Before Reading

What Do You Know about Snow?

Read the Prereading information on page 651. Then discuss your experiences with snow. Make a list of words that describe snow.

During Reading

Visualize

Read the poem, visualizing what the poet describes. Pay special attention to the verbs that describe the snow’s actions such as shushes, hushes, flitter-twitters, laughs and whirs. How do these words make you feel about snow?

Fix-Up Idea: Read Aloud

If you are having difficulty visualizing images in the poem, find a partner and read the poem aloud. As you read, vary your reading rates, and ignore some of the punctuation. List words that describe the snow.

After Reading

Summarize

Summarize what the poem is about and discuss how the descriptive verbs help you understand the effect that the snow has on the speaker.