CommonLit Strategies #1: Work with a partner or table group to

discuss BUT you will each do your own Assessment and Submit it:
Write your own short essay responses and answer the questions

Requirements and Tricks:

1) When they ask you to write a response, you must always do this:
a) Introduce it with the author’s name and the title of the piece
b) And the overall theme of the piece
c) And the genre: article or essay or poem??
d) Rephrase the prompt question as your Topic Statement
e) Include at least 2 quote(s) and annotate and analyze
f) Conclusion: Answer the question
2) These questions are designed to be like those of most Standardized Tests and
AP Exams, etc., SOOO they will help you get better at taking those--here’s the Trick:
a) There are 4 multiple choice questions;
b) 2 will not be great--eliminate them;
c) 2 will be true--but one will be the best choice; re-read the question and
ask yourself why one is better than the other--which one really best
answers the exact question?

Let’s practice with this one:

“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman

Notice he uses Free Verse but lots of Alliteration to create a beat/rhythm

Free Verse: poetry that does not rhyme or have a regular meter; tends to follow
the rhythm of natural speech
Alliteration: the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely
connected words; example: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

In this poem, where do you see Whitman using Alliteration? How does it give a beat and
rhythm to this piece of writing that makes it read like a poem?

Assessment Question #1: Read the question and ask yourself: What are the
Images he creates and how do they contribute to the overall theme--which is
what?

It instructs you to find two pieces of evidence--meaning some lines or passages

to show images contributing to the theme. Here is one and how to annotate it:
In the Walt Whitman poem “I Hear America Singing,” his overall theme
is that the industrious workers in America are what makes us who we
are, strong and taking joy from our work. Throughout the free verse
poem, Whitman has images of workmen and women appearing joyful
in their labor, such as these lines: “I hear America singing, the varied
carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should
be, blithe and strong” (1-2). Here, Whitman’s image of the mechanic
shows the overall theme of workers taking joy in their work, as
though their work is their way of singing their own carol--which this
poem claims is as it should be.

See how I set it up with author and title and rephrased the question to be my
Topic Statement? And how I inserted 2 lines of poetry; annotated each; and
then analyzed each to answer the question?

Now, you find another quote and do the same: 1) set it up; 2-3) insert and
annotate it; 4) analyze it to answer the question:

Now, how about the multiple choice questions? Let’s look at number 2:

What are the two not so great answers?

Which 2 are better? Which is the best--and why?

Number 3:
What are the two not so great answers?
Which 2 are better? Which is the best--and why?

Here is how you might start Number 4:

When the father of free verse, Walt Whitman, wrote the poem “I Hear
America Singing,” his choice of free verse affects the overall poem in this
way: