Springboard Unit 1 - Teachers.ocps.net

The Challenge of 

Heroism 

? 

? 

Essential Questions 

What defines a hero? 

How do visual images 

enhance or create 

meaning? 

Unit Overview 

Unit 

1 

This unit introduces the Challenge theme by 

examining heroes: in our personal lives, in 

literary work, and in the world at large. You will 

be introduced to the archetype of the Hero’s 

Journey and will view various examples of heroes 

through that archetypal lens. After exploring 

heroism, you will then examine the challenges 

of society as you encounter texts in which 

individuals take great risks as they struggle to do 

what they think is right.


1 

Goals 

C To define various traits 

and types of heroes 

through multiple genres 

and texts 

C To understand the 

archetype of the hero’s 

journey and apply it 

to various scenarios in 

both print and nonprint 

texts 

C To analyze various 

literary, nonfiction, and 

nonprint texts 

ACAdemiC VoCABulAry 

Diction 

Archetype 

Definition Essay 

Nonprint Text 

Compare/Contrast 

Imagery 

The Challenge of Heroism 

SpringBoard® English Textual Power level 3 

Contents 

learning Focus: Taking Your Writing to the Next Level . . . . . . . . . . . 4 

Activities: 

1.1 Previewing the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 

1.2 Challenges Word Wall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 

1.3 Tone: Word Sort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 

1.4 Emotional and Physical Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 

Poetry: “A Man,” by Nina Cassian 

Poetry: “Moco Limping,” by David Nava Monreal 

1.5 Facing Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 

*Film: From October Sky, directed by Joe Johnston 

1.6 Defining Heroic Qualities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 

1.7 Heroes in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 

Article: “Love Triumphs: 6-year-old Becomes a Hero to 

a Band of Toddlers, Rescuers,” by Ellen Barry 

1.8 Historical Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 

Poetry: “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman 

Poetry: “Frederick Douglass,” by Robert Hayden 

1.9 The Challenge of the Hero’s Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 

1.10 The Refusal of the Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 

*Film: From Batman Begins, directed by Christopher Nolan, or 

*Film: From Star Wars 1: Episode 1—The Phantom Menace, 

directed by George Lucas 

1.11 The Road of Trials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 

Narrative: From The Odyssey, by Homer 

1.12 A Different Kind of Heroine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 

*Film: From Mulan, directed by Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook 

1.13 Creating a Different Kind of Heroine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 

Article: “Woman Warrior,” by Corie Brown and Laura Shapiro 

1.14 An Everyday Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 

Personal responses 

embedded Assessment 1 Writing a Definition Essay . . . . . . . . . . . 53 

© 2010 College Board. All rights reserved.

© 2010 College Board. All rights reserved. 

learning Focus: Applying the Archetype in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 

1.15 Reading Utopia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 

Novel: Excerpt from Utopia, by Thomas More 

1.16 Precise Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 

*Novel: The Giver, by Lois Lowry 

1.17 Reading the Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 

*Film: From E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial, directed 

by Steven Spielberg 

1.18 Babies and Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 

1.19 Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 

1.20 The Circle of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 

1.21 Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 

1.22 Rules in Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 

1.23 Coming to Your Senses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 

Postcard: “The Heartiest of Season’s Greetings,” 

by Carl Nelson, December 1969 

1.24 Marking the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 

1.25 Evolution of a Hero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 

1.26 An Ending to The Giver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 

1.27 Author’s Purpose: Lowry’s Newbery Acceptance Speech . . . . . . .80 

Speech: Newbery Acceptance Speech, by Lois Lowry 

1.28 Alien Escape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 

*Film: From E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial, directed 

by Steven Spielberg 

1.29 Graphic Novels: Visualizing an Incident . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 

Graphic Novel: Excerpt from Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi 

embedded Assessment 2 Visualizing an Event in 

Jonas’s Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 

unit reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 

*Texts not included in these materials.

Learning Focus: 

Taking Your Writing to the Next Level 

Writers communicate to inform, to persuade, or to entertain. One genre of 

writing that you are very familiar with is narrative writing, in which you write 

to entertain. You are also familiar with expository writing, or writing to explain 

or inform. 

Good writers draw upon and blend a variety of genres and resources in order 

to create the strongest text possible. For example, an expository essay may 

be about a personal topic, with the purpose to explain or inform the audience 

about that personal topic. 

Writers use research in expository writing to support and elaborate upon their 

explanation of a topic. Research may come from a secondary source, such as 

an article on the Internet or a news story, or from a primary source, such as 

an in-person interview or an observation. This information, when correctly 

incorporated into writing, strengthens the writer’s argument and solidifies 

his/her authority with the audience. 

Good writers follow this process to create effective written texts: 

C Prewriting includes clarifying the purpose for writing; identifying possible 

audiences; developing a thesis; identifying, organizing, and considering 

the relevance of known information; and determining the need for further 

research. After gathering information, the writer selects and develops 

major ideas, relevant reasons, supporting examples, and details. Then, the 

writer focuses the topic by considering whether the content is relevant, 

interesting, and meaningful to both the writer and audience. 

C Drafting involves generating a text that presents a coherent and smooth 

progression of ideas, includes supporting details and explanations, 

incorporates source materials as appropriate, and reaches a satisfactory 

conclusion. At this time, the writer also makes stylistic choices with 

language (e.g., word choice, sentence and paragraph organization and 

structure) to achieve intended effects. You may write multiple drafts during 

this step, each time building upon your ideas. 

C Revision requires evaluating the draft for clarity of focus, progression of 

ideas, development, organization, and appropriateness of conclusion 

in order to identify areas requiring further invention and research. The 

writer also evaluates stylistic choices with an awareness of purpose and 

audience. 

C Editing for conventions of standard written English, including grammar and 

mechanics (for example, spelling, capitalization, punctuation), is the final 

step in preparing your text for publication. 

SpringBoard® English Textual Power Level 3 


© 2010 College Board. all rights reserved. 

Previewing the Unit 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: close Reading, Graphic Organizer, KWL 

chart, Marking the text, Summarizing/Paraphrasing, think-Pair-Share 

Essential Questions 

1. What defines a hero? 

2. How do visual images enhance or create meaning? 

Unit Overview and Learning Focus 

Predict what you think this unit is about. Use the words or phrases 

that stood out to you when you read the Unit Overview and the 

Learning Focus. 

Embedded Assessment 1 

What knowledge must you have (what do you need to know) to succeed 

on Embedded assessment 1? What skills must you have (what must you 

be able to do)? 

Activity 

1.1 

Unit 1 • The Challenge of Heroism

Activity 

1.2 Challenges Word Wall 

AcAdeMic vocABulAry 

Diction refers to the writer’s 

choice of words and use of 

language. 

vocabulary Word 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Quickwrite, think Aloud, 

think-Pair-Share, Word Map 

Diction refers to word choice. Choose words in your Vocabulary 

notebook and on the Word Wall when you speak and write about 

challenges. 

Word Map 

definition: Synonyms: 

My experience with this concept: 

i haven’t really thought about this concept: 

i have only thought about this concept in 

Language arts class: 

i have applied this concept in other classes: 

i have applied this concept outside of school: 

SpringBoard® English Textual Power level 3 

Graphic representation (literal or symbolic) 

My level of understanding: 

i am still trying to understand this concept: 

i am familiar with this concept, but i am not 

comfortable applying it: 

i am very comfortable with this concept and 

i know how to apply it: 

i could teach this concept to another classmate: 

© 2010 College Board. all rights reserved.


List three personal challenges you will (or will choose to) face this year. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

For each challenge, list at least three steps you must take in order to 

meet this challenge successfully. 

challenge 1 challenge 2 challenge 3 

1. 1. 1. 

2. 2. 2. 

3. 3. 3. 

Quickwrite: What do you see as the most significant challenges facing 

the world, this country, and your community? 

Portfolio: Use your “challenges” brainstorming to decorate your 

Working Folder and Portfolio. Write the word Challenge large in the 

center of the folder cover. Place your brainstormed images, words, and 

phrases on the front of the folder. Follow your teacher’s guidelines to 

complete this assignment. 

Activity 1.2 

continued 

unit 1 • The Challenge of Heroism

Activity 

1.3 Tone: Word Sort 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Graphic Organizer, visualizing, 

Word Map 

Using the list at the right, fill in each box below with at least seven 

other words that have the same or similar denotation or meaning as 

the words below. The connotations may differ. 

SpringBoard® English Textual Power Level 3 

anxious sentimental 

sharp candid 

upset jittery 

mirthful morose 

boring mournful 

hesitant apprehensive 

joyful incensed 

agitated despondent 

sincere aromatic 

afraid elated 

poignant still 

outspoken pungent 

reeking scented 

composed lugubrious 

frank jovial 

irritated fretful 

placid odorous 

joking ecstatic 

unbiased enraged 

exultant tranquil 

peaceful jubilant 

blunt forthright 

vexed woeful 

serene livid 

soothing perfumed 

redolent desolate 

giddy fragrant 

infuriated fetid 



Understanding tone in prose and poetry can be challenging because 

the reader doesn’t have the speaker’s actual voice to help interpret 

meaning and attitude. instead, readers must depend on the nuances 

and connotations of words. To misinterpret tone is to misinterpret 

meaning. 

Find the eight words from the list on the previous page that do not fit 

in the tone word boxes and write them below. Create a category that 

fits the words. 

analyze the passage below and choose one of the tone words from the 

previous page that you think best describes the tone. Highlight the 

phrases or words that suggest the tone. 

Yikes. Why me? I never asked to be editor. I’ve only been on the 

newspaper staff for a year. I can’t be editor. The rest of the staff won’t 

listen to me. I won’t be able to deal with all those deadlines and what 

about the advertiser? I’m not sure I can handle the pressure. I feel 

overwhelmed just thinking about it. I like to write and read, but lead 

and edit seems like a different world. What am I going to do? 

Activity 1.3 

continued 

Literary terms 

tone is a writer’s or 

speaker’s attitude 

toward the subject. 

Unit 1 • The Challenge of Heroism

Activity 

1.4 

My Notes 

Emotional and Physical Challenges 

SUGGESTED LEaRNiNG STRaTEGiES: Marking the text, Notetaking, 

think-Pair-Share, tP-cAStt 

5 

10 

15 

P o e t r y 

10 SpringBoard® English Textual Power Level 3 

A b o u t t h e A u t h o r 

Nina Cassian was born in Romania in 1924 and now lives 

in New York City. She has written more than 50 volumes 

of work, including poetry, fiction, and books for children. 

Cassian is also a journalist, film critic, and composer of 

classical music. 

by Nina Cassian 

While fighting for his country, he lost an arm 

And was suddenly afraid: 

“From now on, I shall only be able to do things by halves. 

I shall reap half a harvest. 

I shall be able to play either the tune 

or the accompaniment on the piano, 

but never both parts together. 

I shall be able to bang with only one fist 

on doors, and worst of all 

I shall only be able to half hold 

my love close to me. 

There will be things I cannot do at all, 

applaud for example, 

at shows where everyone applauds.” 

From that moment on, he set himself to do 

everything with twice as much enthusiasm. 

And where the arm had been torn away 

a wing grew. 



Now use TP-CaSTT to examine Nina Cassian’s “a Man.” 

t – title: Think about the title before you read the poem. What do you 

think the poem might be about? 

P – Paraphrase: Read the poem and paraphrase parts of it you find 

difficult (put it into your own words). Examine the punctuation for clues 

about who is speaking and the idea expressed. 

c – connotation: Highlight words or phrases you see as significant. 

Think about their connotations. What ideas and feelings do you 

associate with the words? 

A – Attitude: What is the speaker’s attitude toward the situation? 

S – Shifts: are there shifts in speakers? in other words, does the person 

speaking change within the poem? Or does the attitude of the speaker 

change anywhere in the poem? if so, draw a line where the shift occurs 

and explain the shift in the My Notes section. 

t – title: Look at the title again. How have your ideas about the 

meaning of the title changed? 

t – theme: What is the poet saying? What is the overall message or 

theme of the poem? 

Activity 1.4 

continued 

Unit 1 • The Challenge of Heroism 11

Activity 1.4 

continued 

Grammar &UsaGe 

Put quotation marks 

around words and phrases 

you take directly from the 

poem to show that you are 

quoting verbatim. 

Emotional and Physical Challenges 


Working in pairs, read the poem, “Moco Limping.” Use the TP-CaSTT 

strategy and the questions below to examine it carefully. 

t – title: Think about the title before you read the poem. What do you 

think the poem might be about? 

P – Paraphrase: Put into your own words parts of the poem you find 

difficult. Examine punctuation for clues about who is speaking and the 

ideas expressed. 

c – connotation: Highlight words you see as significant, even if you 

don’t know them. What ideas or feelings are associated with the words 

or phrases you have chosen? 

A – Attitude: What is the speaker’s attitude toward the situation? 

S – Shifts: are there shifts in speaker? Shifts in attitude? Draw a line 

where you see a shift. 

t – title: Look at the title again. How have your ideas about the 

meaning of the title changed? 

t – theme: What is the author saying? What is his comment on his 

subject? What is the overall message or theme of the poem? 

Writing Prompt: Think back to the discussion regarding challenges, then 

write a personal response to “Moco Limping.” Can you relate personally 

to the challenges faced by Moco and his owner? Why or why not? 

Explain using words and phrases from the poem. Notice how words and 

phrases from the poem are incorporated in the following example: 

I’ve never had a dog that was a “brutal hunter” or even a “rickety 

little canine” like Moco. My dogs have all been lovable mutts who 

liked to chase balls and run away from me when I called them. 

But I can relate to the feel of his “warm fur” and his eyes that “cry 

out with life.” My dog, Rex, looks at me with the saddest brown 

eyes when I leave him. But he is always eager to see me when I 

come home in the evening, and I love rubbing my face on his soft 

furry ears. So I understand the speaker’s affection for his dog even 

though he is crippled. 



P o e t r y 

by David Nava Monreal 


David Nava Monreal’s short stories have been published 

in Seguaro and The Bilingual Review. He has also 

published the books The New Neighbor and Other Stories, 

Choosing Sides, and The Epic Novel. Monreal grew up in 

California’s central valley. 

My dog hobbles with a stick 

of a leg that he drags behind 

him as he moves. 

