Overview

Lesson Procedure

60-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "A man falls asleep on a hillside and wakes up with a gray beard a foot long. He thinks he slept for one night. Write one prediction about what he will find when he walks home, one question you would ask him, and one word you would want explained if you heard this story told in the 1800s."

   Take a few predictions and questions and sort them on the board under four headings: Predict, Question, Clarify, Summarize. Leave Summarize empty and tell students that nobody can summarize a story they have not read yet. Explain that good readers switch among these four jobs all the time without noticing. Today students will name the jobs, watch the teacher do all four, share them in a group, and finally do all four alone.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   The four roles (Diagram 1). Predict: use clues in the text to say what will happen or what the writer will do next, then check. Question: ask a question the text answers, and one it makes you wonder about. Clarify: find the word, phrase or idea that confused you and fix it by rereading, reading on, using the words around it, or asking. Summarize: say the most important points in two or three sentences, in your own words. Texts at the high end of the band are hard because of old or rare words, long sentences, a time and place the reader does not know, or meaning below the surface; each role gives the reader a way in.

   Context note (a scaffold for the story): Rip Van Winkle, a friendly, lazy farmer in a Dutch village in the Catskill Mountains of New York, went up the mountain to hunt, with his dog, Wolf, while the colony was still ruled by the British king. There he met a band of strange men in old Dutch clothes, drank from their flagon (a large jug), and fell asleep. He has just woken up, sure that he slept one night, and finds his gun rusted and his dog gone. Read the four paragraphs aloud, stopping after each one to play a role aloud as in the worked examples below.

   1As he approached the village, he met a number of people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the country round. Their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of this gesture induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long!

   2He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and pointing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he recognized for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. The very village was altered: it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. Strange names were over the doors--strange faces at the windows--everything was strange. His mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which he had left but a day before. There stood the Kaatskill mountains--there ran the silver Hudson at a distance--there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been--Rip was sorely perplexed--“That flagon last night,” thought he, “has addled my poor head sadly!”

   3It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own house, which he approached with silent awe, expecting every moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He found the house gone to decay--the roof fallen in, the windows shattered, and the doors off the hinges. A half-starved dog, that looked like Wolf, was skulking about it. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed.--“My very dog,” sighed poor Rip, “has forgotten me!”

   4He entered the house, which, to tell the truth, Dame Van Winkle had always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, and apparently abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears--he called loudly for his wife and children--the lonely chambers rang for a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence.

   • Predict: use the clues, then check

     Paragraph 1: the people Rip meets all "stared at him with equal marks of surprise," and "whenever they cast eyes upon him, invariably stroked their chins." When Rip copies the gesture, "he found his beard had grown a foot long!" What do you predict, and what will you check?

     Result: Prediction: Rip has been asleep for years, not one night, because a beard does not grow a foot overnight and no one knows him. Check it in the next paragraphs: if more time has passed, the village and his house should have changed too. (Paragraph 2 confirms part of it: "rows of houses which he had never seen before.")

   • Question: one the text answers, one it raises

     Paragraph 2: "Surely this was his native village, which he had left but a day before. There stood the Kaatskill mountains--there ran the silver Hudson at a distance." Ask two questions.

     Result: A question the text answers: how does Rip know it is his village? The mountains, the river and "every hill and dale" are unchanged. A question it raises: if the land is the same and the people are new, how long has he been away, and where is his family? The reader keeps the second question open until the story answers it.

   • Clarify: use the words around it

     Paragraph 2: "His mind now misgave him; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him were not bewitched." What does "misgave him" mean?

     Result: The next words explain it: "he began to doubt." So his mind "misgave him" means it filled him with doubt and worry. Test it in the sentence: his mind now filled him with doubt; he began to wonder whether he and the world were under a spell. It fits. Strategy used: read on to the words after the semicolon.

   • Summarize: the most important points

     Paragraphs 3-4 describe Rip's house: "the roof fallen in, the windows shattered," a dog like Wolf that "snarled, showed his teeth, and passed on," and rooms that "rang for a moment with his voice, and then all again was silence." Summarize them in two sentences.

     Result: Rip's house is falling apart and empty, and even a dog that looks like his own does not know him. He calls for his wife and children, and no one answers. (A summary keeps the main events and leaves out details such as the doors off their hinges.)

   Teacher tip. Let students hear you change your mind: make a prediction, read on, and say whether it held. Point out one sentence you still had to clarify in paragraph 4, "This desolateness overcame all his connubial fears": connubial means having to do with marriage, and the story earlier makes fun of Rip's fear of his sharp-tongued wife. Now that the house is empty, he forgets that fear and calls for her.

