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 two sentences: 'The students left the cafeteria.' and 'The students stampeded out of the cafeteria.' Both could describe the same moment. What does the second sentence make you picture, and how does the writer seem to feel about it?"

   Take answers. Students will picture running, noise and maybe a mess, and they will hear that the writer is amused or annoyed. Point out that "stampeded" is borrowed from a herd of cattle: a figurative use that brings along feelings the plain word "left" does not have. Tell students that grade 8 asks them to explain exactly this: what a word means where it stands, what extra meaning it carries, and how the choice changes the tone. Today's writer also borrows from famous older texts, and students will learn to spot those borrowings.

2. Direct Instruction15 minutes

   Teach seven terms and leave them on the board:

   • Literal meaning: what the words say in their plain, dictionary sense.
   • Figurative meaning: a meaning beyond the literal one, as in a simile, a metaphor or personification (giving an animal or thing human traits).
   • Connotation: the feelings and ideas a word carries on top of its dictionary meaning (its denotation). "Aroma" and "stench" both mean a smell, but one is pleasant.
   • Technical meaning: the exact meaning a word has in one field of work or study. Beekeepers use everyday words such as "cell," "queen" and "worker" in special senses.
   • Tone: the writer's attitude toward the subject, shown through word choice: admiring, playful, serious, mocking, tender.
   • Analogy: an extended comparison that explains one thing through another, such as bees and a family of farm workers.
   • Allusion: a brief reference to a well-known text, story or person that the writer expects readers to recognize. The reader brings the older story's meaning into the new sentence.

   Introduce the text. John Burroughs (1837-1921) grew up on a dairy farm in New York and became one of the best-known American nature writers of his time. He kept bees at his home on the Hudson River. His book title, Locusts and Wild Honey, is itself an allusion: in the Bible, John the Baptist lived in the wilderness on locusts and wild honey. Words to know for Passage 1: hive (a bee colony's home), pollen (the fine yellow powder made by flowers; bees carry it home and eat it), hip (here, the top of the bee's back leg), alder and swamp willow (trees that flower very early in spring), maple sugar (sugar made by boiling down the sap of maple trees), spiles (small spouts tapped into a maple tree so the sap drips out), condensed (thickened), catkins (the soft, fuzzy flower clusters of willows), fruitage (harvest), deposited (put down and left) and firkin (a small wooden tub for butter). Read the passage aloud once for meaning.

   1The honey-bee goes forth from the hive in spring like the dove from Noah's ark, and it is not till after many days that she brings back the olive leaf, which in this case is a pellet of golden pollen upon each hip, usually obtained from the alder or the swamp willow. In a country where maple sugar is made the bees get their first taste of sweet from the sap as it flows from the spiles, or as it dries and is condensed upon the sides of the buckets. They will sometimes, in their eagerness, come about the boiling-place and be overwhelmed by the steam and the smoke. But bees appear to be more eager for bread in the spring than for honey: their supply of this article, perhaps, does not keep as well as their stores of the latter; hence fresh bread, in the shape of new pollen, is diligently sought for. My bees get their first supplies from the catkins of the willows. How quickly they find them out! If but one catkin opens anywhere within range, a bee is on hand that very hour to rifle it, and it is a most pleasing experience to stand near the hive some mild April day and see them come pouring in with their little baskets packed with this first fruitage of the spring. They will have new bread now; they have been to mill in good earnest; see their dusty coats, and the golden grist they bring home with them.

   2When a bee brings pollen into the hive he advances to the cell in which it is to be deposited and kicks it off, as one might his overalls or rubber boots, making one foot help the other; then he walks off without ever looking behind him; another bee, one of the indoor hands, comes along and rams it down with his head and packs it into the cell, as the dairymaid packs butter into a firkin with a ladle.

   • Allusion: the dove from Noah's ark

     "The honey-bee goes forth from the hive in spring like the dove from Noah's ark, and it is not till after many days that she brings back the olive leaf, which in this case is a pellet of golden pollen upon each hip" (Passage 1, paragraph 1). What does the allusion mean, and what does it do to the tone?

