Overview

Lesson Procedure

55-70 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice15 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5-10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Your school's team wins the final game, but the star player is hurt in the last minute. Tell what happened two ways: (1) as a four-line cheer that rhymes, and (2) as a three-sentence text message to a friend who missed the game. Then answer: which version sounds happier, and which one tells more about the player?"

   Have two or three students read both versions aloud. Point out that the event was the same, but the rhyming cheer pushed the writer toward a bouncy, happy sound, while the text message made room for worry and detail. The way a text is built changed both what it said and how it sounded. That is exactly what RL.8.5 asks students to explain, with two published texts instead of their own.

2. Direct Instruction15-20 minutes

   Terms to know:

   • Structure: how a text is built and put in order: its form (poem or prose), its parts (stanzas, paragraphs), where it begins and ends, and what is repeated.
   • Prose: ordinary writing in sentences and paragraphs. Verse: writing in lines, as in a poem.
   • Stanza: a group of lines in a poem, set off by a blank space, like a paragraph in prose.
   • Rhyme: words that end with the same sound (done, won). Rhythm: the beat you hear when a line is read aloud.
   • Refrain: words repeated at the end of each stanza, like the chorus of a song.
   • Free verse: poetry with no regular rhyme or beat, where lines can be any length.
   • Extended metaphor: a comparison that runs through a whole text, such as a country shown as a ship.
   • Elegy: a poem that mourns someone who has died.
   • Meaning: what a text says or shows about its subject. Style: how the text sounds and feels: its word choice, sentence or line length, rhythm and tone (the writer's attitude, such as joyful, quiet or mocking).

   Introduce the texts. Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet who served as a volunteer nurse in Civil War hospitals. President Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865, a few days after the main Confederate army surrendered, and died the next morning. His funeral train carried his body home to Springfield, Illinois, where he was buried on May 4, 1865. Whitman wrote both of these poems about Lincoln's death, and they appeared in 1865. Later he placed them side by side in a section of Leaves of Grass called "Memories of President Lincoln." Neither poem names Lincoln. Read both aloud, once each, before any discussion.

   Words to know for O Captain! My Captain!: rack (a storm, or wind-driven clouds), weather'd (came safely through), exulting (cheering with joy), keel (the long beam along the bottom of a ship), grim (stern and serious), trills (plays quick high notes), a-crowding (filling with crowds), mournful tread (sad, heavy footsteps). For Hush'd Be the Camps To-day: hush'd (made quiet), drape (cover with cloth, a sign of mourning), musing (deep in thought), retire (go away quietly), celebrate (here, an older meaning: to honor with a ceremony), invault (place in a vault, a tomb).

   1O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
   The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
   The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
   While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
   5But O heart! heart! heart!
   O the bleeding drops of red,
   Where on the deck my Captain lies,
   Fallen cold and dead.

   O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
   10Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills,
   For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding,
   For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
   Here Captain! dear father!
   This arm beneath your head!
   15It is some dream that on the deck,
   You’ve fallen cold and dead.

   My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
   My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
   The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
   20From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
   Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
   But I with mournful tread,
   Walk the deck my Captain lies,
   Fallen cold and dead.

   1Hush’d be the camps to-day,
   And soldiers let us drape our war-worn weapons,
   And each with musing soul retire to celebrate,
   Our dear commander’s death.

   5No more for him life’s stormy conflicts,
   Nor victory, nor defeat--no more time’s dark events,
   Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.
   But sing poet in our name,

   Sing of the love we bore him--because you, dweller in camps, know it truly.

   10As they invault the coffin there,
   Sing--as they close the doors of earth upon him--one verse,
   For the heavy hearts of soldiers.

   • Compare: what the two structures share

     Both poems mourn the same death. How are their structures alike?

     Result: Both are spoken to someone: the speaker of O Captain calls to the dead Captain ("rise up and hear the bells," line 9), and the speaker of Hush'd talks to fellow soldiers ("soldiers let us drape our war-worn weapons," line 2). Both also close on the body itself: O Captain ends with the Captain "Fallen cold and dead" (line 24), and Hush'd ends at the grave, "As they invault the coffin there" (line 10). Neither poem names Lincoln. Each builds toward the same last image, the man who is gone.