And I was a man that wanted a 

beautiful, noble animal as a pet. 

I wanted him to be strong and 

capture all the attention by 

the savage grace of his gait. 

I wanted him to be the first dog 

howling in the pack, 

the leader, the brutal hunter 

that broke through 

the woods with thunder. 

But, instead he’s 

this rickety little canine 

that leaves trails in the dirt 

with his club foot. 

He’s the stumbler that trips while 

chasing lethargic bees and butterflies. 

It hurts me tosee him so 

abnormal, so clumsy and stupid. 

My vain heart weeps knowing he is mine. 

But then he turns my way and 

looks at me with 

eyes that cry outwith life. 

He jumps at me with 

his feeble paws. 

I feel his warm fur 

and his imperfection is 

forgotten. 

5 

10 

15 

20 

25 

My Notes 

Activity 1.4 

continued 


Activity 

1.5 

Facing Challenges 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Graphic Organizer 

October Sky is based on a true story. it was 1957 in a coal mining town 

in West Virginia. Most boys went into the coal mines as soon as they 

graduated from high school. it was expected. it was tradition. it was a 

dangerous job that often meant an early death. 

One boy, Homer Hickam, Jr., dared to go beyond the expected, thanks 

in part to his teacher, Miss riley. Over the objection of his father, he 

persevered to win a national science fair, a college scholarship, and 

most importantly, a life out of the coal mine as a rocket scientist for 

naSa. 

Watch each clip and consider how each scene reflects a particular 

challenge for Homer. Take notes on a different aspect during each 

viewing. 

Scene 

Trying out for 

the football 

team 

Building a 

rocket 

What challenges 

does Homer face? 


What action does 

Homer take in 

response to the 

challenge(s)? 

What’s the end 

result? 

How would a 

different choice 

have affected the 

outcome? 



Scene 

First flight 

Change of 

career plans 

He didn’t start 

the fire 

Trouble at the 

science fair 

What challenges 

does Homer face? 

What action does 

Homer take in 

response to the 

challenge(s)? 

thesis Statement: Write a thesis statement about Homer’s challenges 

and his reactions to those challenges. 

What’s the end 

result? 

Activity 1.5 

continued 

How would a 

different choice 

have affected the 

outcome? 


Activity 

1.6 

AcAdEmic vocABulAry 

A definition essay is writing 

that explains, or defines, 

what a topic means. 

Defining Heroic Qualities 

SUGGESTED LEARninG STRATEGiES: drafting, marking the draft, 

think-Pair-Share, Word map 

16 SpringBoard® English Textual Power level 3 

1. Generate a list of adjectives to describe qualities of a heroic person. 

When you write a definition essay, you can use these strategies of 

definition: 

• Paragraphs using the function strategy demonstrate how the 

concept functions or operates in the real world. 

• Paragraphs using the example strategy use examples to help the 

reader understand your definition. These examples often come 

from texts. 

• Paragraphs using the negation strategy explain what something 

is by showing what it is not. Using negation helps to contrast your 

definition with others’ definitions. 

2. Writing Prompt: Respond to the Essential Question: What defines a 

hero? Use all three definition strategies in your response, and use 

examples from texts you have encountered in this unit. 



Heroes in Action 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Group Discussion, Notetaking, 

Quickwrite, Summarizing/Paraphrasing 

Anticipation Guide 

read the following statements. Mark each blank with either an A if you 

agree with the statement or a D if you disagree with the statement. 

Go with your first instinct or gut reaction and try not to linger on your 

decisions. When you complete the questionnaire, you will share your 

decisions with a classmate. 

1. all heroes are brave. 

2. Heroes are created by the events around them. 

3. Most people have a hero. 

4. You cannot be defeated and still be considered a hero. 

5. in order to be a true hero, a person would have to risk his or 

her life. 

6. if all you want is fame and glory, then regardless of what you 

do, you should not be called a hero. 

7. all heroes are human. 

8. real-life heroes are not like the heroes we read about in 

books or watch in movies. 

9. Heroes are always handsome or beautiful. 

10. if you perform one heroic deed, then you are a hero. 

11. Heroes are always famous. 

12. i know a person whom i consider a hero. 

13. Heroic deeds happen every day, all around us. 

14. Heroes must face tragedy. 

15. Heroes never return to normal life. 

16. Heroes are always adults. 

Activity 

1.7 


Activity 1.7 

continued 

Before Reading 


Brainstorm a list of events or challenges or situations in which an 

ordinary person might act heroically. 

Quickwrite: Write about an event that involved someone acting 

heroically. This may be an event from your brainstormed list, an event 

that you saw personally, or one that you have heard or read about. 

Perhaps it is an event that you saw on the news or depicted in a movie. 

Write about the most important aspects of the event. (What was the 

event? Who did it involve? When did it happen? Where did it occur? 

Why is it an important event? How did it involve heroism?) 

During Reading 

as you read the following article, take notes in the My notes section 

on the 5 Ws and an H questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why, and 

How. Paraphrase the facts of the article, rather than quoting passages 

verbatim. Your How? note should answer the question “How can the boy 

be considered a hero?” 

remember, paraphrasing a text requires care. When you paraphrase, 

you must use different language and sentence structure. if a paraphrase 

is a word-for-word match to the original text or so close that it is 

difficult to tell the difference, it could be called plagiarism. 




A r t i c l e 

Love triumphs: 

6-year-Old Becomes 

a Hero to Band of 

toddlers, Rescuers 

Hurricane Katrina - Tense days lead to reunion of kids and 

their moms 

by Ellen Barry 

LoS anGELES TiMES 

Baton Rouge, L.A. – In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, 

this group of evacuees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the 

road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed 

him around as if he were their leader. They were holding hands. Three 

of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only 

diapers. A 3-year-old girl had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 

6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he said his name was Deamonte 

Love. After their rescue Thursday, paramedics in the Baton Rouge 

rescue operations headquarters tried to coax their names out of them. 

Transporting the children alone was “the hardest thing I’ve ever 

done in my life, knowing that their parents are either dead” or that they 

had been abandoned, said Pat Coveney, a Houston emergency medical 

technician who put them into the back of his ambulance and drove 

them out of New Orleans. “It goes back to the same thing,” he said. 

“How did a 6-year-old end up being in charge of six babies? 

At the rescue headquarters, the children ate cafeteria food and fell 

into a deep sleep. Deamonte gave his address, his phone number, and 

the name of his elementary school. He said the 5-month-old was his 

brother, Darynael, that two others were his cousins, Tyreek and Zoria. 

The other three lived in his apartment building. The children were 

clean and healthy, said Joyce Miller, a nurse who examined them. It was 

clear, she said, that “time had been taken with those kids.” The baby was 

“fat and happy.” 

The children were transferred to a shelter operated by the 

Department of Social Services, rooms full of toys and cribs where 

mentors from the Big Buddy Program were on hand. For the next two 

days, the staff did detective work. One of the 2-year-olds steadfastly 

refused to say her name until a worker took her picture with a digital 

camera and showed it to her. The little girl pointed at it and cried out, 

My Notes 

W 

W 

W 

W 

W 

H 

Activity 1.7 

continued 


Activity 1.7 

continued 

My Notes 


“Gabby!” One of the boys—with a halo of curly hair—had a G printed 

on his T-shirt when he arrived; when volunteers started calling him G, 

they noticed that he responded. Deamonte began to give more details 

to Derrick Robertson, a 27-year-old Big Buddy mentor: How he saw his 

mother cry when he was loaded onto the helicopter. How he promised 

he’d take care of his brother. 

Later Saturday night, they found Deamonte’s mother, who was in 

a shelter in San Antonio along with the four mothers of the other five 

children. Catrina Williams, 26, saw her children’s pictures on a Web 

site set up over the weekend by the National Center for Missing and 

Exploited Children. By Sunday, a private plane from Angel Flight was 

waiting to take the children to Texas. 

In a phone interview, Williams said she is the kind of mother who 

doesn’t let her children out of her sight. What happened on Thursday, 

she said, was that her family, trapped in an apartment building, began 

to feel desperate. The water wasn’t going down and they had been living 

without light, food or air conditioning for four days. The baby needed 

milk and the milk was gone. So she decided they would evacuate by 

helicopter. When a helicopter arrived to pick them up, they were told 

to send the children first and that the helicopter would be back in 25 

minutes. She and her neighbors had to make a quick decision. It was a 

wrenching moment, Williams’ father, Adrian Love, told her to send the 

children ahead. 

“I told them to go ahead and give them up because me, I would give 

my life for my kids. They should feel the same way,” said Love, 48. 

His daughter and her friends followed his advice. “We did what we 

had to do for our kids because we love them,” Williams said. 

The helicopter didn’t come back. While the children were transported 

to Baton Rouge, their parents wound up in San Antonio, and although 

Williams was reassured that they would be reunited, days passed without 

any contact. On Sunday, she was elated. “All I know is, I just want to see 

my kids,” she said. “Everything else will just fall into place.” 

After Reading 


on separate paper summarize, in three or four sentences, the main 

points of the article (use your 5Ws and H notes). 



Activity 

Historical Heroes 1.8 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Diffusing, KWHL chart, Marking 

the text, Skimming/Scanning, tP-cAStt 

Before Reading 

Fill out the KWHL chart on what you know about the following: 

• American Civil War 

• Abraham Lincoln 

• Frederick Douglass 

Civil War: 

Abraham 

Lincoln: 

Frederick 

Douglass: 

K (What I 

Know) 

W (What I Want 

to know) 

H (How I will 

learn it) 

L (What I 

Learned) 


Activity 1.8 

continued 

Word 

ConneCtions 

Allegory has the Greek 

roots -allo- or -all-, 

meaning “other” and 

-gor- from the words 

marketplace and speaking 

publicly. 

The essential meaning 

of allegory is speaking 

“otherwise” or 

“figuratively.” 

Historical Heroes 

During Reading 


“O captain! My captain!” 

The poem “O Captain! My Captain!” is an example of an allegory. 

Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and 

actions in a narrative have meanings outside the narrative itself. The 

underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, 

and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas such as 

charity, greed, or envy. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a 

literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. 

Whitman wrote this poem as a memorial for Abraham Lincoln after 

his death. 

1. As your teacher reads the poem, mark the text by circling all words 

having to do with a ship or voyage. Also circle the word Captain and 

its synonyms in the poem. 

2. Who is Whitman referring to as the “Captain” of the ship? 

3. What do you think the ship is representative of? 

“Frederick Douglass” 

As your teacher reads this poem, mark the text by circling the words it 

and thing every time they are used in the poem. 

4. What do the words it and thing refer to in the poem? 



P o e t r y 

by Walt Whitman 

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; 

The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is 

won; 

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: 

But O heart! heart! heart! 

O the bleeding drops of red, 

Where on the deck my Captain lies, 

Fallen cold and dead. 

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; 

Rise up—for you the flag is flung— or you the bugle trills; 

For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the 

shores a-crowding, 

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces 

turning; 

Here Captain! dear father! 

This arm beneath your head; 

It is some dream that on the deck, 

You’ve fallen cold and dead. 

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; 

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; 

The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and 

done; 

From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won: 

Exult O shores, and ring O bells! 

But I with mournful tread, 

Walk the deck my Captain lies, 

Fallen cold and dead. 

5 

10 

15 

20 

25 

My Notes 

t 

P 

c 

A 

S 

t 

t 

Activity 1.8 

continued 


Activity 1.8 

continued 

My Notes 

Historical Heroes 

5 

10 

P o e t r y 


A B o u t t h e A u t h o R s 

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) is now considered one of America’s 

greatest poets, but his untraditional poetry was not well 

received during his lifetime. As a young man, he worked as 

a printer and a journalist while writing free-verse poetry. His 

collection of poems, Leaves of Grass, first came out in 1855, and 

he revised and added to it several times over the years. 

Robert Hayden (1913 –1980) grew up in a poor neighborhood of 

Detroit, won a scholarship to college, and became a politically 

active writer. One of his interests was African American history, 

which he explores in some of his poetry. 

by Robert Hayden 

When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this 

beautiful 

and terrible thing, needful to man as air, 

usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all, 

when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole, 1 

reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more 

than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians: 

this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro 

beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world 

where none is lonely, none hunted, alien, 

this man, superb in love and logic, this man 

shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric, 

not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone, 

but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives 

fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing. 

1 diastole, systole: the normal, rhythmic opening and closing of the heart. 



After Reading 

In small groups, use the TP-CASTT strategy to analyze and discuss both 

poems. Write your analysis in the My Notes space or on separate paper. 

Writing Prompt: Using your TP-CASTT notes, write a literary analysis 

paragraph in the space below in which you address the following 

questions. Use textual evidence to support your analysis. 

• What traits do Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass exhibit to 

be considered heroes? 

• How does the tone of either poem support the perception of 

Lincoln or Douglass as a hero? 

Activity 1.8 

continued 


Activity 

1.9 

Word 

ConneCtions 

The Greek prefix arch- in 

archetype means “chief” 

or “principal” or “first.” 

This prefix is also found in 

archaic, archeology, and 

archive. 

The Greek root -type, 

meaning “impression” 

or “type,” also occurs in 

typical and stereotype. 

The Challenge of the Hero’s Journey 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Graphic Organizer, Revisiting 

Prior Work, think Aloud, Paraphrasing, Word Map 

1. Define stereotype: 


2. Is there a stereotypical hero? 

An archetype is a character, symbol, story pattern, or other element 

that is common to human experience across cultures and that occurs 

frequently in literature, myth, and folklore. 

3. How are the ideas of stereotype and archetype different? How are 

they similar? 



4. According to Joseph Campbell, the hero’s journey can be called 

archetypical because all heroes’ journeys follow a similar pattern. 

Following are what Campbell considers the key elements of such a 

journey. Think about different heroes’ stories you have encountered, 

and look for connections between their story and this outline. Your 

teacher will give you some notes and examples as you discuss each 

category. Restate in your own words each stage of the hero’s journey. 

StEPS 

Activity 1.9 

Stage 1: Departure In Your Own Words Notes/Examples 

the call to Adventure: The 

future hero is first given 

notice that his or her life is 

going to change. 

