A Separate Peace: Grammar, Chapter One

Teacherʼs Page

Common Core:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of

standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.8.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative

language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.3 Apply knowledge of language to understand

how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for
meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.9-10.5 Demonstrate understanding of figurative

language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

General Teaching Ideas:

* Give students one worksheet at a time after covering the nouns and pronoun review
sheets.

* Divide students into groups and give different worksheets to different groups. This also
allows for differentiation.

* Complete one worksheet together in class and give another as homework.

* The same sentences are used for these different activities on purpose. At the end of
work, I ask my students to remark on how sentences can be broken into different ways,
with different meanings. It helps them see that grammar is not separate from what they
read - they are reading grammatical constructions.

Grammar Notes:

Abstract and concrete nouns:

Abstract and concrete nouns can be tricky. The “five senses” seems to be the dominant
belief, but even that can be tricky.

For instance in #5, “money” could be either. A person can see and touch money, but that
is probably not what Gene is referencing in this passage. He probably means “wealth,”
which would make the noun abstract.
 A Separate Peace: Grammar, Chapter One

#7 had some debate as well, concerning “trudge.” You can see someone trudging, but
what you see is the person, not the actual trudge.

I researched these answers and checked with my colleagues. After teaching and
consulting with my coworkers again, these are the answers we believe to be the best.

Pronouns:

Some teachers teach possessive pronouns as pronouns, always. Other teachers teach
possessive pronouns as adjectives, always. Other teachers teach them as pronouns
until they cover adjectives, and then switch in describing them. I have tried to give
freedom with possessive (and demonstrative) pronouns in the worksheets, so that they
work for different classrooms.

Student Note Pages:

These pages work in taking notes when beginning instruction. My students cut the
“NOUNS” and “PRONOUNS” sections on the side. Those give the a different study
guide, and we bind or staple all of them together. They then keep them on their desks
for review to have a handy guide.

Nouns: ANSWER KEY

Common: little, weather, clamp, winter, summers, day, gusts

Proper: Devon, New Hampshire (“New Hampshire” is functioning as a proper adjective,

modifying “summers,” but my students do recognize it as a noun at first).

Concrete: Devon, fields

Abstract: time, year, use

Pronouns: ANSWER KEY

it: personal; this; demonstrative; it; personal; all; indefinite; me: personal

I: personal; it: personal; you: personal; all: indefinite; it: personal; you: personal

Vocabulary Notes:

* The words are either nouns or adjectives. The depth at which you cover adjectives
(which modify nouns or pronouns) depends on the level of your class.

* I have extra space for defining the words. Because the sentences are included, I have
students use context clues to learn about the definitions, and then add or subtract for
their definitions.
 A Separate Peace: Grammar, Chapter One

* The quiz is divided between nouns and pronouns. When I return the quizzes, students
and I discuss how a noun “looks” differently from an adjective.

* Quiz: ANSWER KEY

1. G! ! 8. L
2. E! ! 9. H
3. A ! ! 10. O
4. F! ! 11. K
5. D! ! 12. N
6. B! ! 13. J
7. C! ! 14. I
! ! 15. M

Looking Closer at Grammar:

* I typically close with the graphic organizer “Looking Closer at Grammar.” It requires
higher order thinking after students work on basic understanding of terms.

ANSWER KEY:

tree: concrete. A tree takes many years to get as large as this one is described. It is a
hard, physically imposing thing.

death: abstract. We cannot touch death, see, smell, taste, or hear it. Death is present
though, and that is why “a death by violence” sounds imposing, but is worrisome
because it is an abstract idea.

violence: abstract. Violence is a negative thought or act, but our narrator is telling us it
will not last.

love: abstract. Love is a pleasant thought, but our narrator is telling us that it does not
endure.

The overall impact is that concrete or abstract - tangible or not - nothing lasts.
 A Separate Peace: Grammar, Chapter One

Vocabulary

Directions: Define the underlined words in the following sentences. Then decide the part
of speech.

It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with
narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over
everything for better preservation.

1. sedate:

2. preservation:

In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I had always felt
that the Devon School came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I
was a student there, and then blinked out like a candle the day I left.

3. tacit:

Clever modernizations of old Colonial manses, extensions in Victorian wood, capacious

Greek Revival temples lined the street, as impressive and just as forbidding as ever.

4. capacious:

I made my way across a wide yard, called the Far Commons, and up to a building as
red brick and balanced as the other major buildings, but with a large cupola and a bell
and a clock and Latin over the doorway - the First Academy Building.

5. cupola:

So I roamed on past the balanced red brick dormitories with webs of leafless ivy clinging
to them, through a ramshackle salient of the town which invaded the school for a
hundred yards, past the solid gymnasium, full of students at this hour but silent as a
monument on the outside, past the Field House, called The Cage - I remembered now
what a mystery references to “The Cage” had been during my first weeks at Devon, I
had thought it must be a place of severe punishment - and I reached the huge open
sweep of ground known as the Playing Fields.

