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Grade: Middle

#4190. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Reading/Writing, level: Middle
Posted Thu May 1 21:49:09 PDT 2008 by Katie Hurtado (Katie Hurtado).
Oak Avenue , Temple City, CA
Materials Required: copies of Robert Frost poem, overhead, comprehension questions, audio tape of Robert Frost poem, cd
Activity Time: 1-2 periods
Concepts Taught: setting, theme

Objective: Discuss the meaning of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Students will be able to identify the setting and the theme of the poem.
Key Concepts: Setting and theme. Students have prior knowledge of theme and setting. This will be practice and review in preparation for the district benchmark tests.
Into: Journal Topic- Have you ever made a choice that was unpopular? What was the result of making that choice? Did anything happen because you went against the group? Would you make the same choice?
Through: Teacher will read the poem to the class. Then students will listen to the audio version read by the author.
Teacher will highlight or focus on first two lines of the poem. Students will do quick draw of the two roads with person having to pick one. Through drawing students will determine meaning of word diverged. Teacher will directly explain trodden. Students will circle words that relate to the setting of the story. Class will share words they circled to compile master list. Given the list of words, students will identify the setting of the poem.
Beyond: Students will use a complete sentence to share the setting of the poem, attempting to use some of the circled words to defend the choice of the setting (defending ties into the writing focus and prior lessons). Task will be differentiated through sentence starters for at risk students as well as small group discussion with them. Students will then discuss and complete the rest of the comprehension page whole class. Students and teacher will discuss meaning/theme of poem in preparation for following days lesson on theme.
Extension: Students will ask an adult important to their lives about a choice they have made that was not popular. Students will come to school ready to share the information.