     Result: In the Bible story, Noah sends a dove out of the ark after the great flood, and it returns with an olive leaf, a sign that the land is coming back to life. The "olive leaf" here is the bee's first pollen of spring, so the allusion makes the pollen a sign that winter is over. Comparing a small insect's errand to a famous story gives the moment weight and a warm, slightly grand tone.

   • Figurative meaning: bread, a mill and grist

     "They will have new bread now; they have been to mill in good earnest; see their dusty coats, and the golden grist they bring home with them" (Passage 1, paragraph 1). What do "bread," "mill," "dusty coats" and "grist" mean here?

     Result: None is literal. Pollen is the bees' "bread," their everyday food. Farmers took grain ("grist") to a mill and came home dusty with flour, so the bees coming home covered in yellow pollen look like farmers back from the mill. The metaphor turns the bees into hard-working farm people and makes the description homey and admiring.

   • Technical meaning from context: "cell"

     "When a bee brings pollen into the hive he advances to the cell in which it is to be deposited" (Passage 1, paragraph 2). "Cell" can mean a room in a prison, the smallest unit of a living thing, or a battery. What does it mean here, and how can you tell?

     Result: Here "cell" has its beekeeping meaning: one of the small six-sided wax compartments of the honeycomb where bees store food. The context tells you: the cell is inside the hive, and pollen is "deposited" in it and later packed "into the cell." Neither a prison nor a body part fits a place where a bee stores pollen.

   • Connotation: "rifle" instead of "visit"

     "If but one catkin opens anywhere within range, a bee is on hand that very hour to rifle it" (Passage 1, paragraph 1). Burroughs could have written "to visit it." What does "rifle" add?

     Result: As a verb, "rifle" means to search through something quickly and take what is valuable, the way a thief goes through a drawer. The denotation (the bee collects pollen) is the same as "visit," but the connotation adds speed, greed and a hint of mischief. The tone is playful: Burroughs admires how fast the bees are and teases them for it.

   Meaning first, then effect. Show Diagram 1 and model the moves with the first example: (1) say what the words mean in their sentence; (2) name the kind of meaning (figurative, connotative, technical) or the device (analogy, allusion); (3) say what the choice adds to the meaning; (4) name the tone it creates, with a precise word. Give students a sentence frame: "In the phrase ___, the word ___ means ___. The writer could have written ___, but ___ suggests ___, which makes the tone ___."

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Read Passage 2 aloud. Burroughs explains how bees make beeswax, the material of the honeycomb, and he cannot resist comparing them to people. Words to know: receptacle (a container), evolve (here, to produce slowly), inner consciousness (the mind), chamber (a room), festoons (hanging loops, like paper chains), transpire (here, to happen), minute (tiny), abdomen (the back section of an insect's body), in an economical point of view (in terms of cost), intact (whole, undamaged), delectableness (delight, deliciousness) and nectar (the sweet liquid in flowers; here, fresh honey).

   1It is the making of wax that costs with the bee. As with the poet, the form, the receptacle, gives him more trouble than the sweet that fills it, though, to be sure, there is always more or less empty comb in both cases. The honey he can have for the gathering, but the wax he must make himself,--must evolve from his own inner consciousness. When wax is to be made, the wax-makers fill themselves with honey and retire into their chamber for private meditation; it is like some solemn religious rite: they take hold of hands, or hook themselves together in long lines that hang in festoons from the top of the hive, and wait for the miracle to transpire. After about twenty-four hours their patience is rewarded, the honey is turned into wax, minute scales of which are secreted from between the rings of the abdomen of each bee; this is taken off and from it the comb is built up. It is calculated that about twenty-five pounds of honey are used in elaborating one pound of comb, to say nothing of the time that is lost. Hence the importance, in an economical point of view, of a recent device by which the honey is extracted and the comb returned intact to the bees. But honey without the comb is the perfume without the rose,--it is sweet merely, and soon degenerates into candy. Half the delectableness is in breaking down these frail and exquisite walls yourself, and tasting the nectar before it has lost its freshness by contact with the air. Then the comb is a sort of shield or foil that prevents the tongue from being overwhelmed by the first shock of the sweet.

