muir says that he "dismounted and sauntered down through the calming woods." Which word has the connotation closest to sauntered?

    Ahurried Bstrolled Cstumbled Dtrudged

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    The storm report in the warm-up and Muir's essay describe the same kind of event: a windstorm that knocks down trees. Choose one word or phrase from the report and one from Passage 3 or 4 that describe the storm or its effects. Explain how each choice shapes the tone, and why each writer might have chosen it.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Find one technical word and one figurative phrase in Passage 3 that are not in its word list. Give the meaning of each as used, and explain what each adds to the passage.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RI.7.4: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.