6. salient:

7. sweep:
 A Separate Peace: Grammar, Chapter One

Now they reached soggily and emptily away from me, forlorn tennis courts on the left,
enormous football and soccer and lacrosse fields in the center, woods on the right, and
at the far end a small river detectable from this distance by the few bare trees along its
banks.

8. forlorn:

The tree was tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river.

9. irate:

Standing on this limb, you could by a prodigious effort jump far enough out into the river
for safety.

10. prodigious:

We stood looking up at it, four looks of consternation, one of excitement.

11. consternation:

He became inanimate.

12. inanimate:

He and I started back across the fields, preceding the others like two seigneurs.

13. seigneurs:

I cried, my indignation at this charge naturally stronger because it was so true.

14. indignation:

We were walking again, faster; Bobby and Leper and Chet were urging us from ahead
for Godʼs sake to hurry up, and then Finny trapped me again in his strongest trap, that
is, I suddenly became his collaborator.

15. collaborator:
 A Separate Peace: Grammar, Chapter One

Vocabulary: ANSWER KEY

Directions: Define the underlined words in the following sentences. Then decide the part
of speech.

It seemed more sedate than I remembered it, more perpendicular and strait-laced, with
narrower windows and shinier woodwork, as though a coat of varnish had been put over
everything for better preservation.

1. sedate: calm, quiet, composed - adjective

2. preservation: something made to last - noun

In the deep, tacit way in which feeling becomes stronger than thought, I had always felt
that the Devon School came into existence the day I entered it, was vibrantly real while I
was a student there, and then blinked out like a candle the day I left.

3. tacit: understood without being openly expressed - adjective

Clever modernizations of old Colonial manses, extensions in Victorian wood, capacious

Greek Revival temples lined the street, as impressive and just as forbidding as ever.

4. capacious: capable of holding much - adjective

I made my way across a wide yard, called the Far Commons, and up to a building as
red brick and balanced as the other major buildings, but with a large cupola and a bell
and a clock and Latin over the doorway - the First Academy Building.

5. cupola: a light structure on a dome or roof - noun

So I roamed on past the balanced red brick dormitories with webs of leafless ivy clinging
to them, through a ramshackle salient of the town which invaded the school for a
hundred yards, past the solid gymnasium, full of students at this hour but silent as a
monument on the outside, past the Field House, called The Cage - I remembered now
what a mystery references to “The Cage” had been during my first weeks at Devon, I
had thought it must be a place of severe punishment - and I reached the huge open
sweep of ground known as the Playing Fields.

6. salient: a prominent angle - noun

7. sweep: reach or range - noun

 A Separate Peace: Grammar, Chapter One

Now they reached soggily and emptily away from me, forlorn tennis courts on the left,
enormous football and soccer and lacrosse fields in the center, woods on the right, and
at the far end a small river detectable from this distance by the few bare trees along its
banks.

8. forlorn: desolate or dreary - adjective

The tree was tremendous, an irate, steely black steeple beside the river.

9. irate: angry or enraged - adjective

Standing on this limb, you could by a prodigious effort jump far enough out into the river
for safety.

10. prodigious: extraordinary in size - adjective

We stood looking up at it, four looks of consternation, one of excitement.

11. consternation: a sudden, alarming amazement or dread that results in utter

confusion - noun

He became inanimate.

12. inanimate: lifeless - adjective

He and I started back across the fields, preceding the others like two seigneurs.

13. seigneur: a lord, especially a feudal lord - noun

I cried, my indignation at this charge naturally stronger because it was so true.

14. indignation: strong displeasure at something considered unjust - noun

We were walking again, faster; Bobby and Leper and Chet were urging us from ahead
for Godʼs sake to hurry up, and then Finny trapped me again in his strongest trap, that
is, I suddenly became his collaborator.

15. collaborator: a person who supports or helps another - noun

Looking Closer at Grammar
Chapter One: Nouns and Pronouns

When authors write, they choose their words very purposefully. Look at this important quote from A Separate Peace:

Nothing endures, not a tree, not love, not even a death by violence.

Write what type of noun each word is. Then examine the meaning behind that type of word. The first is done as an example.

Nothing tree love

indefinite pronoun -
shows an unlimited
possibility of feelings, people,
objects that do not last forever

death violence

What is the impact of using concrete and abstract nouns in this sentence? How does their use provide extra meaning?
 A Separate Peace: Vocabulary Quiz, Chapter One

Directions: Match the correct word to its definition.

1. calm, quiet, composed _____ A. Inanimate

2. capable of holding much _____ B. Prodigious

3. lifeless _____ C. Forlorn

4. understood without being openly expressed _____ D. Irate

5. angry or enraged _____ E. Capacious

6. extraordinary in size _____ F. Tacit

7. desolate or dreary _____ G. Sedate

8. a person who supports or helps another _____ H. Preservation

9. something made to last _____ I. Cupola

10. a sudden, alarming amazement or dread that results in utter J. Salient

confusion _____
K. Sweep
11. reach or range _____
L. Collaboration
12. a lord, especially a feudal lord _____
M. Indignation
13. a prominent angle _____
N. Seigneur
14. a light structure on a dome or roof _____
O. Consternation
15. strong displeasure at something considered unjust _____