3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes

   Groups of four each get the four role cards with sentence starters. Context note: Paris, 1640. Cyrano de Bergerac is a poet and swordsman with an enormous nose, and anyone who stares at it risks a duel. A crowd has gathered at a theater. Cyrano has just driven off a man who dared to mention his nose, and a proud young nobleman, the Vicomte de Valvert (a vicomte is a French noble title), decides to put him in his place. This is the hardest passage in the lesson: a speech translated from French, full of jokes in old-fashioned words. Each speech and stage direction has a number. Read paragraphs 1-7 aloud as a group, then paragraph 8 in three chunks (from "Aggressive" to "Pleasant," from "Fierce" to "Flippant," and from "Dramatic" to "Practical"), then paragraphs 9-10. After each chunk, each student plays the role on their card, and the cards pass to the left.

   1THE VICOMTE: No one? Just wait. Such a retort as I'm going to send him!

   2(He advances toward Cyrano, who has been looking at him, and draws himself up with an air of foppish vanity.)

   3You.... you have a nose.... hum! a nose, Sir, that is.... very large.

   4CYRANO (very quietly and seriously): Very large, indeed!

   5VICOMTE (laughing): Ha! Ha!

   6CYRANO (with great self-possession): Is that all?

   7VICOMTE: Well, I....

   8CYRANO: No, no, that's a little too short, young man! You might have said.... Well.... many things.... in different keys. For instance, listen: Aggressive: "I, Sir, had I such a nose, would at once have it amputated."--Friendly: "It must dip into your glass. To drink with comfort, you should have a hanap constructed!"--Descriptive: "It is a rock!... a peak!!.... a headland!!! More than a headland, a whole peninsula!"--Inquisitive: "What may this oblong thing be used for? A writing-desk or a tool-chest?"--Pleasant: "Do you love birds so much that you feel bound to offer them so comfortable a resting place?"--Fierce: "When you use tobacco, Sir, can you emit smoke from that nose without your neighbours' crying that there is a chimney on fire?"--Thoughtful: "Be careful; so much top-hamper might cause you to fall!"--Affectionate: "Have a parasol made for it; the sun might fade its colour!"--Pedantic: "For so much flesh on so much bone beneath the forehead, we must go back, Sir, to the animal Aristophanes calls Hippocampelephantocamelos!"--Flippant: "Why! man, is that the fashion for hooks? Certainly convenient for hanging up a hat!" [...] --Dramatic: "When it bleeds, we have the Red Sea!"--Admiringly: "For a perfumer, what a sign!"--Lyric: "Is it a shell trumpet, and are you a triton?"--Innocent: "When is this monument open to visitors?" [...] --Military: "Point against cavalry!"--Practical: "Will you put it up in a lottery? It will surely be the largest prize!"--Finally, to parody the grief of Pyramus:

   9So here we have the nose that on its master came
   To ruin harmony! The traitor's red for shame!

   10That is about what you might have said, dear boy, if you had a sprinkling of letters and a bit of humour. Of humour, though, lamentable being, you never had an atom; and, as to letters, you never had but the four that spell the word Fool! [...] for I may be willing to serve such sport myself, but I allow nobody to serve it to me.

   1. Predict (before paragraph 8). The Vicomte has just laughed at his own insult. Ask the Predictor what Cyrano will do next, and why. Teacher note: accept any prediction backed by a clue, such as "No, no, that's a little too short" at the start of paragraph 8, or Cyrano's calm replies. Check after the first chunk: he shows the Vicomte how many better insults he could have made.
   2. Question (first chunk). The Questioner asks why each joke begins with a label in italics. Teacher note: each label names a tone of voice or a kind of speaker, and the joke that follows is written in that tone. Aggressive threatens to cut the nose off; Friendly offers practical help with drinking; Pleasant pretends the nose is a gift to the birds.
   3. Clarify (first and second chunks). Teacher note: "hanap" is unfamiliar to everyone, but the Friendly joke says the nose "must dip into your glass," and "To drink with comfort" you need one, so a hanap must be a special drinking cup. In the Pedantic joke, pedantic means showing off one's learning: Aristophanes was an ancient Greek writer of comedies, and the long animal name is a made-up mix of horse, elephant and camel.
   4. Summarize (paragraph 8). Teacher note: a good summary is short. Cyrano shows the Vicomte that he could have mocked the nose in a long list of ways, each in a different tone, from threats to poetry to a soldier's war cry, while all the Vicomte could think of was "very large."

   Close with a quick check: which role was hardest in this passage? Many groups say Clarify, because nearly every joke needs a word or a reference explained. Tell students that for the poem they will hold all four roles themselves, with a strip that shows only the role names.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Each student reads "The Road Not Taken" alone, with the role strip (names only, no starters). After stanza 1 they write a prediction about which road the speaker will take, and why. After stanza 3 they write one question and one clarification, with line numbers. After stanza 4 they write a two-sentence summary of the whole poem and check their prediction. No glossary and no context note are given. Collect the strips; they show which role each student still needs help with. Questions 11-14 and 19 of the quiz use this poem.

   1Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
   And sorry I could not travel both
   And be one traveller, long I stood
   And looked down one as far as I could
   5To where it bent in the undergrowth;

   Then took the other, as just as fair,
   And having perhaps the better claim,
   Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
   Though as for that the passing there
   10Had worn them really about the same,

   And both that morning equally lay
   In leaves no step had trodden black.
   Oh, I kept the first for another day!
   Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
   15I doubted if I should ever come back.

   I shall be telling this with a sigh
   Somewhere ages and ages hence:
   Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
   I took the one less travelled by,
   20And that has made all the difference.

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket, on an index card: (1) Which role did you use most on the poem, and on which line? (2) Which role is still hardest for you to play alone, and what will you do about it on the homework?

   Teacher note on language and content: "Rip Van Winkle" is more than two hundred years old; the story mocks Rip's wife as a nagging scold, a joke of its time that is worth discussing rather than repeating. The translation of Cyrano is a comedy of insults about Cyrano's own nose, and it ends with Cyrano calling the Vicomte a fool; in the play, a sword fight follows. Frost's and Rossetti's poems use a journey as a picture of life, and "Up-Hill" can be read as a poem about death, which some students may find heavy. All passages are quoted exactly as printed.

   For homework and the quiz: students read the two passages below. After finding his house empty, Rip goes to the village inn. The old inn is gone and a hotel stands in its place, and the painted sign that once showed King George now shows a man in a blue coat labeled GENERAL WASHINGTON. A crowd is holding an election. When Rip says he is "a loyal subject of the King," people shout that he is "a tory" (a supporter of the British king) and "a spy." A self-important man in a cocked hat quiets the crowd and asks whom Rip has come looking for. T4 begins there. "Up-Hill" (T5) is a conversation between two voices: one asks the questions and the other answers.

   1“Well--who are they?--name them.”

   2Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, “Where’s Nicholas Vedder?”

   3There was a silence for a little while, when an old man replied, in a thin, piping voice, “Nicholas Vedder? why, he is dead and gone these eighteen years! There was a wooden tomb-stone in the church-yard that used to tell all about him, but that’s rotten and gone too.”

   4“Where’s Brom Dutcher?”

   5“Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; some say he was killed at the storming of Stony-Point--others say he was drowned in the squall, at the foot of Antony’s Nose. I don’t know--he never came back again.”

   6“Where’s Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?”

   7“He went off to the wars, too; was a great militia general, and is now in Congress.”

   8Rip’s heart died away, at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. Every answer puzzled him, too, by treating of such enormous lapses of time, and of matters which he could not understand: war--Congress--Stony-Point!--he had no courage to ask after any more friends, but cried out in despair, “Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?”

   9“Oh, Rip Van Winkle!” exclaimed two or three. “Oh, to be sure! that’s Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree.”

   10Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain; apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged. The poor fellow was now completely confounded. He doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, the man in the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name?

   11“God knows,” exclaimed he at his wit’s end; “I’m not myself--I’m somebody else--that’s me yonder--no--that’s somebody else, got into my shoes--I was myself last night, but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they’ve changed my gun, and everything’s changed, and I’m changed, and I can’t tell what’s my name, or who I am!”

   1Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
   Yes, to the very end.
   Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
   From morn to night, my friend.

   5But is there for the night a resting-place?
   A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
   May not the darkness hide it from my face?
   You cannot miss that inn.

   Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
   10Those who have gone before.
   Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
   They will not keep you standing at that door.

   Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
   Of labor you shall find the sum.
   15Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
   Yea, beds for all who come.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Rip asks, "Where's Nicholas Vedder?" An old man answers, "Nicholas Vedder? why, he is dead and gone these eighteen years!" (T4, paragraphs 2-3). How long has Rip been away, according to this answer, whether he sees it yet or not?

   AOnly one night, as he believes BAbout a year, the time a beard needs to grow CAt least eighteen years DA few weeks, since Vedder was just buried

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   About Brom Dutcher, a villager says, "some say he was killed at the storming of Stony-Point--others say he was drowned in the squall, at the foot of Antony's Nose. I don't know--he never came back again" (T4, paragraph 5). What does the villager know for certain?

   AThat Brom Dutcher went off to the army and never returned BThat Brom Dutcher was killed at the storming of Stony-Point CThat Brom Dutcher drowned in a storm at Antony's Nose DThat Brom Dutcher is alive and living in another town

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The villager says that Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, "went off to the wars, too; was a great militia general, and is now in Congress" (T4, paragraph 7). Why does this answer puzzle Rip?

   AHe did not know that Van Bummel had ever been a schoolmaster BHe thinks the villager is making fun of him with a made-up name CHe expected Van Bummel to be dead, like Nicholas Vedder DHe knows of no war and no Congress, only the king's colony

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself as he went up the mountain; apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged" (T4, paragraph 10). What is a "precise counterpart" here?