   Pairs copy the word choice chart (Diagram 2). The first row is the second worked example. They fill in the three rows of phrases from Passage 2 and add one phrase of their own choice. Take answers, then share the teacher notes:

   1. "As with the poet, the form, the receptacle, gives him more trouble than the sweet that fills it." Teacher note: this is an analogy. The wax comb is like the form of a poem (its lines, rhyme and shape) and the honey is like the feelings and ideas it holds. The poet, like the bee, finds the container harder to make than the sweetness. Burroughs, a writer himself, is joking about his own work, and the joke that "there is always more or less empty comb in both cases" (some poems say nothing) makes the tone playful.
   2. "retire into their chamber for private meditation; it is like some solemn religious rite." Teacher note: literally, the wax-making bees gather in one part of the hive and wait. "Meditation" and "solemn religious rite" are figurative and carry connotations of prayer, silence and ceremony. The tone is mock-serious: Burroughs treats an insect's chore with the respect of a church service, and he is both amused and impressed.
   3. "minute scales of which are secreted from between the rings of the abdomen." Teacher note: this is the technical language of a naturalist. "Secreted" means produced and given off by the body, as a gland produces sweat. The sentence shifts from jokes to exact science, and the plain words tell the reader that this part is fact.
4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students read Passages 3 and 4 on their own. In Passage 3, Burroughs argues about who really rules a hive; in Passage 4, he describes swarms that leave their keepers for the woods. Words to know for Passage 3: prevailed (been widely believed), Napoleon the First (emperor of France, 1804-1815, who used golden bees as a symbol on his robes), imperial mantle (an emperor's cloak), dynasty (a ruling family), the country of the Pharaohs (ancient Egypt), emblem (a symbol), submissive (obeying without resistance), despots (rulers with total power who use it cruelly), vested (placed, held), foresight (planning ahead), office (here, a special role or duty) and abundance (a large supply). Words to know for Passage 4: hemlock and hickory (kinds of trees), quarters (a place to live), out-house (here, a small shed or outbuilding), mansion (a very large house), per cent (percent) and pailfuls (as much as a pail holds).

   1The notion has always very generally prevailed that the queen of the bees is an absolute ruler, and issues her royal orders to willing subjects. Hence Napoleon the First sprinkled the symbolic bees over the imperial mantle that bore the arms of his dynasty; and in the country of the Pharaohs the bee was used as the emblem of a people sweetly submissive to the orders of its king. But the fact is, a swarm of bees is an absolute democracy, and kings and despots can find no warrant in their example. The power and authority are entirely vested in the great mass, the workers. They furnish all the brains and foresight of the colony, and administer its affairs. Their word is law, and both king and queen must obey. They regulate the swarming, and give the signal for the swarm to issue from the hive; they select and make ready the tree in the woods and conduct the queen to it.

   2The peculiar office and sacredness of the queen consists in the fact that she is the mother of the swarm, and the bees love and cherish her as a mother and not as a sovereign. She is the sole female bee in the hive, and the swarm clings to her because she is their life. Deprived of their queen, and of all brood from which to rear one, the swarm loses all heart and soon dies, though there be an abundance of honey in the hive.

   1They are not partial as to the kind of tree,--pine, hemlock, elm, birch, maple, hickory,--any tree with a good cavity high up or low down. A swarm of mine ran away from the new patent hive I gave them, and took up their quarters in the hollow trunk of an old apple-tree across an adjoining field. The entrance was a mouse-hole near the ground. Another swarm in the neighborhood deserted their keeper, and went into the cornice of an out-house that stood amid evergreens in the rear of a large mansion. But there is no accounting for the taste of bees, as Samson found when he discovered the swarm in the carcass, or more probably the skeleton, of the lion he had slain.

   2In any given locality, especially in the more wooded and mountainous districts, the number of swarms that thus assert their independence forms quite a large per cent. In the Northern States these swarms very often perish before spring; but in such a country as Florida they seem to multiply, till bee-trees are very common. In the West, also, wild honey is often gathered in large quantities. I noticed, not long since, that some wood-choppers on the west slope of the Coast Range felled a tree that had several pailfuls in it.

   On the handout, students (1) choose two words in Passage 3 that come from the language of government and explain the meaning and connotation of each; (2) find one word in Passage 4 with a technical or specialized meaning and explain how the context shows its meaning; (3) write two sentences on the tone of Passage 4, quoting the words that create it. The quiz uses Passages 1-4.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Explain the difference between a word's denotation and its connotation, using one word from today's passages. (2) In one sentence, explain why an allusion only works when the reader knows the older text.