   • Contrast: two different forms

     Look at the shape of each poem (Diagram 1). How are the structures different?

     Result: O Captain has three stanzas of eight lines each. The first two lines of every stanza rhyme or nearly rhyme (done and won, bells and trills, still and will), and every stanza ends with the same refrain about the Captain, "Fallen cold and dead" (lines 8 and 24; "You've fallen cold and dead," line 16). Hush'd is free verse: no regular rhyme, no refrain, lines from 4 to 15 words, and stanzas of 4, 4, 1 and 3 lines. The first is built like a song; the second is built like someone speaking.

   • How structure shapes meaning in one poem

     In the first stanza of O Captain, four long lines are followed by four short ones. What does this split do to the meaning?

     Result: The long lines celebrate the safe return: "the prize we sought is won" (line 2) and "the people all exulting" (line 3). Then the short lines turn with one word: "But O heart! heart! heart!" (line 5). Victory and death sit side by side in the same stanza, so the poem's meaning is that the country's win and the speaker's loss arrive at the same moment. The refrain at the end of the stanza makes grief the last word.

   • How structure shapes meaning and style in the other poem

     Line 9 of Hush'd is a stanza by itself. Why might Whitman have set it apart?

     Result: "Sing of the love we bore him--because you, dweller in camps, know it truly" (line 9) is the longest line in the poem, and it stands alone near the end. Setting it apart makes it the center of the poem: the soldiers' love for their commander. The speaker uses "us," "our" and "we" (lines 2, 4, 8 and 9), never "I," so the meaning is a whole army's grief, not one person's. The style stays quiet and plain: there are no exclamation marks at all, which fits a poem that begins by asking the camps to be "Hush'd."

   Name it, match it, explain it. Model the three moves for every example: name a feature of structure with a line number; match it against the other text (the same, or different?); and explain what it does to the meaning or the style. Give two sentence frames: "Both texts ___, but only ___ ___ (line __)." and "Because ___ is built with ___, it sounds ___ and shows that ___." Show Diagram 1 and ask students what they notice about the shape of each poem before they read the caption.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs reread both poems and look at how each one is ordered from beginning to end. Ask each question before revealing the teacher note.

   1. Follow O Captain stanza by stanza. Stanzas 1 and 2 open by calling out to the Captain, "O Captain! my Captain!" (lines 1 and 9), and stanza 2 begs him: "Here Captain! dear father!" and "It is some dream" (lines 13 and 15). In stanza 3, what changes? Teacher note: the call is gone, and the speaker stops talking to the Captain. "My Captain does not answer" (line 17) is said about him, not to him, and the long lines of stanza 3 now begin with the dead body instead of the celebration. The order of the three stanzas moves from shock, to refusing to believe, to accepting the death.
   2. Follow Hush'd stanza by stanza. What does each stanza do? Teacher note: stanza 1 gives a command to the soldiers (be quiet, put the weapons away); stanza 2 says what is over for the dead man ("No more for him life's stormy conflicts," line 5) and turns to a poet ("But sing poet in our name," line 8); stanza 3 is the one-line request; stanza 4 names the moment for the song, "as they close the doors of earth upon him" (line 11). The poem moves like a short funeral service: silence, remembrance, a song, the burial.
   3. Compare what each speaker asks for. Teacher note: the speaker of O Captain asks the dead man to "rise up" (line 9), which cannot happen; the soldiers of Hush'd ask a living poet to "Sing" for them (line 11), which can. One structure keeps crashing into the refrain, "cold and dead"; the other ends by asking for "one verse" (line 11). Ask pairs: which poem sounds more like private grief, and which sounds like a group's farewell? Accept either answer that is backed by a structural detail.

   Show Diagram 2 and fill it in with the class, one row at a time. Each pair then writes three sentences about the two poems: one that compares, one that contrasts, and one that explains how a difference in structure changes the meaning or the style.