Refusal of the call: The 

future hero often refuses to 

accept the Call to Adventure. 

The refusal may stem from a 

sense of duty, an obligation, 

a fear, or insecurity. 

the Beginning of the 

Adventure: This is the point 

where the hero actually 

begins the adventure, 

leaving the known limits 

of his or her world and 

venturing into an unknown 

and dangerous realm where 

the rules and limits are 

unknown. 

continued 


Activity 1.9 

continued 

StEPS 

The Challenge of the Hero’s Journey 

Stage 2: Initiation In Your Own Words Notes/Examples 

the Road of trials: The road 

of trials is a series of tests, 

tasks, or challenges that the 

hero must undergo as part 

of the hero’s transformation. 

Often the hero fails one or 

more of these tests, which 

often occur in threes. 

the Experience with 

Unconditional Love: During 

the Road of Trials, the hero 

experiences unconditional 

love and support from 

a friend, mentor, family 

member. This love often 

drives the hero to continue 

on the journey, even when 

the hero doubts him/herself. 

the Ultimate Boon: The goal 

of the quest is achieved. All 

the previous steps serve 

to prepare and purify the 

person for this step. 




StEPS 

Activity 1.9 

Stage 3: Return In Your Own Words Notes/Examples 

Refusal of the Return: When 

the goal of the adventure has 

been accomplished, the hero 

may refuse to return with the 

boon or gift, either because the 

hero doubts the return will bring 

change, or because the hero 

prefers to stay in a better place 

rather than return to a normal 

life of pain and trouble. 

the Magic Flight: The hero 

experiences adventure and 

perhaps danger as he or she 

returns to life as it was before 

the adventure. 

Rescue from Without: Just 

as the hero may need guides 

and assistants on the quest, 

oftentimes he or she must have 

powerful guides and rescuers 

to bring him or her back to 

everyday life, especially if the 

hero has been wounded or 

weakened by the experience. Or, 

perhaps the hero doesn’t realize 

that it is time to return, that he 

or she can return, or that others 

need his or her gift. 

the crossing, or Return 

threshold: At this final point in 

the adventure, the hero must 

retain the wisdom gained on the 

quest, integrate that wisdom 

into his or her previous life, and 

perhaps decide how to share 

the wisdom with the rest of the 

world. 

continued 


Activity 

1.10 The Refusal of the Call 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Graphic Organizer, Summarizing 

Your teacher will show film clips illustrating a hero’s journey. Use the 

graphic organizer below or separate paper to take notes. 

title of Film: Summary of Scene: 

connection to the “Refusal of the call” Outcome if the call is never accepted: 

Other Examples: 




The Road of Trials 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Diffusing, Drafting, Graphic 

Organizer, Notetaking 

Read the story of Odysseus and the Cyclops. Complete the organizer 

with adjectives that describe Odysseus. Note details from the story that 

support your descriptions. 

Physical Characteristics: Mental Characteristics: 

Social Characteristics: Moral Characteristics: 

Trials/Challenges Faced: 

Activity 

1.11 


Activity 1.11 

continued 

My Notes 


N a r r a t i v e 

A b o u T T h e A u T h o r 

Homer is the traditionally accepted author of two famous epic 

poems, the The Iliad and the The Odyssey. No biography of 

Homer exists, and scholars disagree about whether he was the 

sole author or whether Homer was a name chosen by several 

writers who contributed to the works. Some scholars believe 

that the poems evolved through oral tradition over a period of 

centuries and are the collective work of many poets. 

From 

by Homer 

Translation by Tony Kline 

BOOk IX: 152–192 

Odysseus Tells His Tale: THe CyClOps’ Cave 

Looking across to the land of the neighboring Cyclopes, 1 we could 

see smoke and hear their voices, and the sound of their sheep and 

goats. Sun set and darkness fell, and we settled to our rest on the shore. 

As soon as rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, I gathered my men 

together, saying: “The rest of you loyal friends stay here, while I and my 

crew take ship and try and find out who these men are, whether they 

are cruel, savage and lawless, or good to strangers, and in their hearts 

fear the gods.” 

With this I went aboard and ordered my crew to follow and loose 

the cables. They boarded swiftly and took their place on the benches 

then sitting in their rows struck the grey water with their oars. When we 

had reached the nearby shore, we saw a deep cave overhung with laurels 

at the cliff ’s edge close to the sea. Large herds of sheep and goats were 

penned there at night and round it was a raised yard walled by deep-set 

stones, tall pines and high-crowned oaks. There a giant spent the night, 

1 Cyclopes: one-eyed giants 

32 springBoard® english Textual power Level 3 



one that grazed his herds far off, alone, and keeping clear of others, lived 

in lawless solitude. He was born a monster and a wonder, not like any 

ordinary human, but like some wooded peak of the high mountains, 

that stands there isolated to our gaze.’ 

Bk IX: 193–255 

Odysseus Tells His Tale: pOlypHemus reTurns 

‘Then I ordered the rest of my loyal friends to stay there and guard 

the ship, while I selected the twelve best men and went forward. I 

took with me a goatskin filled with dark sweet wine that Maron, son 

of Euanthes, priest of Apollo guardian god of Ismarus, had given me, 

because out of respect we protected him, his wife and child. He offered 

me splendid gifts, seven talents of well-wrought gold, and a silver 

mixing-bowl: and wine, twelve jars in all, sweet unmixed wine, a divine 

draught. None of his serving-men and maids knew of this store, only 

he and his loyal wife, and one housekeeper. When they drank that 

honeyed red wine, he would pour a full cup into twenty of water, and 

the bouquet that rose from the mixing bowl was wonderfully sweet: in 

truth no one could hold back. I filled a large goatskin with the wine, 

and took it along, with some food in a bag, since my instincts told me 

the giant would come at us quickly, a savage being with huge strength, 

knowing nothing of right or law. 

Soon we came to the cave, and found him absent; he was grazing 

his well-fed flocks in the fields. So we went inside and marveled at its 

contents. There were baskets full of cheeses, and pens crowded with 

lambs and kids, each flock with its firstlings, later ones, and newborn 

separated. The pails and bowls for milking, all solidly made, were 

swimming with whey. At first my men begged me to take some cheeses 

and go, then to drive the lambs and kids from the pens down to the 

swift ship and set sail. But I would not listen, though it would have 

been best, wishing to see the giant himself, and test his hospitality. 

When he did appear he proved no joy to my men. 

So we lit a fire and made an offering, and helped ourselves to the 

cheese, and sat in the cave eating, waiting for him to return, shepherding 

his flocks. He arrived bearing a huge weight of dry wood to burn at 

suppertime, and he flung it down inside the cave with a crash. Gripped 

by terror we shrank back into a deep corner. He drove his well-fed flocks 

into the wide cave, the ones he milked, leaving the rams and he-goats 

outside in the broad courtyard. Then he lifted his door, a huge stone, 

and set it in place. Twenty-two four-wheeled wagons could not have 

carried it, yet such was the great rocky mass he used for a door. Then he 

sat and milked the ewes, and bleating goats in order, putting her young 

My Notes 

Activity 1.11 

continued 


Activity 1.11 

continued 

My Notes 



to each. Next he curdled half of the white milk, and stored the whey in 

wicker baskets, leaving the rest in pails for him to drink for his supper. 

When he had busied himself at his tasks, and kindled a fire, he suddenly 

saw us, and said: “Strangers, who are you? Where do you sail from over 

the sea-roads? Are you on business, or do you roam at random, like 

pirates who chance their lives to bring evil to others?” ’ 

Bk IX:256–306 

Odysseus Tells His Tale: Trapped 

‘Our spirits fell at his words, in terror at his loud voice and 

monstrous size. Nevertheless I answered him, saying; “We are 

Achaeans, returning from Troy, driven over the ocean depths by every 

wind that blows. Heading for home we were forced to take another 

route, a different course, as Zeus, 2 I suppose, intended. We are followers 

of Agamemnon, Atreus’ son, whose fame spreads widest on earth, 

so great was that city he sacked and host he slew. But we, for our 

part, come as suppliant to your knees, hoping for hospitality, and the 

kindness that is due to strangers. Good sir, do not refuse us: respect the 

gods. We are suppliants and Zeus protects visitors and suppliants, Zeus 

the god of guests, who follows the steps of sacred travelers.” 

His answer was devoid of pity. “Stranger, you are a foreigner or a fool, 

telling me to fear and revere the gods, since the Cyclopes care nothing 

for aegis-bearing Zeus: we are greater than they. I would spare neither 

you nor your friends, to evade Zeus’ anger, but only as my own heart 

prompted. But tell me, now, where you moored your fine ship, when you 

landed. Was it somewhere nearby, or further off? I’d like to know.” 

His words were designed to fool me, but failed. I was too wise 

for that, and answered him with cunning words: “Poseidon, 3 Earth- 

Shaker, smashed my ship to pieces, wrecking her on the rocks that edge 

your island, driving her close to the headland so the wind threw her 

onshore. But I and my men here escaped destruction.” 

Devoid of pity, he was silent in response, but leaping up laid hands 

on my crew. Two he seized and dashed to the ground like whelps, and 

their brains ran out and stained the earth. He tore them limb from 

limb for his supper, eating the flesh and entrails, bone and marrow, like 

a mountain lion, leaving nothing. Helplessly we watched these cruel 

acts, raising our hands to heaven and weeping. When the Cyclops had 

filled his huge stomach with human flesh, and had drunk pure milk, he 

lay down in the cave, stretched out among his flocks. Then I formed a 

2 Zeus: the king of the gods 

3 Poseidon: god of the sea and of earthquakes 



courageous plan to steal up to him, draw my sharp sword, and feeling 

for the place where the midriff supports the liver, stab him there. But 

the next thought checked me. Trapped in the cave we would certainly 

die, since we’d have no way to move the great stone from the wide 

entrance. So, sighing, we waited for bright day.’ 

Bk IX:307–359 

Odysseus Tells His Tale: Offering THe CyClOps wine 

‘As soon as rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, Cyclops relit the fire. 

Then he milked the ewes, and bleating goats in order, putting her 

young to each. When he had busied himself at his tasks, he again seized 

two of my men and began to eat them. When he had finished he drove 

his well-fed flocks from the cave, effortlessly lifting the huge door 

stone, and replacing it again like the cap on a quiver. Then whistling 

loudly he turned his flocks out on to the mountain slopes, leaving me 

with murder in my heart searching for a way to take vengeance on him, 

if Athene 4 would grant me inspiration. The best plan seemed to be this: 

The Cyclops’ huge club, a trunk of green olive wood he had cut to 

take with him as soon as it was seasoned, lay next to a sheep pen. It was 

so large and thick that it looked to us like the mast of a twenty-oared 

black ship, a broad-beamed merchant vessel that sails the deep ocean. 

Approaching it, I cut off a six-foot length, gave it to my men and told 

them to smooth the wood. Then standing by it I sharpened the end to 

a point, and hardened the point in the blazing fire, after which I hid 

it carefully in a one of the heaps of dung that lay around the cave. I 

ordered the men to cast lots as to which of them should dare to help me 

raise the stake and twist it into the Cyclops’ eye when sweet sleep took 

him. The lot fell on the very ones I would have chosen, four of them, 

with myself making a fifth. 

He returned at evening, shepherding his well-fed flocks. He herded 

them swiftly, every one, into the deep cave, leaving none in the broad 

yard, commanded to do so by a god, or because of some premonition. 

Then he lifted the huge door stone and set it in place, and sat down to 

milk the ewes and bleating goats in order, putting her young to each. 

But when he had busied himself at his tasks, he again seized two of my 

men and began to eat them. That was when I went up to him, holding 

an ivy-wood bowl full of dark wine, and said: “Here, Cyclops, have 

some wine to follow your meal of human flesh, so you can taste the sort 

of drink we carried in our ship. I was bringing the drink to you as a gift, 

hoping you might pity me and help me on my homeward path: 

4 Athene: goddess of wisdom, the arts, and war 

My Notes 

Activity 1.11 

continued 


Activity 1.11 

continued 

My Notes 



but your savagery is past bearing. Cruel man, why would anyone on 

earth ever visit you again, when you behave so badly?” 

At this, he took the cup and drained it, and found the sweet drink 

so delightful he asked for another draught: “Give me more, freely, then 

quickly tell me your name so I may give you a guest gift, one that will 

please you. Among us Cyclopes the fertile earth produces rich grape 

clusters, and Zeus’ rain swells them: but this is a taste from a stream of 

ambrosia and nectar.” ’ 

Bk IX:360–412 

Odysseus Tells His Tale: Blinding THe CyClOps 

‘As he finished speaking I handed him the bright wine. Three times 

I poured and gave it to him, and three times, foolishly, he drained it. 

When the wine had fuddled his wits I tried him with subtle words: 

“Cyclops, you asked my name, and I will tell it: give me afterwards a 

guest gift as you promised. My name is Nobody. Nobody, my father, 

mother, and friends call me.” 

Those were my words, and this his cruel answer: “Then, my gift is 

this. I will eat Nobody last of all his company, and all the others 

before him.” 

As he spoke, he reeled and toppled over on his back, his thick neck 

twisted to one side, and all-conquering sleep overpowered him. In his 

drunken slumber he vomited wine and pieces of human flesh. Then 

I thrust the stake into the depth of the ashes to heat it, and inspired 

my men with encouraging words, so none would hang back from 

fear. When the olivewood stake was glowing hot, and ready to catch 

fire despite its greenness, I drew it from the coals, then my men stood 

round me, and a god breathed courage into us. They held the sharpened 

olivewood stake, and thrust it into his eye, while I threw my weight on 

the end, and twisted it round and round, as a man bores the timbers of 

a ship with a drill that others twirl lower down with a strap held at both 

ends, and so keep the drill continuously moving. We took the red-hot 

stake and twisted it round and round like that in his eye, and the blood 

poured out despite the heat. His lids and brows were scorched by flame 

from the burning eyeball, and its roots crackled with fire. As a great 

axe or adze causes a vast hissing when the smith dips it in cool water to 

temper it, strengthening the iron, so his eye hissed against the olivewood 

stake. Then he screamed, terribly, and the rock echoed. Seized by terror 

we shrank back, as he wrenched the stake, wet with blood, from his eye. 

He flung it away in frenzy, and called to the Cyclopes, his neighbors who 

lived in caves on the windy heights. They heard his cry, and crowding 

in from every side they stood by the cave mouth and asked what was 



wrong: “Polyphemus, what terrible pain is this that makes you call 

through deathless night, and wake us? Is a mortal stealing your flocks, 

or trying to kill you by violence or treachery?” 

Out of the cave came mighty Polyphemus’ voice: “Nobody, my 

friends, is trying to kill me by violence or treachery.” 

To this they replied with winged words: “If you are alone, and 

nobody does you violence, it’s an inescapable sickness that comes from 

Zeus: pray to the Lord Poseidon, our father.” 

Bk IX:413–479 

Odysseus Tells His Tale: esCape 

‘Off they went, while I laughed to myself at how the name and the 

clever scheme had deceived him. Meanwhile the Cyclops, groaning 

and in pain, groped around and labored to lift the stone from the door. 

Then he sat in the entrance, arms outstretched, to catch anyone stealing 

past among his sheep. That was how foolish he must have thought I 

was. I considered the best way of escaping, and saving myself, and my 

men from death. I dreamed up all sorts of tricks and schemes, as a man 

will in a life or death matter: it was an evil situation. This was the plan 

that seemed best. The rams were fat with thick fleeces, fine large beasts 

with deep black wool. These I silently tied together in threes, with 

twists of willow on which that lawless monster, Polyphemus, slept. The 

middle one was to carry one of my men, with the other two on either 

side to protect him. So there was a man to every three sheep. As for me 

I took the pick of the flock, and curled below his shaggy belly, gripped 

his back and lay there face upwards, patiently gripping his fine fleece 

tight in my hands. Then, sighing, we waited for the light. 

As soon as rosy-fingered Dawn appeared, the males rushed out to 

graze, while the un-milked females udders bursting bleated in the pens. 

Their master, tormented by agonies of pain, felt the backs of the sheep 

as they passed him, but foolishly failed to see my men tied under the 

rams’ bellies. My ram went last, burdened by the weight of his fleece, 

and me and my teeming thoughts. And as he felt its back, mighty 

Polyphemus spoke to him: 

“My fine ram, why leave the cave like this last of the flock? You 

have never lagged behind before, always the first to step out proudly 

and graze on the tender grass shoots, always first to reach the flowing 

river, and first to show your wish to return at evening to the fold. Today 

you are last of all. You must surely be grieving over your master’s eye, 

blinded by an evil man and his wicked friends, when my wits were 

fuddled with wine: Nobody, I say, has not yet escaped death. If you only 

My Notes 

Activity 1.11 

continued 


Activity 1.11 

continued 

My Notes 



had senses like me, and the power of speech to tell me where he hides 

himself from my anger, then I’d strike him down, his brains would be 

sprinkled all over the floor of the cave, and my heart would be eased of 

the pain that nothing, Nobody, has brought me.” 

With this he drove the ram away from him out of doors, and I 

loosed myself when the ram was a little way from the cave, then untied 

my men. Swiftly, keeping an eye behind us, we shepherded those 

long-limbed sheep, rich and fat, down to the ship. And a welcome 

sight, indeed, to our dear friends were we, escapees from death, though 

they wept and sighed for the others we lost. I would not let them weep 

though, but stopped them all with a nod and a frown. I told them 

to haul the host of fine-fleeced sheep on board and put to sea. They 

boarded swiftly and took their place on the benches then sitting in their 

rows struck the grey water with their oars. When we were almost out of 

earshot, I shouted to the Cyclops, mocking him: “It seems he was not 

such a weakling, then, Cyclops, that man whose friends you meant to 

tear apart and eat in your echoing cave. Stubborn brute not shrinking 

from murdering your guests in your own house, your evil deeds were 

bound for sure to fall on your own head. Zeus and the other gods have 

had their revenge on you.”’ 



After reading 

In Embedded Assessment 2, you will be asked to create visual 

representations of a text. List six events from the story of the Cyclops 

that would be excellent visual representations of the story as a whole. 

Writing Prompt: Describe how Odysseus is a heroic figure. In your 

response, use words from the Word Wall that describe heroic traits 

or qualities. Include specific evidence from the text to support your 

assertions. 

Activity 1.11 

continued 


Activity 

1.12 

A Different Kind of Heroine 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Graphic Organizer, Notetaking 

It is not typical for an adolescent female to be portrayed as a hero in 

literature. As your teacher shows you selected clips from Mulan, note how 

Mulan’s imperfections lead ultimately to her glory and the honor of her 

family. Take notes on the graphic orgnizer below and on the next page. 

Scene 

Describe Mulan’s 

actions. 

1 Mulan attempts to 

be perfect but fails 

when the cricket 

jumps on the 

matchmaker. 

2 

3 

How does Mulan 

feel about herself? 

Mulan feels she 

has failed and 

dishonored her 

family. 


How do others feel 

about Mulan? 

Others feel Mulan 

is a disgrace. 

Explain which 

stage in the hero’s 

journey this scene 

reflects. 

This scene may 

represent a call to 

adventure because 

it drives Mulan to 

honor her family. 



4 

5 

Writing Prompt: Write a thesis statement explaining whether Mulan’s 

faults help her to become a hero or hinder her. Then, write two to four 

sentences that support your thesis statement with evidence from the film. 

Activity 1.12 

continued 


Activity 

1.13 

Your teacher will assign you specific paragraphs of the article “Woman 

Warrior” to read. Highlight important information, and take notes in 

the My Notes section to become the expert on those paragraphs. Then, 

on this page, summarize the information you decide is most important. 

Remember to put the information in your own words. You will then 

join a group who has not read your paragraphs, and it will be your 

responsibility to teach them your information. They will, in turn, teach 

you the parts that you did not read. 

Paragraphs assigned: 

Summary: 

Creating a Different Kind of Heroine 

SUGGESTED LEaRNiNG STRaTEGiES: Notetaking, Summarizing, 

visualizing 




Take notes below on the information you learn from your classmates 

(you may leave the paragraphs you read blank). 

Paragraphs: 

2 3 

4 5 

6 7 

8 9 

Now read the article on your own. On a separate paper, combine the 

most important information from each paragraph into a summary of the 

entire article. 

Activity 1.13 

continued 


Activity 1.13 

continued 


My Notes A r t i c l e 

Woman Warrior 

& 

Grammar UsaGe 

an appositive is a noun 

or noun phrase that gives 

further detail or explanation 

of the noun next to it. When 

an appositive appears in 

the middle of a sentence, 

it is usually surrounded by 

commas. 

Example: “Meanwhile, 

children’s book author 

Robert San Souci, a 

frequent Disney consultant, 

had suggested that a 

Chinese poem called ‘The 

Song of Fa Mu Lan’ might 

make a good movie.” 


1 

2 

3 

by Corie Brown and Laura Shapiro 

Way off in the distance, barely visible behind a snowy mountain 

range, a million or so raging Huns are bearing down on a brave 

little battalion trying to defend China. The frightened Chinese 

soldiers draw their swords and prepare to die, nobly if possible. 

But a misfit soldier named Ping suddenly gets an idea and rushes 

to fire a cannon at a distant peak. Sure enough, the blast sets off an 

avalanche and the Huns are buried, at least temporarily. “You’re the 

man!” says Ping’s sidekick admiringly. But, glory hallelujah, she 

isn’t. 

Ping is really a girl named Mulan, and “Mulan” is the first 

Disney animated feature to revamp the hardiest conventions of the 

genre, leaving such chirpy predecessors as “The Little Mermaid” 

and “Beauty and the Beast” in the dust. Based on a Chinese legend, 

“Mulan” tells of a girl who’s a failure at all the maidenly arts, 

especially husband hunting. When the emperor drafts her father 

into the Army despite his poor health, she determines to go in his 

place. She cuts her hair, runs off with his armor and sword and ends 

up saving China. But the plot isn’t what sets “Mulan” apart — it’s 

the character. She doesn’t look like a Barbie doll, she doesn’t dream 

about a prince and she certainly doesn’t hang around waiting to be 

rescued. The conflict that drives her is about honor, not romance: 

how can she be a dutiful Chinese daughter and still be true to 

herself? In the most radical twist of all, Mulan doesn’t rely on magic 

to solve her problems. She sweats her way through basic training 

until she gets good and strong, and when she faces an enemy too 

big to fight she outsmarts him. Love? Just at the very end. And it’s 

he, not she, who has some waking up to do. 

“Mulan” wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. The movie 

originated nearly a decade ago as a dimwitted short called “China 

Doll,” meant to go directly to video without stopping in theaters. 

It was about a miserable Chinese girl who struggles against 

oppression until a British Prince Charming whisks her away to 

happiness in the West. None of Disney’s first-string animators 

would have anything to do with it. But before it could be produced, 



“Beauty and the Beast” came out and made box-office history as the 

first animated feature since “Snow White” to draw audiences of all 

ages. Disney promptly scoured the studio for more such projects, 

even “China Doll.” Meanwhile, children’s book author Robert San 

Souci, a frequent Disney consultant, had suggested that a Chinese 

poem called “The Song of Fa Mu Lan” might make a good movie. 

So the “China Doll” team, now the “Mulan” team, began trying to 

patch together the two Chinese tales. “Mulan started out in the 

groove of Belle and Mermaid, with a ton of attitude,” says Chris 

Sanders, story editor on “Mulan.” “The whole point of the first draft 

was for Mulan to get the guy.” 

What saved “Mulan” was its lack of studio status. Everyone on 

the team came from the lower rungs of Disney’s hierarchy. Barry 

Cook, who co-directed the movie with Tony Bancroft, had directed 

only two animated shorts; Bancroft had been the supervising 

animator for the wart hog Pumbaa in “The Lion King.” Pam Coats, 

one of the few women in Disney’s animation leadership, had just 

begun to make shorts when she was tapped for “Mulan.” And 

they were all housed at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in 

Orlando, Fla., some of them sitting in glass cubicles, where they 

doubled as a tourist attraction. The Florida studio had never even 

produced a full-length picture. The big movies came from Disney’s 

Burbank, Calif. Studio, where the A-team animators were busy 

on “Hercules” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” “They didn’t 

pay much attention to us, because ‘Hercules’ was going to be the 

blockbuster,” says Bancroft. “So we did whatever we wanted.” 

At first they tried to respect Disney’s favorite formula for girl 

movies: beautiful rebel seeks love. But it was all wrong for Mulan. 

The character they were assembling was too angry, too flirtatious, 

and much too Western; the whole team hated her. After two years, 

they got permission to throw her out and start over. This time they 

made it clear that though Mulan has a crush, love wouldn’t blossom 

until after the closing credits. “In the end we had to guard against 

even the hint of a romance, or the whole thing didn’t work,” says 

Sanders. Coats took the job of Mulan’s bodyguard: she made sure 

there was no cleavage. Coats also had to ride herd on the episode 

in which the Army captain discovers Mulan is a girl. In an early 

version, Mulan’s feminine etiquette gives her away, and he rips off 

her disguise. Coats fought hard for a less humiliating scenario. “All 

these men couldn’t see that this was a violation for women,” she 

says. “We couldn’t watch that.” 

4 

5 

My Notes 

Activity 1.13 

continued 


Activity 1.13 

continued 

My Notes 



6 

7 

8 

“Mulan” was five years in production — longer than any 

other Disney animated film — pushing its cost to more than 

$100 million, on the high end for such movies. Once the underdog, 

it’s now a blockbuster-in-waiting. “To me, the film changed when 

I heard the music for the first time,” says Cook. “Man, this didn’t 

feel like the movie we made in the garage anymore.” According to 

Disney, audiences at test screenings rank the film up there with 

“The Lion King.” But Disney chairman Michael Eisner won’t 

celebrate until the movie opens, the lines form, and the dollar signs 

fall into place. “We know we have the little girls,” he says. “I want 

to know about the 12-year-olds.” And the boys, the teens, and the 

adults. Little girls aren’t enough to make a blockbuster, and Disney 

animation hasn’t had a smash hit in several seasons. “Pocahontas” 

made about $140 million in the United States, but “Hunchback” 

and “Hercules” each hovered at about $100 million, and the 

merchandise grew dusty on store shelves. At the animation studio’s 

annual retreat last year in Vermont, they dubbed the problem 

the “sincerity” issue. Disney has so often overhyped its animated 

features that the public is getting cynical. 

So promotion has been relatively restrained this time. 

According to Dick Cook, head of marketing and distribution at 

Disney Studios, they are taking down the noise level by at least 

25 percent with “Mulan.” No Central Park premiere, no shutting 

down Times Square, fewer ads, less merchandise. The toys and 

McDonald’s tie-ins, which in recent years were pushed out way 

ahead of the opening to crank up anticipation, are only now 

starting to appear. And the first ads were aimed at adults, not 

children. “If we had gone young early, we’d never get the older 

audience,” says Dick Cook. The splashiest promo will be an ice 

show on ABC-TV the week before the premiere, with Olympic 

medalist Michelle Kwan skating to the music of “Mulan.” “You can’t 

believe the ratings for ice skating,” says Cook. 

But when it comes to selling kids on “Mulan,” Disney isn’t 

taking any chances. The TV ads aimed at children are divvied 

up by gender, and stereotypes rule. Shows with a big audience of 

boys get ads featuring action/war/thundering Huns; it’s not even 

completely clear in these excerpts that Mulan is a girl. Shows that 

attract girls get more of the emotional, father-daughter scenes. The 

toys, too, revert to formula. Coats says she tried to convince Mattel 

that Mulan deserved a body of her own, not Barbie’s. But the toy 

company refused to create a whole new body model. Finally Coats 

unearthed a slightly less curvaceous Mattel doll — Midge — and 



persuaded the company to use her. But it hurt to compromise. “We 

lost that one,” says Coats. 

They won hands down with the movie, though. “Mulan” is 

terrific. A fine cast of voices is headed by Ming-Na Wen (“The Joy 

Luck Club”) as Mulan and Lea Salonga as her singing voice. 

B. D. Wong is Shang, the Army captain, with Donny Osmond 

singing the part; and Eddie Murphy slashes through any hint of 

piety in the film by playing Mulan’s sidekick — a crafty pint-size 

dragon named Mushu — with audacious jibe and wit. 