   Teacher note on science and language: Burroughs wrote in 1879, and some of his bee science is out of date. He calls the worker bees "he," but workers are female; when Passage 3 calls the queen "the sole female bee in the hive," the accurate statement is that she is the only female that normally lays eggs. He also mentions a "king," but a hive has no king. His picture of the hive as a democracy is a comparison, not a finding: scientists today describe a colony as a group of insects that decide things together through signals such as dances, which is close to his point but without the politics. The "recent device" in Passage 2 is the honey extractor, a spinning machine invented in the 1860s that pulls honey out of the comb. The Bible and Shakespeare references are taught as literature: students need the story behind each allusion, not any religious view.

   For homework: students read Passage 5, printed below. Burroughs compares the life of a swarm to an army at war, then describes how he rescues cold bees in spring. Words to know: hazardous (dangerous), benumbed (made numb), mortality (deaths), spent (here, completely tired out), weather it (get through a storm safely), myriad (countless), acute (sharp), ruling traits (strongest qualities), unerringly (without a mistake) and bee-hunter's box (a box of honey that bee hunters set out to attract wild bees, so they can follow them back to their tree). One phrase is an allusion to Shakespeare: in the play Othello, the soldier Othello tells how he won his wife by telling her of his adventures, "Of moving accidents by flood and field," and "Of hair-breadth scapes" (narrow escapes).

   1The life of a swarm of bees is like an active and hazardous campaign of an army; the ranks are being continually depleted, and continually recruited. What adventures they have by flood and field, and what hairbreadth escapes! A strong swarm during the honey season loses, on an average, about four or five thousand a month, or one hundred and fifty a day. They are overwhelmed by wind and rain, caught by spiders, benumbed by cold, crushed by cattle, drowned in rivers and ponds, and in many nameless ways cut off or disabled. In the spring the principal mortality is from the cold. As the sun declines they get chilled before they can reach home. Many fall down outside the hive, unable to get in with their burden. One may see them come utterly spent and drop hopelessly into the grass in front of their very doors. Before they can rest the cold has stiffened them. I go out in April and May and pick them up by the handfuls, their baskets loaded with pollen, and warm them in the sun or in the house, or by the simple warmth of my hand, until they can crawl into the hive. Heat is their life, and an apparently lifeless bee may be revived by warming him. I have also picked them up while rowing on the river and seen them safely to shore. It is amusing to see them come hurrying home when there is a thunder-storm approaching. They come piling in till the rain is upon them. Those that are overtaken by the storm doubtless weather it as best they can in the sheltering trees or grass. It is not probable that a bee ever gets lost by wandering into strange and unknown parts. With their myriad eyes they see everything; and then their sense of locality is very acute, is, indeed, one of their ruling traits. When a bee marks the place of his hive, or of a bit of good pasturage in the fields or swamps, or of the bee-hunter's box of honey on the hills or in the woods, he returns to it as unerringly as fate.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The four words below all describe a person who spends little money. Which one has the most negative connotation?

   Athrifty Bcareful Cstingy Deconomical

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "When it comes to finding the snacks I hide, my little brother is a real Sherlock Holmes." What does the allusion suggest?

   AHe is sneaky and dishonest BHe is sharp at spotting clues CHe is funny and tells jokes DHe reads a lot of mystery books

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "The beekeeper added a new super to the hive so the bees would have more room to store honey." What does the technical word "super" most likely mean?

   AAn extra box placed on the hive to hold honey BA very large and unusually strong kind of honeybee CThe person in charge of a group of hives DA flower that gives bees the best nectar

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Passage 1, paragraph 2, another bee, "one of the indoor hands," packs the pollen into the cell. What does "hands" mean here?

   AThe front legs of the bee BThe workers who stay inside CThe pointers of a clock DThe applause of the other bees

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Passage 1, paragraph 2, the bee "kicks it off, as one might his overalls or rubber boots, making one foot help the other." What is the main effect of this comparison?