4. Independent Practice15 minutes

   Students now compare two versions of an old fable on their own. Aesop is remembered as a storyteller of ancient Greece; the fables told under his name have been retold for more than two thousand years. The first version below is a prose translation printed in 1912. Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) was a French poet who retold many of Aesop's fables in verse. The second version is Elizur Wright's English translation of La Fontaine's poem, first printed in full in 1841; this text comes from an 1882 edition. The lines of the poem are numbered.

   Words to know: store of corn (a saved supply of grain), principles (rules a person lives by), gay (an older meaning: cheerful and carefree), morsel (a tiny bite), a begging she went (she went begging), saith (says), on an animal's faith (on my honor as an animal), double weight in the pound (twice as much as she borrowed), ere the harvest be bound (before the harvest is gathered and tied), mend (improve), quoth (said), looking shame (with a look meant to shame her), comer (visitor), 'tis (it is).

   1One fine day in winter some Ants were busy drying their store of corn, which had got rather damp during a long spell of rain. Presently up came a Grasshopper and begged them to spare her a few grains, "For," she said, "I'm simply starving." The Ants stopped work for a moment, though this was against their principles. "May we ask," said they, "what you were doing with yourself all last summer? Why didn't you collect a store of food for the winter?" "The fact is," replied the Grasshopper, "I was so busy singing that I hadn't the time." "If you spent the summer singing," replied the Ants, "you can't do better than spend the winter dancing." And they chuckled and went on with their work.

   1A Grasshopper gay
   Sang the summer away,
   And found herself poor
   By the winter's first roar.
   5Of meat or of bread,
   Not a morsel she had!
   So a begging she went,
   To her neighbour the ant,
   For the loan of some wheat,
   10Which would serve her to eat,
   Till the season came round.
   'I will pay you,' she saith,
   'On an animal's faith,
   Double weight in the pound
   15Ere the harvest be bound.'
   The ant is a friend
   (And here she might mend)
   Little given to lend.
   'How spent you the summer?'
   20Quoth she, looking shame
   At the borrowing dame.
   'Night and day to each comer
   I sang, if you please.'
   'You sang! I'm at ease;
   25For 'tis plain at a glance,
   Now, ma'am, you must dance.'

   On the handout, students fill in a four-column chart (Structure feature, Aesop's version, La Fontaine's version, What the difference does) with five rows: the form, where the story begins in time, what happens between the request and the answer, how each version ends, and one detail found in only one version. Then they write three sentences: one that compares, one that contrasts, and one that explains how a difference changes the meaning or the style. The quiz uses both fables; do not discuss the answers until students have finished the chart.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) In one sentence, explain the difference between a text's meaning and its style. (2) Name one structural difference between the two Whitman poems and write one sentence about what it does to the meaning or the style.

   Teacher note on language and content: the poems mourn a real death, and O Captain! My Captain! describes the body directly ("the bleeding drops of red," line 6). Some students may connect it to losses of their own; let them respond in writing if they prefer. The fable translations use older words and spellings, kept exactly as published: "gay" in its old meaning of cheerful, "neighbour" and "flavour" in British spelling, "cit" for a city dweller, and "Turkey carpet" for a rug woven in Turkey. Whitman's double hyphens (--) stand for dashes in the printed edition.

   For homework: students read two more versions of one story, printed below: Aesop's prose fable of the town mouse and the country mouse, and La Fontaine's verse fable of the city rat and the country rat, in the same translations as the grasshopper fables. Words to know: acquaintances (people who know each other a little), barleycorns (grains of barley), fare (food), larder (a room for storing food), horn of plenty (a horn overflowing with food, a sign of wealth), the fat of the land (the best of everything), scuttled (ran with quick short steps), the lap of luxury (great comfort and wealth), civil stoop (a polite bow), turtle soup (a costly dish in the 1800s), harp it (keep going on about it), rat-tat (the sound of a knock), put their joys to rout (chased their fun away), rustic (from the country), no fare resembling (no food like this).