The effective background music is by Jerry Goldsmith, and the 

exhilarating songs are by Matthew Wilden and David Zippel. But 

it’s the characterization of Mulan, both in voice and visuals, that 

makes the film a keeper. Unique among Disney’s animated heroines 

she has a genuinely complex personality; in fact, she’s got more 

substance than most of the female characters in live-action movies. 

(As a revolutionary, she’s far more believable than Halle Berry’s 

character in “Bulworth,” and she has a lot more to say for herself.) 

It’s great to see a girl saving China, but it’s even more satisfying to 

see a girl picking and choosing among emblems of masculinity. 

Physical strength, yes; refusal to show emotions, no. After Mulan 

has vanquished the Huns, the emperor bows in gratitude to the 

young girl who has outwitted China’s enemies. Huge crowds in the 

Imperial City start to cheer. And plenty of women in the audience 

will want to jump up and cheer along with them. 

9 

10 

My Notes 

Activity 1.13 

continued 


Activity 

1.14 

An Everyday Hero 

SUGGESTED LEArNING STrATEGIES: Drafting, Marking the text, 

Notetaking, Word Map 

Piece One — by Ana’s son, Adam 

There are many things that scare us; often it is only a temporary fear, 

the kind of fear that fades a few moments later. Such is the case with 

horror films, or skydiving, and other such things. However, there are 

many things that truly scare us; the events and conditions in our lives 

that not only make our hearts race with fear, but days later still keep us 

awake at night and shorten our breath whenever we think of them for 

years to come. 

My mother lives with one such condition. Through no fault of her own, 

she has cancer. It is simply something that happened, and it is killing 

her. What surprises me, however, is that although I know she is afraid, 

she fights this lethal disease every moment of every day, and she does 

it with a smile. Not only that, but she hasn’t let it slow her down either; 

she engages in many of the activities that she did before the infection, 

even if it drains her of her strength. My mother fights for her life every 

day. She fights against nature itself not only for herself, but to be there 

for all those she loves, and who love her. She is an inspiration to us all, 

for she is a real hero. 

Piece Two — by Ana’s daughter, Monica 

When I was twelve, I was told my mother was diagnosed with cancer. 

I knew that she had gone through it before, but I couldn’t understand 

why it was in our lives again. Many say that everything in your life, good 

or bad, happens for a reason, but sometimes you can’t see why. 

I was young and selfish. I thought that this wasn’t fair, that it couldn’t 

happen. I still do at times, but now, years later, I’ve learned that even 

the bad things that happen in your life should be embraced. It is the bad 

things that help us grow and become our own person. I do not consider 

myself a strong person, standing next to my mother. 

My mother is my creator, my life. Even through her pain she is at times 

in a better mood than I am in after a bad day. A bad day to me consists 

of a bad morning and a bad hair day. But next to my mother, I know she 

would give up anything to have that be her worst day. Day after day, my 

mother gets up with a smile and still has the strength to be a mother 

to me. She is my counselor, my teacher, and my best friend, even 

through her pain. I know I’m young, but I know I will never catch up to 

my mother’s faith. She is my idol; I see her through new eyes every day. 

She is the person I look to for the strength to never give up. 




Piece Three — by Ana’s daughter, Rebekah 

A Demon Unlike Any Other 

A hero can be a savior, a fighter, or a mother changing her child’s 

diaper. 

In my case it is a mother, who goes through thick and thin, 

And never tells her children to give up for a win. 

“Keep going, keep going,” she preached aloud, like a giant guardian 

angel above the roaring crowd. 

I was only three when it attacked her, a demon unlike any other. 

We were so scared it would never fall or bend. 

Even though chances were slim, she would keep on fighting till the 

very end. 

Thirty then and forty now, and still we wonder how, she would deal with 

it for so long and still be going strong. 

Activity 1.14 

continued 


Activity 1.14 

continued 

Piece Four — by Ana’s husband, George 

Dear Ana, 

I never really thought much about what a hero is. Men brought up in 

our culture are taught to believe that a hero rides horseback, has a very 

large sombrero, two pistols, a shotgun, doesn’t listen to anybody, and 

has a very thick accent. But when I met you that changed and I didn’t 

even notice. Now I know that you are a hero. 

A hero gives hope. You make everyone feel that things are going to be 

okay. I admire how you react when people ask the question, “How are 

you doing?” You don’t talk about the sleepless nights, the unending 

pain, the constant fatigue, difficulty breathing, or the chemotherapy 

that makes you feel worse that the cancer does. Invariably you muster a 

smile and say, “I’m doing ok.” 

A hero understands. When people want to know how things are, you 

understand that many of them don’t want to know how your therapy 

is affecting our family life, they want assurances that events will turn 

out for the best, that life will stay predictable. You always give them 

comfort; people feel better after talking to you. You know that the only 

ones that can understand your situation are people that also deal with 

cancer. However, when the innocent ask about your condition, you make 

them feel that they comprehend what all of us deal with every day. 

A hero is admired for his/her strength, courage, and determination. 

Everyone who knows you admires the strength it takes to keep 16 

ounces of the white Barium solution down. The courage to see several 

doctors a week to wait for sometimes disappointing news about the 

cancer. You are determined to make sure that Monica and rebekah 

get their schoolwork done, get to the dance academy, and are ready 

to teach their Sunday school class. Adam gets to work and makes it to 

his classes with your help, and somehow I always have a clean shirt for 

work the next day. 

You are a hero. You are an extraordinary person involved in 

extraordinary events who makes our life as normal as possible. 

Love you, 

George 





Take notes from the four selections about Ana, citing quotations that 

reveal heroic traits. Three pieces are written by Ana’s children and the 

other is written by her husband. The relationships influence the voices; 

note specific words and phrases that show voice and individual feelings 

about Ana. Also take notes on the specific heroic traits each family 

member values in her. These may be implied, not directly stated. Use a 

copy of the following guide for notetaking on each of the selections. 

Notetaking Guide 

Activity 1.14 

continued 

Name of author and relationship to Ana: Words/phrases that indicate voice or tone and 

the author’s feelings about Ana: 

Quotations that portray Ana as a hero: Heroic traits reflected in quotations: 

create two or three sentences below incorporating a quotation, heroic trait, and commentary 

explaining why or how Ana is a hero. you will use this in your essay. 


Activity 1.14 

continued 


After considering the many aspects of this hero, use your notes to draft 

a paragraph using the example definition strategy. Plan and revise your 

paragraph with a writing group. 

1. First, in your writing group, draft a topic sentence to guide your 

paragraph. Your topic sentence should be a statement about why Ana 

can be considered heroic. 

2. Draft your own paragraph using the topic sentences your group 

created. Provide specific evidence from a variety of texts to support 

it. Incorporate direct quotations smoothly and properly into your 

paragraph, and provide commentary to explain the significance of the 

information in the quotation. 

3. Take turns sharing your paragraphs with your writing group. Provide 

feedback and revision suggestions for effectively incorporating 

quotations into text. 




Writing a Definition Essay 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Drafting, Graphic 

Organizer, Revising 

Assignment 

Your assignment is to write a multi-paragraph essay that defines your 

concept of heroism. You will use various strategies of definition (definition 

by function, example, and negation) to explain your unique opinion on the 

concept. 

Steps 

Prewriting/Planning 

1. revisit your responses to the Essential Question: What defines a hero? 

You may ask yourself, “To what extent or to what degree can a person or 

an action be heroic?” 

2. next, categorize your ideas on the graphic organizer by the strategies of 

definition, and brainstorm details that will support your ideas. Details 

may come from texts (fiction, nonfiction, film), your own experiences, and 

historical or current society. 

Heroism 

Embedded 

Assessment 1 

continued 

How does it function? What are some examples? 

What is it not? 


Embedded 

Assessment 1 

continued 


Drafting 

3. introduce your ideas by providing a hook, context, and a thesis (your 

ideas should move from general to specific). One way to draw your 

reader into the essay is to use a quotation related to the concept. To 

contextualize your thesis, you might discuss commonly held beliefs 

about heroism that do not match your definition. This allows you to point 

out the weaknesses in those definitions in comparison to yours. 

4. Use a variety of definition strategies to define heroism as you draft the 

body paragraphs of your essay. Consider organizing each paragraph 

around a different strategy. remember: 

C Paragraphs using the function strategy demonstrate how heroism 

functions or operates in the real world. 

C Paragraphs using the example strategy use examples to help the 

reader understand your definition. These examples often come from 

texts. 

C Paragraphs using the negation strategy explain what something is by 

showing what it is not. Using negation helps to contrast your definition 

with others’ definitions. 

5. Draft a conclusion that leaves the reader with a final impression about 

your definition. The conclusion of a definition essay often ends by 

focusing on the question: “So what?” it encourages the reader to accept 

the definition you presented. 

Revising 

6. after you have written an initial draft of your essay, go back to your 

thesis. Does your definition reflect your unique opinion? is your thesis 

clearly stated in the introduction of your essay? 

7. Continue to revise your essay to make sure you have effectively used 

various strategies of definition. Using more than one strategy of 

definition allows you to use a wide range of examples. Can your reader 

relate to your examples? Do you use enough examples to help the reader 

understand your unique point of view? 

8. Consult the Scoring Guide to ensure that you have met specific criteria. 

Editing for Publication 

9. Carefully edit your final draft for punctuation and language conventions. 




Scoring 

criteria 

ideas The concept of heroism 

is uniquely and clearly 

defined. 

ScORinG GUiDE 

Embedded 

Assessment 1 

continued 

Exemplary Proficient Emerging 

Three strategies of 

definition are skillfully 

employed (definition by 

function, example, and 

negation). 

a variety of relevant 

details from text, personal 

experience, and/or 

historical or current society 

richly enhance the writer’s 

definition. all commentary 

convincingly develops the 

thesis. 

Organization The writer skillfully 

structures the essay with 

an engaging introduction 

containing an insightful 

thesis, well-developed body 

paragraphs, and a powerful 

conclusion. 

Use of 

Language 

Writing is smooth, skillful, 

and coherent throughout 

the essay. 

Diction is sophisticated and 

appropriate for an academic 

audience. 

conventions Writing is virtually errorfree. 

The writer uses 

proper punctuation and 

capitalization to smoothly 

embed quotations into text. 

The concept of heroism is 

adequately defined. 

Two strategies of definition 

are employed (definition 

by function, example, or 

negation). 

relevant details from text, 

personal experience, and/or 

historical or current society 

are used to support the 

writer’s definition. Most 

commentary develops the 

thesis. 

The writer structures the 

essay with an introduction 

containing a clear thesis, 

developed body paragraphs, 

and a thoughtful conclusion. 

Writing is smooth and 

coherent throughout most 

of the essay. 

Diction is appropriate for an 

academic essay. 

Writing is generally errorfree. 

The writer uses 


capitalization to embed 


The concept of heroism is 

minimally defined. 

One strategy of definition 

is employed (definition by 

classification, function, 

example, negation). 

relevant details from 

text, personal experience, 

and/or historical or current 

society may be present, 

but they lack or may not 

be concrete enough to give 

a full understanding of the 

concept. Commentary does 

not develop the thesis or 

may be missing. 

The organization of the 

essay is confusing and the 

essay may be missing one 

or more of the following: an 

introduction with a thesis, 

developed body paragraphs, 

or an adequate conclusion. 

Writing is incoherent 

throughout the essay. 

Diction is repetitive, vague, 

or inappropriate for an 

academic essay. 

Writing contains errors that 

distract from meaning. at 

times, the writer attempts 


capitalization to incorporate 



Embedded 

Assessment 1 

continued 

Scoring 

criteria 

Evidence 

of Writing 

Process 

Additional 

criteria 

Comments: 


ScORinG GUiDE 


There is extensive evidence 

that the essay reflects the 

various stages of the writing 

process. 


There is evidence that the 

essay reflects stages of the 

writing process. 

There is little or no 

evidence that the essay has 

undergone stages of the 

writing process. 



Learning Focus: 

Applying the Archetype to Text 

Think back to the fairy tales that you read, watched, or heard as a child. 

These may include the rags-to-riches story, the misunderstood character 

whose value or power is revealed later, or the journey of a character to obtain 

something in which trials must be overcome. What you were witnessing in 

those stories was an archetype, deliberately used by authors or screenwriters 

for specific purposes. The word archetype derives from the Greek arkhetupos, 

with arkhe- meaning “primitive” and tupos meaning “a model.” Therefore, an 

archetype is an original model or pattern from which later copies are made. 

Archetypes can be found in many literary elements. An archetypal setting 

has some common aspect that is associated by most people with a particular 

experience. For example, a desert setting is associated with a spiritual 

journey through which the character experiences some divine vision. Other 

examples of archetypal settings include the ocean, the underground, and the 

wilderness. Archetypal characters exemplify a common experience as well. 

For example, the temptress character intentionally attracts men to tragedy 

through her beauty. Other examples of archetypal characters include the 

damsel in distress, the witch, the visionary, and the mentor. 

Archetypes can also be applied to gain a deeper understanding of plot. 

The journey of the hero—in all of its various forms—is the basis of many 

plots. Analysis of some of these archetypes can help you connect plot to the 

author’s message, or theme: 

C the search for identity 

C the journey in search of knowledge 

C the pursuit of vengeance 

C the quest for love 

C the mission to save one’s people. 

You have already been introduced to the archetype of the Hero’s Journey 

earlier in this unit. Now you will apply that archetype to analyze print and 

nonprint texts. 


Activity 

1.15 

Word 

ConneCtions 

Utopia has the Greek 

prefix ou- (spelled u here), 

which means “not,” and 

the Greek root -top-, which 

means “place.” 

The root -top- is also found 

in topography, topiary, and 

topic. 

Reading Utopia 

SUGGESTED LEARninG STRATEGiES: Diffusing, Marking the text, 

Metacognitive Markers, Quickwrite, Skimming/Scanning, think Aloud 


Thomas More’s Utopia, originally published in 1516, tells the story of a 

fictional island called Utopia. Raphael, the character who describes the 

customs, politics, and beliefs, thinks the Utopians’ way of life is ideal. 

He addresses many of the challenges of society and explains how the 

Utopians handle these challenges. 