   AIt warns that pollen can be harmful to people BIt makes the bee seem clumsy and careless CIt shows the pollen is stuck and hard to remove DIt makes the bee a farm worker home from work

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The indoor bee "packs it into the cell, as the dairymaid packs butter into a firkin with a ladle" (Passage 1, paragraph 2). What does the simile help the reader picture?

   AThe pollen being pressed down firmly to fill the cell BThe pollen being churned until it turns into butter CThe cell being carried out of the hive in a tub DThe bee using a tiny spoon of its own to eat the pollen

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The wax-makers "wait for the miracle to transpire" (Passage 2). What does the word "miracle" suggest?

   AThat Burroughs believes the bees pray to make wax BThat turning honey into wax is marvelous and mysterious CThat the bees make wax only on very rare occasions DThat beekeepers must wait for a miracle every spring

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does Burroughs mean by "honey without the comb is the perfume without the rose" (Passage 2)?

   AHoney that has been extracted smells stronger than honey left in the comb BBees make their honey mostly from the flowers of roses CHoney alone is sweet, but it lacks part of what makes it a delight DComb honey should be eaten only when roses are in bloom

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "It is calculated that about twenty-five pounds of honey are used in elaborating one pound of comb" (Passage 2). What does "elaborating" mean here?

   AExplaining in careful detail BDecorating with fancy, detailed patterns CWeighing on a scale DProducing through a long process

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The common notion is that the queen is "an absolute ruler," but Burroughs says "a swarm of bees is an absolute democracy" (Passage 3, paragraph 1). What is the effect of repeating "absolute"?

    AIt turns the common belief upside down in the same words BIt shows that Burroughs agrees with the common belief CIt suggests that bees have no government or rules of any kind DIt proves that the queen and the workers share power

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "Deprived of their queen, and of all brood from which to rear one, the swarm loses all heart" (Passage 3, paragraph 2). What does the technical word "brood" mean?

    AA grown bee that guards the hive BThe wax that the bees store honey in CThe young of the hive, the eggs and grubs DThe flowers and blossoms that the swarm feeds upon

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The bees "love and cherish her as a mother and not as a sovereign" (Passage 3, paragraph 2). How do the connotations of "mother" and "sovereign" differ?

    A"Mother" suggests fear, "sovereign" suggests love B"Mother" suggests care, "sovereign" suggests power CBoth words suggest a strict ruler to be obeyed DBoth words suggest a helper who serves the hive

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "But there is no accounting for the taste of bees, as Samson found when he discovered the swarm in the carcass, or more probably the skeleton, of the lion he had slain" (Passage 4, paragraph 1). In the Bible, Samson kills a lion and later finds a swarm of bees and honey inside its body. What does the allusion add?

    AA funny, extreme example of the odd homes bees choose BA warning that wild swarms can be as dangerous as lions CProof that bees in Burroughs's time lived in animal bones DA serious lesson that people should not kill wild animals

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "They are not partial as to the kind of tree" (Passage 4, paragraph 1). What does "partial" mean here?

    AOnly partly finished BUnfair, favoring one side over the other CFond of one thing more than others DDivided into several parts

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    "A swarm of mine ran away from the new patent hive I gave them, and took up their quarters in the hollow trunk of an old apple-tree" (Passage 4, paragraph 1). What does "patent" mean here, and how does the contrast between the two homes shape the tone?

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Passage 2, Burroughs says extracted honey "soon degenerates into candy," and he describes the comb as "these frail and exquisite walls." What do the connotations of "degenerates" and "exquisite" show about his opinion?

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Passage 3, Burroughs writes that in ancient Egypt "the bee was used as the emblem of a people sweetly submissive to the orders of its king." What does "sweetly" mean here, and why is it a clever word choice in a chapter about bees?

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Burroughs says that runaway swarms "deserted their keeper" and "assert their independence" (Passage 4). What do these words have in common, and what do they suggest about the bees?

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    The title of Burroughs's book, Locusts and Wild Honey, alludes to John the Baptist, who in the Bible lived in the wilderness on locusts and wild honey. Using Passage 4, explain how the allusion fits what Burroughs writes about bees.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose the one word or phrase in Passages 1-4 that does the most to shape Burroughs's tone. Explain its meaning in context, name the kind of meaning or device, and explain its effect. Do not use a phrase from the worked examples or Diagram 2.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RI.8.4: 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.