   AA painting of Rip that hangs on the tree BSomeone who is an exact copy of Rip as he used to be CA rival who has taken over Rip's land and house DThe ghost of one of the strange men from the mountain

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Rip cries, "I'm not myself--I'm somebody else--that's me yonder--no--that's somebody else, got into my shoes" (T4, paragraph 11). What do the dashes in this speech show?

   AHe is reading a list of names from a paper BHe is angry and is threatening the man in the cocked hat CHis thoughts keep breaking off and changing, because he is confused DHe is speaking slowly and calmly so that the whole crowd will believe him

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   A stage direction says the Vicomte "advances toward Cyrano, who has been looking at him, and draws himself up with an air of foppish vanity" (T2, paragraph 2). Using his words in paragraph 1, what does "foppish vanity" show about him?

   AHe is very pleased with himself and his fine manners BHe is nervous and secretly hopes Cyrano will not notice him CHe is humble and wants to apologize to Cyrano DHe is exhausted after a long night at the theater

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   After the Vicomte laughs at his own insult, the stage direction reads "CYRANO (with great self-possession): Is that all?" (T2, paragraph 6). How should an actor say the line?

   ANervously, with his voice shaking BLoudly, shouting at the whole theater CSadly, as if the insult had hurt him DCalmly, fully in control of himself

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 8, the Descriptive joke is "It is a rock!... a peak!!.... a headland!!! More than a headland, a whole peninsula!" How is the joke built?

   AEach word names a real place that Cyrano has visited BEach comparison is bigger than the one before it CEach word rhymes with the word that follows it DEach comparison is smaller, so the nose shrinks

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The Innocent joke in paragraph 8 is "When is this monument open to visitors?" Why does the label "Innocent" fit it?

   AThe speaker is angry and wants to start a fight BThe speaker is a guide who shows monuments to tourists CThe speaker pretends to ask a simple, sincere question DThe speaker admits that the nose is not large at all

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Cyrano tells the Vicomte, "as to letters, you never had but the four that spell the word Fool!" (T2, paragraph 10). What is the play on the word "letters"?

    ALearning, and also the alphabet: his only letters spell Fool BMessages: the Vicomte has sent Cyrano four rude notes CA noble title, which the Vicomte does not really have DThe words on the theater's sign, which name the play

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In stanza 4, the speaker says, "I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence" (lines 16-17). When does he imagine telling the story of the two roads?

    AAt the very moment he stands at the fork in the woods BThe next morning, when he comes back for the first road COnly once, to the traveller he meets on the other road DFar in the future, many years after the choice

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Lines 9-10 read, "Though as for that the passing there / Had worn them really about the same." What do they say about the two roads?

    AThe first road was far more worn than the second BPeople walking there had worn both roads about equally CNobody had ever walked on either road before DThe passing years had worn away and destroyed both roads

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The speaker takes the second road "Because it was grassy and wanted wear" (line 8). What does "wanted wear" mean?

    AIt seemed less walked on BIt was badly damaged CTravellers liked it best DIt was worn out

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    "Oh, I kept the first for another day! / Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back" (lines 13-15). Which summary is accurate?

    AHe planned to return the next day, and he did BHe decided the first road looked dangerous and that he would never try it CHe meant to try the first road later, but guessed he never would DHe regretted his choice at once and turned around

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which of these is scaffolding in the sense that RL.7.10 uses the word?

    AReplacing a hard scene with a short summary, so students never read the scene itself BChoosing only easy texts at the low end of the band for the whole year CSkipping the hardest passage in a play and going on to the next one DA context note before a hard scene, which is left off the next time

16. Question 16 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    A student reading T4, paragraph 5, says: "I don't know what Stony-Point or Antony's Nose are, but 'killed at the storming of' and 'drowned in the squall, at the foot of' tell me they are places." Which reading role is the student playing?

    APredict BClarify CQuestion DSummarize

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Summarize and check. A classmate summarizes T4 as: "Rip asks about his friends, finds out they all died in the war, and then meets his son." Check this against the passage, explain two things it gets wrong, and write a better summary of two or three sentences.

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Cyrano ends, "for I may be willing to serve such sport myself, but I allow nobody to serve it to me" (T2, paragraph 10). Restate this in plain words, and explain what it shows about why Cyrano made the whole list of jokes.

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Line 19 of "The Road Not Taken" says, "I took the one less travelled by." Using lines 9-12, explain why a careful reader might question this line, and what the speaker's "sigh" in line 16 might mean.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Of the three passages the quiz uses (the story, the drama and the poem), which was hardest for you to read on your own? Name one specific place, say what made it hard, and say which reading role helped you most there.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RL.7.10: 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.