On the next page you will find an excerpt from Utopia. This text may 

seem difficult, but your teacher will read aloud and model the process 

of a think aloud to show you how to make meaning from difficult texts. 

After reading, answer these questions: 

1. Does this excerpt match the dictionary definition of utopia? Explain. 

2. What challenges/problems do you think existed in More’s society 

that he is attempting to address in his Utopia? How does he resolve 

those challenges in his Utopia? 

3. Quickwrite: Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of More’s 

utopian society. Use separate paper. 

4. What would a perfect society look like today? 



N o v e l 


Thomas More (1478–1535) was a politician and writer in the 

court of Henry Viii of England. When he refused to accept the 

king as the head of the new English Church, he was tried and 

executed. The title of his book Utopia, written in 1516, has 

come to refer to any supposedly perfect society. 

From 

by Thomas More 

OF THEiR TRADES, AnD MAnnER OF LiFE 

Agriculture is that which is so universally understood among them 

that no person, either man or woman, is ignorant of it; they are instructed 

in it from their childhood, partly by what they learn at school, and partly 

by practice, they being led out often into the fields about the town, where 

they not only see others at work but are likewise exercised in it themselves. 

Besides agriculture, which is so common to them all, every man has some 

peculiar trade to which he applies himself; such as the manufacture of 

wool or flax, masonry, smith’s work, or carpenter’s work; for there is no 

sort of trade that is not in great esteem among them. Throughout the 

island they wear the same sort of clothes, without any other distinction 

except what is necessary to distinguish the two sexes and the married 

and unmarried. The fashion never alters, and as it is neither disagreeable 

nor uneasy, so it is suited to the climate, and calculated both for their 

summers and winters. Every family makes their own clothes; but all 

among them, women as well as men, learn one or other of the trades 

formerly mentioned. Women, for the most part, deal in wool and flax, 

which suit best with their weakness, leaving the ruder trades to the men. 

The same trade generally passes down from father to son, inclinations 

often following descent; but if any man’s genius lies another way he is, by 

adoption, translated into a family that deals in the trade to which he is 

inclined; and when that is to be done, care is taken, not only by his father, 

but by the magistrate, that he may be put to a discreet and good man: and 

if, after a person has learned one trade, he desires to acquire another, that 

is also allowed, and is managed in the same manner as the former. When 

he has learned both, he follows that which he likes best, unless the public 

has more occasion for the other. 

My Notes 

Activity 1.15 

continued 

& 

Grammar UsaGe 

A double negative is 

the nonstandard use 

of two negatives in the 

same sentence so that 

they cancel each other 

and create a positive. 

in Thomas More’s day, 

double negatives were 

used for emphasis, but 

today they are considered 

a grammar mistake. 

Example: “…for there is 

no sort of trade that is not 

in great esteem among 

them.” 


Activity 

1.16 Precise Words 

Word 

ConneCtions 

The word precise contains 

the Latin prefix prae- 

(spelled pre-), meaning 

“before” or in front of,” 

and the Latin root -cis-, 

with the meaning of “cut.” 

The Latin form praecis- 

means “cut short.” 

The root -cis- is found 

in other words with the 

meaning of “cut,” such as 

scissors, incisor, concise, 

decisive. 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Quickwrite, visualizing, 

Word Map 

1. in Chapter 1 of The Giver, much importance is given to using the 

precise word. Jonas is careful about which word he would use to 

describe his feelings about the ceremony in which he will participate 

during December. List the words Jonas considers but finally rejects. 

Word Jonas Considers Meaning of the Word 

2. What word does Jonas finally select? 

3. What does it mean? 


4. Jonas’s friend asher is not as careful in his diction. in Chapter 1, 

asher uses the word , which means 

, when he really 

means , which means 

. 



5. Your teacher will read two situations to you. You are provided with 

some words that might describe your feelings about each situation. 

in the charts below, arrange the words in order from least precise to 

most precise: 

Situation A Situation B 

mad, annoyed, livid, angry, upset, furious happy, pleased, exultant, glad, content, delighted 

1. 1. 

2. 2. 

3. 3. 

4. 4. 

5. 5. 

6. 6. 

6. Why is precise diction — or the lack of it — important to the story? 

7. Why is it important to use precise diction? 

Activity 1.16 

continued 


Activity 

1.17 Reading the Opening 

Film Terminology 

Framing 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Graphic Organizer, visualizing, 

Word Map 

Shot: a single piece of film, uninterrupted by cuts. 

Long shot (LS): a shot from some distance (also called a full shot). a 

long shot of a person shows the full body. it may suggest the isolation 

or vulnerability of the character. 

Medium shot (MS): The most common shot. The camera seems to be a 

medium distance from the object being filmed. a medium shot shows a 

person from the waist up. 

close-up shot (cU): The image being shot takes up at least 80 percent 

of the frame. 

Extreme close-up shot (EcU): The image being shot is a part of a 

whole, such as an eye or a hand. 

camera Angles 

Eye level: a shot taken from a normal height, that is, the character’s 

eye level; 90 to 95 percent of the shots seen are eye level because it is 

the most natural angle. 

High angle: The camera is above the subject. This angle usually has the 

effect of making the subject look smaller than normal, giving him or her 

the appearance of being weak, powerless, or trapped. 

Low angle: The camera shoots the subject from below. This angle 

usually has the effect of making the subject look larger than normal, 

and therefore, strong, powerful, or threatening. 

Lighting 

High key: The scene is flooded with light, creating a bright and openlooking 

scene. 

Low key: The scene is flooded with shadows and darkness, creating 

suspense or suspicion. 

Neutral: neither high key nor low key — even lighting in the shot. 




Film Terminology Template 

Directors use different kinds of framing to achieve different effects. 

Using the information on your Film Terminology sheet, make 

drawings with different kinds of framing. Think about the effect each 

might achieve. 

Long Shot Medium Shot 

Why might a director use a long shot? Why might a director use a medium shot? 

Close-Up Extreme Close-Up 

Activity 1.17 

continued 

Why might a director use a close-up? Why might a director use an extreme close-up? 


Activity 1.17 

continued 

Reading the Opening 

as your teacher shows you the opening sequence of a film, take notes 

on the chart. 

What framing is used to film the alien? 

(LS, MS, cU, EcU) 

What framing is used to film the humans? 

(LS, MS, cU, EcU) 

What angles are used to film the aliens? 

(eye level, high angle, low angle) 

What angles are used to film the humans? 

(eye level, high angle, low angle) 


Framing 

Angles 

Why do you think the director chose 

this framing? 


this framing? 


these angles? 


these angles? 



What kind of lighting is used? 

(high key, low key, neutral) 

Lighting 

Why do you think the director used 

this kind of lighting? 

Activity 1.17 

continued 


Activity 1.17 

continued 

AcAdEMic vOcABULAry 

Nonprint text includes 

fiction and nonfiction films, 

videos, audio, and other 

visual media. 

Reading the Opening 


Tone, the speaker’s, author’s, or director’s attitude toward the subject, 

is communicated in nonprint as well as in print text. Brainstorm words 

that describe attitude that might help you answer the questions 

that follow. 

Tone for ET Tone for The Giver 

1. What is the tone of the opening sequence of E.T.? 

2. Choose one of the film techniques (it does not have to be the one 

about which you were an expert) and explain how it helps to set the 

tone of the opening sequence. 

Spielberg’s use of helps to set a 

tone for the opening sequence of E.T. by… 

3. Does the opening sequence of E.T. make you want to watch the rest 

of the film? Explain. 

4. now visualize the opening paragraphs of The Giver. What is the tone 

of these paragraphs? 



5. What words, phrases, and images set this tone? 

6. imagine that you are the director of a film version of The Giver. How 

would you use film techniques to set this same tone? 

character(s) or Object(s) 

Being Filmed 

character(s) or Object(s) 

Being Filmed 

Framing 

What kind of framing 

would you use? 

Camera Angles 

What camera angles 

would you use? 

Lighting 

What kind of lighting would you use? Why? 

7. What about the opening paragraphs of The Giver makes you want to 

read the rest of the novel? Explain. 

Why? 

Why? 

Activity 1.17 

continued 


Activity 

1.18 

Babies and Birthdays 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Graphic Organizer, Prewriting, 

Notetaking, Word Map 

In Chapters 2 and 3 of The Giver, you discover information about the 

way families are made and the way birthdays are celebrated in Jonas’s 

society. Look through the chapters for information about the customs 

regarding babies and birthdays and list them in the left column. Directly 

across from each piece of information, list the customs with which you 

are familiar. Be sure that the information you document in the right 

column directly corresponds with the idea or concept in the left column. 

These are called parallel differences. One has been done for you. 

How Families Are Created 

Jonas’s Society Our Society 

How Birthdays Are Celebrated 


Everyone celebrates their birthday on the same 

day, in December. 


People celebrate their birthdays on the 

anniversary of the day they were born. 



You can see that the two societies have similarities and differences. 

Write a paragraph comparing or contrasting either the way Jonas’s 

society and our society create families or the way Jonas’s society and 

our society celebrate birthdays. 

Think about how to organize a compare/contrast paragraph. Two ways 

to organize the points of comparison are by subject and by feature. 

Subject-by-subject: Discuss the customs of one society 

first and then discuss the customs of the other society. 

Jonas’s society 

birthday customs 



Our society 

birthday custom 



Feature-by-feature: Go back and forth in your 

discussion of the two societies, comparing and 

contrasting each custom. 

Birthday custom 


Our society 



Our society 



Our society 

Remember to use transition words to help your reader follow your 

ideas. Some transition words for comparison are: 

also in the same way likewise similarly furthermore 

Some transition words for contrast are: 

yet however in contrast but instead 

Activity 1.18 

continued 

Grammar &UsaGe 

When using quoted 

material as textual 

evidence, you must cite the 

page number of the quoted 

material in parentheses 

following the quote. This 

is called a parenthetical 

citation. When this citation 

comes at the end of the 

sentence, place the page 

number in parentheses 

after the end quotation 

marks, and directly before 

the period or end mark. 


Activity 

1.19 

Define characterization: 

Characterization 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Graphic Organizer, 

think-Pair-Share 

Review Chapters 1–5 of The Giver. Then complete the characterization 

graphic organizer for Jonas. Use textual evidence to support each 

element of characterization. 

His actions 

His appearance 

His thoughts 

His words 

What others say about 

him/how others 

treat him 

What challenges does Jonas face? 

characterization of Jonas 

Analysis Textual Evidence 

Look back at Jonas’s actions. Would you describe any of his actions as 

heroic? Explain. 




Activity 

The Circle of Life 1.20 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Drafting, Graphic Organizer, 

Prewriting, Skimming/Scanning, Notetaking, Looping 

Finding a mate, welcoming babies, and mourning deaths are all part 

of the circle of life. Every culture has its own ways of handling these 

passages. Compare the way Jonas’s society handles the circle of life to 

the way our society does. Remember to identify parallel differences. 

Finding a Mate 

creating a Family 

Mourning Deaths 



Activity 1.20 

continued 

Comparing Circles 

The Circle of Life 

Now that you have examined the way Jonas’s society and our society 

handle the circle of life, brainstorm the pros and cons of each. 

Finding a Mate 

creating a Family 

Mourning Deaths 


Pros cons Pros cons 

Writing Prompt: Write two well-developed paragraphs arguing that one 

society, ours or Jonas’s, handles the circle of life better. Support your 

argument with textual evidence. Use correct compare/contrast structure 

and transitions in your writing. 

When you have completed your draft, exchange with a partner and 

determine whether your partner’s organization is consistent. Then, 

highlight one sentence from each paragraph that could benefit from 

more detail or commentary (explanation). Return papers and revise the 

highlighted areas. 




In Chapter 8 of The Giver, Jonas is selected to be the next Receiver of 

Memory. The Chief Elder lists five attributes that are essential for the 

Receiver of Memory. List those attributes and evidence from the novel 

that Jonas possesses them. 

1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

Essential Attributes 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Graphic Organizer, Quickwrite, 

Skimming/Scanning 

Essential Attributes for the 

Receiver of Memory 

Textual Evidence That Jonas 

Possesses These Attributes 

Quickwrite: What does the Chief Elder say about the last Receiver 

of Memory? What do you think happened? How do you think the 

attributes you listed above will assist Jonas in his new position of 

Receiver of Memory? 

Visual Representation of 

Attribute 

Activity 

1.21 


Activity 

1.22 

Discussion Questions: 

Rules in Society 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Discussion Groups, Notetaking, 

Quickwrite 

1. Are all rules and/or laws necessary? Why or why not? 

2. Are all rules and/or laws fair to all people? Why or why not? 

3. What happens to people who do not follow rules and/or laws? Explain. 

4. Are all consequences fair? Why or why not? 

5. Can rules and/or laws be changed? Why or why not? 



© 2010 college board. All rights reserved. 

Coming to Your Senses 

SUGGeSTeD LeArNING STrATeGIeS: Diffusing, visualizing, 

Word Map 

P o s t c a r d 


carl Nelson (1898–1988) was a noted artist and teacher. 

His photo appears on most editions of The Giver. At 

71, he bought a piece of land and settled in a house on 

Great cranberry Island in maine. That year he sent this 

christmas postcard to his friends. 

December, 1969 

by Carl Nelson 

My Notes 

Sight 

Sound 

Taste 

Activity 

1.23 

In May, after close to half a century of teaching, I retired and moved 

from Boston to this island of unique design located just off the coast 

Smell 

of Mt. Desert Island, Maine, where I have purchased a house and eight 

acres of woodland and meadow reaching to the shore, though the house 

itself is situated on the main road and easy of access at all seasons. The 

island’s name is Cranberry, one of a group of five, and well-earned, since 

even my own meadow provides me with delicious highland cranberries. 

With a garden, studio and wood stove, I shall lack neither pleasure nor 

occupation, and books and music will round out the day. A wood lot 

Touch 

will provide firewood and muscle tone, and the garden flowers and 

vegetables for my table. To watch the day progress from morning till 

darkness takes over, and to follow the seasons as they change from the 

lush flowering of wild pear in May to the opulence of summer and then 

move on to yellow tamarack and wild rose hedges of burnt orange and 

finally take rest in a cover of pure white under dark evergreens will 

surely be a cycle of full measure. The deer pay almost daily visits and the Touch 

voracious appetites of the chickadees know no bounds. They are both 

good neighbors. I shall be cutting my own Christmas tree for the first 

time. In excellent health I am looking forward to retirement as a very 

exciting adventure. Please note my new address—and please use it: 

Carl Nelson, Tosh Park, Cranberry Isles, Maine 04625. 


