1a. What did the women do with their hands?
2a. Whom did the women lead across mined fields?
3a. What did the women discover for their children?
1b. What does it mean that the women had fists as well as hands?
2b. What does this mean? Whom might the armies represent?
3b. Why did the women's children need to know the things the women themselves did not know?
4a. Identify places in the poem that describe what the women were like.
4b. What do you think the speaker would want her generation to pass on to their children?
5a. "Women" contains strong statements about women's strength, equal opportunities, and education. How effectively does the poem communicate those statements?
5b. Compare the related reading, "On Education," to "Women." What are the differences in the tone of the two poems? What are the similarities? What do you like and dislike about each poem?
Tone. Looking back at your graphic organizer, explain how specific words and phrases in the poem work to create tone. What is the tone of this poem? What does the tone of the poem tell you about the speaker?
Metaphor. In what way are the women like generals? What might be the "mined/Fields" and "Booby-trapped/ Ditches"?
1. Write a letter from the speaker of the poem to her mother or to a woman of her mother's generation. What might the speaker want to say directly either to her mother, or to another woman of her mother's generation? For what might she thank her?
2. Make a list of five metaphors that describe someone you admire—your mother, your father, your best friend, or someone else.
3. Think about what school means to you. Write a short poem that describes your feelings about school and education.
Researching the History of Educational Opportunities for African Americans. Use the line below to help draft your time line. Once you have revised it, redraw your time line on a separate sheet of paper to hang in the classroom, library, or hallway.
Forming Adjectives. Smiling is an adjective formed from the noun smile and adding the suffix –ing. When you add this type of suffix to a word ending with an e, the e is dropped. Create adjectives by adding the suffixes shown to the following words.
1. grace + -ious =
2. drive + -able =
3. sing + -ing =
4. flower + -ing =
5. graduate + -ion =
6. frustrate + -ion =
7. fulfill + -ment =
8. taste + -less =
9. achieve + -ment =
10. child + -ish =
Accept vs. Except. To accept is to "welcome something" or to "receive something willingly." To except is to "exclude or leave something out." Except is also used as a preposition meaning "but." In the following sentences, identify the correct word that best completes each sentence.
1. I wanted to (accept, except) the car salesman's offer, but my dad said he could find a better price somewhere else.
2. I really like my new house, (accept, except) I don't like the location; it is too close to the highway.
3. I will eat anything you set on my plate (accept, except) peas.
4. "I cannot (accept, except) your gift," Frieda told Mark.
5. "I hope they (accept, except) me into their group," thought Virginia.
6. (Accept, Except) for the color, I really like the dress.
7. "Can you please (accept, except) my apology?" asked Marcus.
8. "Just (accept, except) the fact that I can't make it to the party," demanded Christine.
9. Felicia got the cat down from the tree (accept, except) she broke her leg getting on her way down.
10. I love every color in the rainbow (accept, except) orange.
