Lesson Plan: 9/12/17 Inquiry Based Annotation: Close reading a poem by

questioning

# of Days 1
Prior Knowledge Knowledge of literary devices and poetic structure.
Lesson Objective(s) Students will be able to question a text in order to close read
Lesson Assessment Formative assessment gaged by how students share their
group talk as well as what teacher observes from circulating
Standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.​4-6
Materials Needed Those Winter Sundays--Robert Hayden, horse--Gloria
Anzaldua, hand out with example questions, writing utensils
Differentiated Extra time. One on one work if needed
Instruction

Time Learning Task Methods or Procedures

1.5 Distribute horse/guiding
min question categories
5 min Go over question guide read through the provided
categories, provide explanation
and examples
15 min Model how to question a poem 1. Read through Those Winter
Sundays.
2. Start with immediate questions
about the text and then refer to
question sheet
3. Ask students their immediate
questions
4. Using the guiding question
categories, refer back to the
poem with greater focus on
specifics from the guide.
5. Ask for student input again
6. Ask students to ask a question
specific to a guide. have them
work in pairs or tables to
develop question
7. share

25 min Students close read “horse” 1. Students will first read and
question independently (10)
2. Students will work with table to
create more questions (10)
 3. Students share their questions
with class by writing it on the
board.
4. Discuss the questions (till end of
class)
If Form Thesis Statement Illustrate how you might take a
Time question (from the board) and turn it
into a statement for your paper

Poems Used in Lesson:

horse
(para la gente de Hargill, Texas)

Great horse running in the fields

come thundering toward
the outstretched hands
nostrils flaring at the corn
only it was knives in the hidden hands
can a horse smell tempered steel?

Anoche some kids cut up a horse

it was night and the pueblo slept
the Mexicans mutter among themselves:
they hobbled the two front legs
the two hind legs, kids aged sixteen
but they're gringos
and the sheriff won't do a thing
he'll just say boys will be boys
just following their instincts.

But it's the mind that kills

the animal the mexicanos murmur
killing it would have been a mercy
black horse running in the dark
came thundering toward
the outstretched hands
nostrils flaring at the smell
only it was knives in the hidden hands
did it pray all night for morning?

It was the owner came running

30-30 in his hand
put the caballo out of its pain
the Chicanos shake their heads
turn away some rich father
fished out his wallet
held out the folds of green
as if green could staunch red
pools dripping from the ribbons
on the horse's flanks
could cast up testicles
grow back the ears on the horse's head
no ears of corn but sheaths
hiding blades of steel
earth drinking blood sun rusting it
in that small Texas town
the mexicanos shuffle their feet
shut their faces stare at the ground.

Dead horse neighing in the night

come thundering toward the open faces
hooves iron-shod hurling lightning

only it is red red in the moonlight

in their sleep the gringos cry out
the mexicanos mumble if you're Mexican
you are born old.

by Gloria Anzaldua (from Boderlands/La Frontera)

Those Winter Sundays

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?

by Robert Hayden