Literature 2: Point of view

Directions: Use the graphic organizer on the board to help you determine the writer’s point of view in the following brochure text.

Good-bye Boredom, Hello Fun

     It’s another boring Saturday afternoon. Your entertainment options range from enduring dull old movies and home fix-it shows on TV to bathing the dog. Does this sound painfully familiar? It won’t when you discover Funtown Community Center. At Funtown, you can meet new people, compete in joke-telling contests, create your own poems and stories in writing workshops, invent characters in cartooning classes, sharpen your computer skills, learn surprising facts about the town’s history, and swim in the pool. It’s all for teenagers and all free! So switch off the TV, wave good bye to Fido, and meet your friends at Funtown Community Center. Funtown—it adds life to your life!

Poem: When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn’d astronomer, 

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, 

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, 

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, 

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, 

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, 

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, 

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars. 

Literature 3A: Analyzing a poem

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire, 

Some say in ice. 

From what I’ve tasted of desire 

I hold with those who favor fire. 

But if it had to perish twice, 

I think I know enough of hate 

To say that for destruction ice 

Is also great 

And would suffice.

Complete the following: 

Listening to this poem made me feel ____________

becuase _________________. I think a point the poet 

was trying to make is ______________ because______________. 

Literature 1: Study guide

DIRECTIONS: Create a study guide with information about the following passage. 

A Deadly Virus

The majority of American deaths during World War I resulted from influenza, not battle wounds. Caused by a virus, influenza could be a deadly illness. Unlike similar illnesses, which were usually fatal only to the very old or very young, this form of influenza had the power to kill healthy young people. When peace came in 1918, the returning troops brought  the virus home with them. It spread rapidly, infecting people across the United States. In the ten months after the war, more than half a million Americans died of influenza. The populations of other countries around the world fared as badly or worse. The graph at right shows

Literature 3A: Cause and Effect

Instructions: Read the following passage and draw a content map to analyze the cause-and-effect pattern. 

In 1888, a massive blizzard gave new meaning to the term “severe weather.” The storm stretched from Maine southward to Washington, D.C., and from New York westward to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It dumped twenty-one inches of snow on New York City. Seventy-mile-per-hour wind gusts drifted the snow twenty feet high, leaving people stranded in elevated trains and office buildings. In Connecticut, between forty and fifty inches of snow fell in one day. Drifts buried houses. From the Chesapeake Bay to Nantucket, two hundred ships were either sunk or damaged. Four hundred people died before the storm ended.

Literature 2: Fact and Opinion

Literature 2: Fact and Opinion

DIRECTIONS:  Use the graphic organizer on the board to help you identify three statements of fact and two statements of opinion in the following passage.
■ Be sure to explain how you can tell whether the statement is a fact or an opinion.

Pet Pleasures

        Ancient Egyptians used Nile River geese as watchdogs because geese are aggressive and honk loudly. Throughout history, humans and animals have lived together in various ways. Sometimes animals do work for humans. For example, dogs hunt, horses transport people and goods, and elephants lift heavy objects.
      Today, however, fewer animals work, and more live with people simply as pets, or companion animals, as they are often called. Dogs, cats, birds, and fish are common pets. Dogs
make much better pets than cats, of course. Some people keep wild animals as pets. This is a terrible idea. Pets often become part of a family. They teach children empathy and responsibility. They provide companionship for people who live alone.
      Animals are also used in therapy to help treat sick people. I think that is a great idea.