Activity 1.23 

continued 

Coming to Your Senses 

visualization: Using sensory details from “The Heartiest of Season’s 

Greetings,” illustrate Nelson’s imagery in a visual representation of 

life on cranberry Island. Use color, and label your visual details with 

Nelson’s words from the text. Do this on a separate sheet of paper. 

Writing Prompt: Write a reflective paragraph explaining your choices 

of color and detail within your visualization. Analyze how carl Nelson 

conveys a particular tone through his use of sensory details. How did 

you convey this same tone in your visualization? 


© 2010 college board. All rights reserved.


Activity 

Marking the Text 1.24 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: close Reading, Marking the 

text, Rereading 

1. As you read Chapter 18 in The Giver, create at least two or three 

annotations on each page you are assigned. You will write your 

annotations on sticky notes. In your annotations, reflect on things that 

you feel strongly about or that you are confused about at this point. 

Below are suggestions for annotations: 

• Question the text. 

– Ask questions to clarify: “What does this mean?” or “Why does 

(character) do this?” 

– Ask questions to analyze or interpret the text (Level 2 

questions). 

– Ask questions to explore universal, thematic ideas presented in 

the text (Level 3 questions). 

• Form personal responses to the text. 

– “I can tell that…” 

– “This reminds me of…” 

– This makes me feel . . .” 

• interpret the text. 

– Explain a character’s motivation for saying or doing something. 

– Explain the importance of the setting to the action in the story. 

– Comment on the significance of a character’s action or words. 

2. Note at least four words in the chapter that are italicized. Decide why 

these words are italicized, and include that information on sticky 

notes in the margin. 

3. How did this process of marking/annotating affect the way you read 

the chapter? Did you have to read any part of the chapter more 

than once? 


Activity 

1.25 

Evolution of a Hero 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Drafting, Graphic Organizer, 

think-Pair-Share, Looping 

Review your Characterization graphic organizer from Activity 1.22. 

Based on your reading of the novel thus far, complete the 

characterization graphic organizer below, using textual evidence to 

support your analysis. 

His actions 

His appearance 

His thoughts 

His words 

What others say about 

him/how others 

treat him 

characterization of Jonas 

Analysis Textual Evidence 

Look back at Jonas’s actions. Would you describe any of his actions as 

heroic? Explain. 

Writing Prompt: Write a well-developed paragraph comparing and 

contrasting Jonas from the beginning of the novel until now. Be sure 

to support your argument with textual evidence, and use comparison 

organization and appropriate transitions. Once you have drafted a 

paragraph, exchange your draft with a partner. Evaluate whether your 

partner’s organization is consistent. Highlight one sentence that could 

benefit from more detail or explanation. Return papers and revise the 

highlighted area. 




An Ending to The Giver 

SUGGESTED LEARNING STRATEGIES: Predicting 

Writing Prompt: Jonas has left The Community. What is his fate? What 

information from the story leads you to feel this way? How should this 

story end? 

On this page or a separate piece of paper, compose a letter to Lois 

Lowry, telling her how you interpret the ending of The Giver. Be sure to 

include textual support. You will do this as a 30-minute timed writing. 

At the end of the 30-minute writing period, reread your letter carefully, 

check for proper grammatical structure and punctuation, and revise 

if necessary. 

Activity 

1.26 


AcTiviTy 

1.27 

My Notes 

Author’s Purpose: Lowry’s Newbery 

Acceptance Speech 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Notetaking, Think-Pair-Share, 

Word Map 

S p e e c h 

by Lois Lowry 



as the child of a military officer, Lois Lowry (b. 1937) 

grew up in a number of places. Her work—in a variety of 

styles and on a variety of subjects from humorous to very 

serious—always deals with human connections. She has 

written more than 30 books for young readers, including 

the popular anastasia Krupnik novels. Lowry has won the 

newbery Medal twice—for Number the Stars in 1990 and 

for The Giver in 1994. 

The Newbery Medal is awarded to the author of the most distinguished 

contribution to literature for children published in the United States 

during the preceding year. The Giver won the Newbery Medal in 1994. 

In her acceptance speech, author Lois Lowry explains how her own 

memories inspired ideas for her book. 

“How do you know where to start?” a child asked me once, in a 

schoolroom, where I’d been speaking to her class about the writing of 

books. I shrugged and smiled and told her that I just start wherever it 

feels right. 

This evening it feels right to start by quoting a passage from The 

Giver, a scene set during the days in which the boy, Jonas, is beginning 

to look more deeply into the life that has been very superficial, 

beginning to see that his own past goes back further than he had ever 

known and has greater implications than he had ever suspected. 

… now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. 

He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in 

its slow-moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from 

which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going. 



Every author is asked again and again the question we probably 

each have come to dread the most: HOW DID YOU GET THIS IDEA? 

We give glib, quick answers because there are other hands raised, other 

kids in the audience waiting. 

I’d like, tonight, to dispense with my usual flippancy and glibness 

and try to tell you the origins of this book. It is a little like Jonas looking 

into the river and realizing that it carries with it everything that has 

come from an Elsewhere. A spring, perhaps, at the beginning, bubbling 

up from the earth; then a trickle from a glacier; a mountain stream 

entering farther along; and each tributary bringing with it the collected 

bits and pieces from the past, from the distant, from the countless 

Elsewheres: all of it moving, mingled, in the current. 

For me, the tributaries are memories, and I’ve selected only a few. 

I’ll tell them to you chronologically. I have to go way back. I’m starting 

forty-six years ago. 

In 1948, I am eleven years old. I have gone with my mother, sister, 

and brother to join my father, who has been in Tokyo for two years and 

will be there for several more. 

We live there, in the center of that huge Japanese city, in a small 

American enclave with a very American name: Washington Heights. 

We live in an American style house, with American neighbors, and our 

little community has its own movie theater, which shows American 

movies; and a small church, a tiny library, and an elementary school; 

and in many ways it is an odd replica of a United States village. 

(In later, adult years I was to ask my mother why we had lived 

there instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to live within 

the Japanese community and to learn and experience a different 

way of life. But she seemed surprised by my question. She said that 

we lived where we did because it was comfortable. It was familiar. It 

was safe. 

At eleven years old I am not a particularly adventurous child, nor 

am I a rebellious one. But I have always been curious. 

I have a bicycle. Again and again — countless times — without my 

parents’ knowledge, I ride my bicycle out the back gate of the fence that 

surrounds our comfortable, familiar, safe American community. I ride 

down a hill because I am curious and I enter, riding down that hill, an 

unfamiliar, slightly uncomfortable, perhaps even unsafe — though I 

never feel it to be — area of Tokyo that throbs with life. 

My Notes 

AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 


AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 

My Notes 




It is a district called Shibuya. It is crowded with shops and 

people and theaters and street vendors and the day-to-day bustle 

of Japanese life. 

I remember, still, after all these years, the smells: fish and fertilizer 

and charcoal; the sounds: music and shouting and the clatter of 

wooden shoes and wooden sticks and wooden wheels; and the colors: 

I remember the babies and toddlers dressed in bright pink and orange 

and red, most of all; but I remember, too, the dark blue uniforms of the 

schoolchildren: the strangers who are my own age. 

I wander through Shibuya day after day during those years when 

I am eleven, twelve, and thirteen. I love the feel of it, the vigor and the 

garish brightness and the noise: all of such a contrast to my own life. 

But I never talk to anyone. I am not frightened of the people, who 

are so different from me, but I am shy. I watch the children shouting 

and playing around a school, and they are children my age, and they 

watch me in return; but we never speak to one another. 

One afternoon I am standing on a street corner when a woman 

near me reaches out, touches my hair, and says something. I back 

away, startled, because my knowledge of the language is poor and I 

misunderstand her words. I think she has said, “Kirai-des” meaning 

that she dislikes me; and I am embarrassed, and confused, wondering 

what I have done wrong: how I have disgraced myself. 

Then, after a moment, I realize my mistake. She has said, actually, 

“Kirei-des.” She has called me pretty. And I look for her, in the crowd, 

at least to smile, perhaps to say thank you if I can overcome my shyness 

enough to speak. But she is gone. 

I remember this moment — this instant of communication gone 

awry — again and again over the years. Perhaps this is where the 

river starts. 

In 1954 and 1955 I am a college freshman, living in a very small 

dormitory, actually a converted private home, with a group of perhaps 

fourteen other girls. We are very much alike. We wear the same sort 

of clothes: cashmere sweaters and plaid wool skirts, knee socks, and 

loafers. We all smoke Marlboro cigarettes and we knit — usually argyle 

socks for our boyfriends — and play bridge. Sometimes we study; 

and we get good grades because we are all the cream of the crop, the 

valedictorians and class presidents from our high schools all over the 

United States. One of the girls in our dorm is not like the rest of us. She 

doesn’t wear our uniform. She wears blue jeans instead of skirts, and 



she doesn’t curl her hair or knit or play bridge. She doesn’t date or go to 

fraternity parties and dances. 

She’s a smart girl, a good student, a pleasant enough person, but she 

is different, somehow alien, and that makes us uncomfortable. We react 

with a kind of mindless cruelty. We don’t tease or torment her, but we 

do something worse: we ignore her. We pretend that she doesn’t exist. 

In a small house of fourteen young women, we make one invisible. 

Somehow, by shutting her out, we make ourselves feel comfortable. 

Familiar. Safe. 

I think of her now and then as the years pass. Those thoughts — 

fleeting, but profoundly remorseful — enter the current of the river. 

In the summer of 1979, I am sent by a magazine I am working for 

to an island off the coast of Maine to write an article about a painter 

who lives there alone. I spend a good deal of time with this man, 

and we talk a lot about color. It is clear to me that although I am a 

highly visual person — a person who sees and appreciates form and 

composition and color — this man’s capacity for seeing color goes far 

beyond mine. 

I photograph him while I am there, and I keep a copy of his 

photograph for myself because there is something in his face — his 

eyes — which haunts me. 

Later I hear that he has become blind. 

I think about him — his name is Carl Nelson — from time to time. 

His photograph hangs over my desk. I wonder what it was like for him 

to lose the colors about which he was so impassioned. 

I wish, in a whimsical way, that he could have somehow magically 

given me the capacity to see the way he did. 

A little bubble begins, a little spurt, which will trickle into the river. 

In 1989 I go to a small village in Germany to attend a wedding of one 

of my sons. In an ancient church, he marries his Margret in a ceremony 

conducted in a language I do not speak and cannot understand. 

But one section of the service is in English. A woman stands in the 

balcony of that old stone church and sings the words from the Bible: 

“Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people.” 

How small the world has become, I think, looking around the 

church at the many people who sit there wishing happiness to my son 

and his new wife — wishing it in their own language as I am wishing 

My Notes 

AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 

& 

Grammar UsaGe 

Lois Lowry uses dashes 

to emphasize a point or 

to set off an explanatory 

comment. 

Example: “i think about 

him – his name is Carl 

nelson – from time to 

time.” 


AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 

My Notes 




it in mine. We are all each other’s people now, I find myself thinking. 

Can you feel that this memory too, is a stream that is now entering 

the river? 

Another fragment. My father, nearing 90, is in a nursing home. 

My brother and I have hung family pictures on the walls of his room. 

During a visit, he and I are talking about the people in the pictures. 

One is my sister, my parents’ first child, who died young of cancer. My 

father smiles, looking at her picture. “That’s your sister,” he says happily. 

“That’s Helen.” 

Then he comments, a little puzzled, but not at all sad, “I can’t 

remember exactly what happened to her.” 

We can forget pain, I think. And it is comfortable to do so. 

But I also wonder briefly: is it safe to do that, to forget? That 

uncertainty pours itself into the river of thought which will become 

the book. 

1991. I am in an auditorium somewhere. I have spoken at length 

about my book, Number the Stars, which has been honored with the 

1990 Newbery Medal. A woman raises her hand. When the turn for her 

question comes, she sighs very loudly and says, “Why do we have to tell 

this Holocaust thing over and over? Is it really necessary?” I answer her 

as well as I can — quoting, in fact, my German daughter-in-law, who 

has said to me, “No one knows better than we Germans that we must 

tell this again and again.” 

But I think about her question — and my answer — a great deal. 

Wouldn’t it, I think, playing Devil’s Advocate to myself, make for a 

more comfortable world to forget the Holocaust? And I remember once 

again how comfortable, familiar, and safe, my parents had sought to 

make my childhood by shielding me from Elsewhere. But I remember, 

too, that my response had been to open the gate again and again. My 

instinct had been a child’s attempt to see for myself what lay beyond 

the wall. 

The thinking becomes another tributary into the river of thought 

that will create The Giver. 

Here’s another memory. I am sitting in a booth with my daughter 

in a little Beacon Hill pub where she and I often have lunch together. 

The television is on in the background, behind the bar, as it always is. 

She and I are talking. Suddenly I gesture to her. I say, “Shhh” because 

I have heard a fragment of the news and I am startled, anxious, and 

want to hear the rest. Someone has walked into a fast-food place with 



an automatic weapon and randomly killed a number of people. My 

daughter stops talking and waits while I listen to the rest. 

Then I relax. I say to her, in a relieved voice, “It’s all right. It was in 

Oklahoma.” (Or perhaps it was Alabama. Or Indiana.) 

She stares at me in amazement that I have said such a hideous thing. 

How comfortable I made myself feel for a moment, by reducing 

my own realm of caring to my own familiar neighborhood. How safe 

I deluded myself into feeling. 

I think about that, and it becomes a torrent that enters the flow 

of a river turbulent by now, and clogged with memories and thoughts 

and ideas that begin to mesh and intertwine. The river begins to seek 

a place to spill over. 

When Jonas meets The Giver for the first time, and tries to 

comprehend what lies before him, he says, in confusion, “I thought 

there was only us. I thought there was only now.” 