   1A Town Mouse and a Country Mouse were acquaintances, and the Country Mouse one day invited his friend to come and see him at his home in the fields. The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour. The fare was not much to the taste of the guest, and presently he broke out with "My poor dear friend, you live here no better than the ants. Now, you should just see how I fare! My larder is a regular horn of plenty. You must come and stay with me, and I promise you you shall live on the fat of the land." So when he returned to town he took the Country Mouse with him, and showed him into a larder containing flour and oatmeal and figs and honey and dates. The Country Mouse had never seen anything like it, and sat down to enjoy the luxuries his friend provided: but before they had well begun, the door of the larder opened and some one came in. The two Mice scampered off and hid themselves in a narrow and exceedingly uncomfortable hole. Presently, when all was quiet, they ventured out again; but some one else came in, and off they scuttled again. This was too much for the visitor. "Good-bye," said he, "I'm off. You live in the lap of luxury, I can see, but you are surrounded by dangers; whereas at home I can enjoy my simple dinner of roots and corn in peace."

   1A city rat, one night,
   Did, with a civil stoop,
   A country rat invite
   To end a turtle soup.

   5Upon a Turkey carpet
   They found the table spread,
   And sure I need not harp it
   How well the fellows fed.

   The entertainment was
   10A truly noble one;
   But some unlucky cause
   Disturb'd it when begun.

   It was a slight rat-tat,
   That put their joys to rout;
   15Out ran the city rat;
   His guest, too, scamper'd out.

   Our rats but fairly quit,
   The fearful knocking ceased.
   'Return we,' cried the cit,
   20To finish there our feast.

   'No,' said the rustic rat;
   'To-morrow dine with me.
   I'm not offended at
   Your feast so grand and free,--

   25'For I've no fare resembling;
   But then I eat at leisure,
   And would not swap, for pleasure
   So mix'd with fear and trembling.'

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which question asks about the structure of a text?

   AWhat does the word "grim" mean when it describes the ship in the poem? BWhich character in the story do you find the most likable, and why? CWhat was happening in the country in the year the author wrote it? DWhy did the author end every stanza of the poem with the same words?

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Where in time does Aesop's version of the fable begin?

   AIn summer, while the Grasshopper is singing and the Ants are gathering their grain BIn winter, so readers learn about the summer only from what the characters say CAt harvest time, when the Grasshopper comes back to pay the Ants what she owes DIn spring, after the Grasshopper has already gone hungry all through the winter

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How does La Fontaine's version order the same events?

   AIt starts in winter and never mentions the summer at all BIt starts with the Ant's question and then goes back to the summer CIt tells events in the order they happened, from summer to winter DIt starts after the Grasshopper dies and looks back on her life

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In La Fontaine's version, what is the effect of the Ant's question, "How spent you the summer?" (line 19), coming where it does in the poem?

   AReaders already know the answer from the opening, so the question sets up the Ant's joke BReaders learn for the first time, with great surprise, that the Grasshopper sang all summer CReaders decide that the Ant has forgotten what the Grasshopper did all last summer DReaders cannot tell whether the Ant or the narrator is the one asking the question

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which detail appears only in Aesop's version?

   AThe Grasshopper spends the whole summer singing instead of storing food BThe Grasshopper is refused when she asks for something to eat in winter CThe Grasshopper offers to pay back more than she borrows at harvest time DTheir stored grain has gotten damp during a long spell of rain

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   How does the Grasshopper's promise to repay "Double weight in the pound" (line 14) change the meaning of La Fontaine's fable, compared with Aesop's?

   AIt turns begging into a fair offer, so the Ant's refusal looks more like stinginess BIt shows that the Grasshopper has already saved a large store of wheat of her own CIt proves that the Ant is right to trust her, since she offers to pay back double DIt makes her lazier than in Aesop's version, where she offers to work for the grain

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In lines 16-18 the narrator says, "The ant is a friend / (And here she might mend) / Little given to lend." What does this aside, a comment the narrator makes outside the action, add to the fable?

   AIt praises the Ant as a generous friend who lends to anyone who asks her for help BIt lets the narrator criticize the Ant, so readers may not side with her completely CIt tells readers that the Grasshopper will pay back the loan when the harvest comes DIt shows the Grasshopper talking to herself about what she should have done instead

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In what way are the endings of the two versions alike?

