HMH Independent Reading Examples

USE THESE EXAMPLES OF ANSWERS FROM THE HOMEWORK TO HELP YOU WITH FUTURE HOMEWORK



ANALYZING THE TEXT page 232

A = Nailed it.  Spot on.  Not exactly the same words, but exactly the same answer.

B = Ballpark.  Not spot on, but in the vacinity.  Covers much of the same ground.

C = Different direction.  Answered the question, but arrived at a different place.

D = Completely missed the ball, but swung the bat.  You tried and there is an answer on the page, but the answer is either flat out wrong, or shows that you didn’t really understand question.

E = Did not do it.  Fail.

SWING +

+ Scores go up with:

          +  Lots of evidence that is clear (quotes, paraphase, summary, facts, info. text)

          + Effort.  Length and original ideas.

          + Different answer, but just as good.

- Scores go down with:

          - Repetition.  Filling space saying nothing new.

          - Sloppy, careless, lack of detail, low effort

          - Did not completely understand the question

DIRECTIONS:

Cite Text Evidence – Support your responses with evidence from the texts.

QUESTION 1

INFER.  Figurative language in which human qualities are given to an object, idea, or animal is called personification. What does the example of personification in the first stanza of “Hanging Fire” reveal about the speaker?

KEY VOCABULARY:  Infer, Personification, Stanza

PASSAGE – FIRST STANZA

I am fourteen

And my skin has betrayed me

The boy I cannot live without

Still sucks his thumb

In secret

How come my knees are always so ashy

What if I die

Before morning

And momma’s in the bedroom

With the door closed.

ANSWER 1

“My skin has betrayed me” is personification. The phrase suggests that the speaker is a teenager whose skin is breaking out.  She sees this as a personal attack.

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QUESTION 2

INFER. Reread lines 1-7 of “Hanging Fire.”  Based on these lines, what inferences can you make about the speaker of the poem?

KEY VOCABULARY:  Infer, Speaker

PASSAGE – LINES 1 - 7

I am fourteen

And my skin has betrayed me

The boy I cannot live without

Still sucks his thumb

In secret

How come my knees are always so ashy

What if I die

ANSWER 2

The speaker is a typical teenager who worries about her appearance and her boyfriend.  She has many questions but feels like no one will stop to listen to her.

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QUESTION 3

Analyze.  Reread lines 19 – 21 of “Hanging Fire.”  What does the contradiction or inconsistency expressed in these lines suggest about the speaker.

KEY VOCABULARY:  Inconsistency, Contradiction, Speaker

PASSAGE – LINES 19 - 21

There is nothing I want to do

and too much

that has to be done.

ANSWER 3

The contradiction of having nothing to do but knowing there is much to be done suggests that the speaker is thoughtful and self-aware.  She feels pressures weighing on her.  Sometimes the reaction to pressure is a desire to do nothing at all.

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QUESTION 4

Analyze.  Several themes are touched on in “Hanging Fire.”  Identify and explain one or two of these themes, using text evidence as support.

KEY VOCABULARY:  Analyze, Theme, Evidence

ANSWER 4

One theme of “Hanging Fire” is that even though teens may resent adults for not giving them credit for their ideas and accomplishments (“Nobody even stops to think / about my side of it;”  “I should have been on Math Team”), they still need adults’ love and support (“momma’s in the bedroom / with the door closed.”)

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QUESTION 5

INTERPRET.  A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the word like or as.   Identify a simile Mora uses in “Teenagers” that suggests what the speaker’s grown children are like.

KEY VOCABULARY:  Interpret, simile

ANSWER 5

“long bodies / that move past me / glowing / almost like pearls.” In this simile, the speaker’s adult children are compared to pearls. The speaker is overjoyed when they finally emerge from behind the shut door of their teenage years like pearls from closed oysters.

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QUESTION 6

COMPARE.  The speaker in each poem has a specific point of view, or position about the subject matter of the poem.  Tell one way the points of view are similar and one way they are different.

KEY VOCABULARY:  Compare, Similar, Points of View, Position

ANSWER 6

One way the speakers’ points of view are similar is that both feel isolated.  They are different because the teenaged speaker in “Hanging Fire” feels her mother has abandoned her, whereas the adult speaker in “Teenagers” feels shut out by the teenaged children.

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