In beginning to write The Giver, I created, as I always do, in every 

book, a world that existed only in my imagination — the world of 

“Only us, only now.” I tried to make Jonas’s world seem familiar, 

comfortable, and safe, and I tried to seduce the reader. I seduced 

myself along the way. It did feel good, that world. I got rid of all the 

things I fear and dislike: all the violence, prejudice, poverty, and 

injustice; and I even threw in good manners as a way of life because 

I liked the idea of it. 

One child has pointed out, in a letter, that the people in Jonas’s 

world didn’t even have to do dishes. 

It was very, very tempting to leave it at that. 

But I’ve never been a writer of fairy tales. And if I’ve learned 

anything through that river of memories, it is that we can’t live in a 

walled world, in an “only us, only now” world where we are all the 

same and feel safe. We would have to sacrifice too much. The richness 

of color and diversity would disappear. Feelings for other humans 

would no longer be necessary. Choices would be obsolete. 

And besides, I had ridden my bike Elsewhere as a child, and liked 

it there, but had never been brave enough to tell anyone about it. So it 

was time. 

A letter that I’ve kept for a very long time is from a child who has 

read my book called Anastasia Krupnik. Her letter — she’s a little girl 

named Paula from Louisville, Kentucky — says: 

My Notes 

AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 


AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 

My Notes 




“I really like the book you wrote about Anastasia and her family 

because it made me laugh every time I read it. I especially liked 

when it said she didn’t want to have a baby brother in the house 

because she had to clean up after him every time and change his 

diaper when her mother and father aren’t home and she doesn’t like 

to give him a bath and watch him all the time and put him to sleep 

every night while her mother goes to work.” 

Here’s the fascinating thing: nothing that the child describes actually 

happens in the book. The child — as we all do — has brought her own 

life to a book. She has found a place, a place in the pages of a book, that 

shares her own frustrations and feelings. 

And the same thing is happening — as I hoped it would happen — 

with The Giver. 

Those of you who hoped that I would stand here tonight and reveal 

the “true” ending, the “right” interpretation of the ending, will be 

disappointed. There isn’t one. There’s a right one for each of us, and it 

depends on our own beliefs, our own hopes. 

Let me tell you a few endings which are the right endings for a few 

children out of the many who have written to me. 

From a sixth grader: “I think that when they are traveling they 

were traveling in a circle. When they came to Elsewhere it was their 

old community, but they had accepted the memories and all the 

feelings that go along with it …” 

From another: “Jonas was kind of like Jesus because he took the 

pain from everyone else in the community so they wouldn’t have to 

suffer. And, at the very end of the book, when Jonas and Gabe reached 

the place that they knew as Elsewhere, you described Elsewhere as if it 

were Heaven.” 

And one more: “A lot of people I know would hate the ending, 

but not me. I loved it. Mainly because I got to make the book happy. 

I decided they made it. They made it to the past. I decided the past 

was our world, and the future was their world. It was parallel worlds.” 

Finally, from one seventh-grade boy: “I was really surprised that 

they just died at the end. That was a bummer. You could have made 

them stay alive, I thought.” 

Very few find it a bummer. Most of the young readers who have 

written to me have perceived the magic of the circular journey. The 

truth that we go out and come back, and that what we come back to 



is changed, and so are we. Perhaps I have been traveling in a circle, too. 

Things come together and become complete. 

Here is what I’ve come back to: 

The daughter who was with me and looked at me in horror the day 

I fell victim to thinking we were “only us, only now” (and that what 

happened in Oklahoma, or Alabama, or Indiana didn’t matter) was the 

first person to read the manuscript of The Giver. The college classmate 

who was “different” lives, last I heard, very happily in New Jersey 

with another woman who shares her life. I can only hope that she has 

forgiven those of us who were young in a more frightened and less 

enlightened time. 

My son, and Margret, his German wife — the one who reminded 

me how important it is to tell our stories again and again, painful 

though they often are — now have a little girl who will be the receiver 

of all of their memories. Their daughter had crossed the Atlantic three 

times before she was six months old. Presumably my granddaughter 

will never be fearful of Elsewhere. 

Carl Nelson, the man who lost colors but not the memory of them, 

is the face on the cover of the book. He died in 1989 but left a vibrant 

legacy of paintings. One hangs now in my home. 

And I am especially happy to stand here tonight on this platform 

with Allen Say because it truly brings my journey full circle. Allen was 

twelve years old when I was. He lived in Shibuya, that alien Elsewhere 

that I went to as a child on a bicycle. He was one of the other, the 

Different, the dark-eyed children in blue school uniforms, and I was 

too timid then to do more than stand at the edge of their school yard, 

smile shyly, and wonder what their lives were like. 

Now I can say to Allen what I wish I could have then: “Watashi-no 

tomodachi des.” Greetings, my friend. 

I have been asked whether the Newbery Medal is, actually, an odd 

sort of burden in terms of the greater responsibility one feels. Whether 

one is paralyzed by it, fearful of being able to live up to the standards it 

represents. 

For me the opposite has been true. I think the 1990 Newbery freed 

me to risk failure. 

Other people took that risk with me, of course. One was my editor, 

Walter Lorraine, who has never to my knowledge been afraid to take a 

chance. Walter cares more about what a book has to say than he does 

My Notes 

AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 


AcTiviTy 1.27 

continued 

My Notes 



about whether he can turn it into a stuffed animal or a calendar or a 

movie. 

The Newbery Committee was gutsy, too. There would have been 

safer books. More comfortable books. More familiar books. They took 

a trip beyond the realm of sameness with this one, and I think they 

should be very proud of that. 

And all of you, as well. Let me say something to those of you here 

who do such dangerous work. 

The man that I named The Giver passed along to the boy 

knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. 

Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the 

same thing. 

It is very risky. 


But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that 

separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him 

freedom. 

Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things. 

I have been greatly honored by you now, two times. It is impossible 

to express my gratitude for that. Perhaps the only way, really, is to 

return to Boston, to my office, to my desk, and to go back to work in 

hopes that whatever I do next will justify the faith in me that this medal 

represents. 

There are other rivers flowing. 



Alien Escape 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Graphic Organizer, Notetaking, 

visualizing 

With your partner, fill in the two blocks of the Film Techniques chart that 

your teacher assigns. Then, you will work with another pair of students to 

complete the remaining block of the chart. 

Framing (LS, MS, 

cU, EcU) 

camera Angles 

Lighting 

Film techniques 

Activity 

1.28 


Activity 1.28 

continued 

characteristics of the Hero’s 

Journey 

call to Adventure 

Refusal of the call 

Alien Escape 

the Beginning of the Adventure 

the Road of trials 

the Experience with 

Unconditional Love 

the Ultimate Boon 

Refusal of the Return 

the Magic Flight 

Rescue from Without 

the crossing or Return 

threshold 

Hero’s Journey 

Evidence of characteristics in this Film clip 

Departure 

Initiation 

Return 

Prompt: Select one step from each stage and create a visual 

representation that establishes the connection between the film 

and the Hero’s Journey. include captions with your visual 

representations to explain to your audience what is happening. 

Use framing, angles, and color for effect in your visuals. 




Graphic Novels: Visualizing an Incident 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Graphic Organizer, Skimming/ 

Scanning 

Graphic Novel 

by Marjane Satrapi 

My Notes 

Activity 

1.29 


Activity 1.29 

continued 

My Notes 





My Notes 

Activity 1.29 

continued 


Activity 1.29 

continued 

My Notes 





My Notes 

Activity 1.29 

continued 


Activity 1.29 

continued 

My Notes 





My Notes 

Activity 1.29 

continued 


Activity 1.29 

continued 


List the characteristics of graphic novels: 

1. as you read a chapter from Persepolis, revisit your list of graphic 

novel characteristics. add to or revise what you have listed. 

2. What do you know about the iranian revolution? Write two questions 

you have about the iranian revolution. 

3. as directed by your teacher, conduct research to find information 

about the iranian revolution. after you have completed your research, 

revisit the chapter. What makes sense now that previously you 

misunderstood? List five important and relevant facts you found. 

4. Look closely at the way dialogue is displayed in the graphic novel. 

notice the following aspects of dialogue balloons: 

• There are no quotation marks around the dialogue. 

• The dialogue balloons connect to or near the character’s body to 

indicate who is speaking. 

• Dialogue balloons are read from left to right, and from top to 

bottom. This pattern makes clear the order of speakers. 

• To distinguish narration from dialogue, narration is located along 

the top of a cell, not in a balloon. 

5. On a sheet of paper, create a Venn Diagram and compare and 

contrast the effects of telling this story as a graphic novel and in a 

prose format. 




Visualizing an Event in Jonas’s 

Journey 

SUGGESTED LEarninG STraTEGiES: Drafting, Visualizing 

Assignment 

Your assignment is to work with a partner to create a visual representation, 

in the form of a graphic novel, illustrating Jonas’s journey in relationship to 

the Hero’s Journey archetype. You will also write a reflective text analyzing 

how Jonas’ journey fits into the archetypal pattern of the Hero’s Journey 

and explaining the choices you made in creating the graphic novel. You will 

present your graphic novel to the class. 

Steps 

Planning 

1. review samples of graphic novels/comic books you have read in class, 

that you have brought to class, or that have been provided by your 

teacher. review the structural and literary elements of this genre. You 

might wish to list them in a graphic organizer, 

Creating 

2. Connect Jonas’s journey to the hero’s journey archetype. You may or may 

not use all the steps in a stage of the hero’s journey, but you should use 

at least two steps from each stage. 

3. Create a storyboard for Jonas’s journey that consists of approximately 

6–8 scenes or panels (one panel per step). Make sure that your graphics 

accurately represent the steps in the archetypal pattern of the hero’s 

journey. Purposefully use a variety of framing and angle techniques to 

create variety and interest in you graphic novel, and choose color and 

detail that support your purpose. 

4. Create at least one dialogue balloon in each panel to further establish 

the connection to the Hero’s Journey. include relevant and accurate 

quotations from the novel that reflect insights about the journey. You 

may also incorporate quotations from the novel as narrative. 

5. Create a title for your story. 

6. Write a reflective text to accompany your graphic novel. This reflection 

should explain the relationship of Jonas’s journey to the hero’s journey 

in a way that demonstrates your thorough understanding of the concept. 

You should also reflect on the color, detail, and framing and angle 

techniques you used to create your graphic novel. Explain how these 

choices illustrate your ideas about Jonas as an archetypal hero. 

7. Consult the Scoring Guide to ensure that you have met specific criteria. 

Embedded 

Assessment 2 


Embedded 

Assessment 2 

Visualizing an Event in Jonas’s Journey 

Presenting 

8. Present your graphic novel to the class, using ideas from your reflective 

text to explain your interpretation of Jonas as an archetypal hero. 




Scoring 

Criteria 

graphic 

novel 

reflective 

Text 

SCoring gUiDE 

Embedded 

Assessment 2 

continued 


The graphic novel vividly 

demonstrates seven or more 

steps in the hero’s journey. 

The product contains 

visually compelling panels 

that incorporate skillful use 

of color, detailed images 

with effective framing and 

angle techniques, and 

dialogue balloons with at 

least three direct quotations 

from the novel to clearly 

represent steps in the hero’s 

journey. 

The written explanation 

shows an insightful 

understanding of how Jonas 

fits the archetypal pattern 

of the hero’s journey and 

provides a perceptive and 

detailed explanation of the 

color, detail, and framing/ 

angle techniques used. 

Presentation The oral presentation 

is clear, engaging, and 

insightful. 

it shows extensive evidence 

of collaboration and 

planning. 

Additional 

Criteria 

Comments: 

The graphic novel 

demonstrates at least six 


The product contains 

visually appealing panels 

that incorporate thoughtful 

use of color, images with 

purposeful framing and/or 

angle techniques, and 

dialogue balloons with at 

least two direct quotations 

from the novel to clearly 

represent steps in the hero’s 

journey. 


shows a clear understanding 

of how Jonas fits the 

archetypal pattern of the 

hero’s journey and provides 

an adequate explanation 

of the color, detail, and 

framing/angle techniques 

used. 

The oral presentation is 

clear and thoughtful. 

it shows evidence of 

collaboration and planning. 

The graphic novel 

demonstrates five or fewer 


The visual images and 

dialogue balloons are 

incomplete, inaccurate, 

and/or inappropriate and 

may not directly represent 

the steps in the hero’s 

journey. 


shows a limited 

understanding of how Jonas 

fits the archetypal pattern 

of the hero’s journey and 

provides an inadequate 

explanation of the color, 

detail, and framing/angle 

techniques used. 

The oral presentation is 

disorganized and unclear. 

it lacks collaboration and 

planning. 



1 

Reflection 

An important aspect of growing as a learner is to reflect on where you have 

been, what you have accomplished, what helped you to learn, and how you 

will apply your new knowledge in the future. Use the following questions to 

guide your thinking and to identify evidence of your learning. Use separate 

notebook paper. 

Thinking about Concepts 

1. Using specific examples from this unit, respond to the Essential 

Questions: 

• What defines a Hero? 

• How do visual images enhance or create meaning? 

2. Consider the new academic vocabulary from this unit (Diction, Archetype, 

Definition Essay, Nonprint Text, Compare/Contrast, Imagery), and select 

3–4 terms of which your understanding has grown. For each term, answer 

the following questions: 

• What was your understanding of the word before you completed 

this unit? 

• How has your understanding of the word evolved throughout the unit? 

• How will you apply your understanding in the future? 

Thinking about Connections 

3. Review the activities and products (artifacts) you created. Choose those 

that most reflect your growth or increase in understanding. 

4. For each artifact that you choose, record, respond to, and reflect on your 

thinking and understanding, using the following questions as a guide: 

a. What skill/knowledge does this artifact reflect, and how did you learn 

this skill/knowledge? 

b. How did your understanding of the power of language expand through 

your engagement with this artifact? 

c. How will you apply this skill or knowledge in the future? 

5. Create this reflection as Portfolio pages—one for each artifact you 

choose. Use the model in the box for your headings and commentary 

on questions. 

Concept: 

Description of Artifact: 

Commentary on Questions: 


Thinking About Thinking 

Portfolio Entry

Springboard Unit 1 - Teachers.ocps.net

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