   ABoth end with the insects agreeing to share some of their food with the Grasshopper BBoth end with the narrator stating the moral of the story in a separate last sentence CBoth end with the Grasshopper apologizing and promising to work hard next summer DBoth refuse her with a joke: since she sang all summer, she can now dance

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Aesop's fable ends, "And they chuckled and went on with their work." What does ending with this action, instead of a stated moral, do?

   AIt shows the lesson through the Ants' actions and leaves readers to put the moral in words BIt shows that the Ants change their minds later on and share their corn with the Grasshopper CIt shows that the story is not over yet and will go on in a second fable about the Ants DIt shows that the Ants feel sorry for the Grasshopper and wish they could do more for her

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    La Fontaine's version is written in very short lines full of rhymes, such as "gay" and "away" (lines 1-2) and "glance" and "dance" (lines 25-26). How does this structure shape the style of the fable?

    AIt gives the fable a slow, heavy sound, like a song sung at a funeral BIt gives the fable a quick, sing-song sound, so the last line lands like a punchline CIt makes the fable sound like a science report that describes how insects live DIt makes the fable hard to follow, because the events are told in no clear order

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Aesop's Ants ask, "May we ask," said they, "what you were doing with yourself all last summer?" How does this polite wording shape the style of the prose version?

    AIt makes the Ants sound angry and loud, like two sides shouting in an argument BIt makes the Ants sound confused, because they are not sure what season it is CIts calm politeness makes the refusal that follows sound dry and quietly funny DIt makes the Ants sound shy and nervous, because they are afraid of the Grasshopper

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Aesop's narrator says the Ants stopped work for a moment, "though this was against their principles." What does this short comment add?

    AA touch of humor, since the Ants love work so much that even a pause breaks their rules BA warning that the Ants are about to break a law and will be punished for doing it CA clue that the Ants plan to share their corn after all, since they are willing to stop working DA flashback that shows readers how the Ants spent the summer gathering their corn

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    La Fontaine's translation uses words such as "saith," "Ere," "Quoth" and "'tis," while Aesop's Grasshopper says, "I'm simply starving." How does this contrast affect the style of each version?

    ABoth versions sound equally modern, because both translations use today's words BAesop's version sounds old-fashioned, while La Fontaine's sounds like everyday talk CLa Fontaine's sounds like an old storybook poem; Aesop's is closer to everyday speech DNeither version uses dialogue, so the choice of words does not change the style

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which statement best compares the overall structure of the two versions?

    ABoth are poems with rhyming lines, but Aesop's has fewer lines than La Fontaine's BAesop's is divided into stanzas, while La Fontaine's is written as one paragraph CBoth are written in prose, but La Fontaine's has more paragraphs than Aesop's DAesop's is one prose paragraph; La Fontaine's is 26 short rhymed lines

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare where each version begins in time. Explain how each starting point changes how readers first see the Grasshopper. Quote the opening words of each version.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Quote the last line of each version and explain who has the last word in each. How does that difference change the meaning of the ending?

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Aesop's version has several Ants ("said they"), while La Fontaine's has one ant, the Grasshopper's "neighbour" (line 8). How does this change in the structure of the scene affect the meaning?

    Show model answer

18. Question 18 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In O Captain! My Captain!, lines 10-12 repeat the words "for you" five times. What does this repetition add to the poem?

    AIt shows that the whole crowd blames the Captain for the hard and fearful trip BIt slows the poem to a whisper, like the quiet camps in the other poem CIt piles up the crowd's honors, so the Captain's silence hits harder next DIt lists the people on the ship who were hurt during the stormy voyage

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    In Hush'd Be the Camps To-day, line 3 ends with the word "celebrate," and line 4 is only four words long: "Our dear commander's death." How does this line break shape the meaning of the first stanza? Compare it with the way O Captain uses short lines.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    In 2-3 sentences, explain why comparing two texts about the same subject, such as two poems about the same death or two versions of the same fable, makes it easier to see what structure does.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to RL.8.5: 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.