Investigate, Inquire, and Imagine

Recall

1a. In the first line, what does the speaker tell the person he or she is addressing? What does the speaker call this person?

2a. What are some of the difficult things the speaker says he or she had to do when he or she was young?

3a. What does the speaker say about the life of the person whom he or she is addressing in the last three lines of the poem?

Interpret

1b. What relationship do you think exists between the speaker and the person he or she is addressing? What do you think the person the speaker is addressing might have said to the speaker to inspire this response?

2b. How can you tell that some of these things are exaggerations?

3b. What do you think the speaker means by the line, "For you, it's all ice cream and soda pop"? What is the speaker saying about the character of the person he or she is addressing?

Analyze

4a. Try to distinguish between the truth and the exaggeration in the poem. What parts of the speaker's description of his or her youth do you think are true? In what ways may the speaker's childhood have been hard?

Synthesize

4b. Explain whether you think it is true that people who have never worked hard for their food cannot appreciate the meaning of the word hard.

Perspective

5a. Explain whether you sympathize more with the speaker of this poem or the person he or she is addressing.

Empathy

5b. Imagine that the speaker of this poem is your parent and is talking to you. How might you respond?

Understanding Literature

Hyperbole. What are some examples of hyperbole in this selection? What effect did the use of hyperbole have on this poem and on what the speaker was trying to say?

Apostrophe. Identify whom the speaker is directly addressing. What word or phrases let you know that this person is being addressed? In what way does the use of apostrophe help involve the reader in the poem?

Skill Builders

Vocabulary

Synonym. A synonym is a word or phrase that means the same or nearly the same as another word. For each of the following words, write down one synonym.

collards:

slop:

magic:

plop:

pitch:

values:

guilty:

angry:

resentful:

change:

Language, Grammar, and Style

Clauses of a Sentence. Different kinds of clauses make up simple, compound, and complex sentences. Review the Language Arts Survey 3.84, "Clauses of a Sentence: Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences." Then, for each kind of clause, write down three examples of your own.

Simple Sentences

1.

2.

3.

Compound Sentences

4.

5.

6.

Complex Sentences

7.

8.

9.