Speak

=//Speak//= by Laurie Halse Anderson



=To Consider/Big Ideas=

How do we define who we are? How do others' perceptions of us affect us? How does a person find his/her voice?

How does an author create a distinctive voice?

=Pre-reading=

Introductory Questions/Anticipation Guide
Answer the on lined paper or on the discussion tab. Be ready to discuss your thoughts.

Author Study
Who is Laurie Halse Anderson? media type="youtube" key="Iq_O9kEcJ3w" height="281" width="398" Why did she write //Speak?//

[|Journal about writing Speak] =Connections= Choose one of the following poems to analyze. Read the poem carefully and answer the questions that follow it. Be ready to discuss the poem that you have read. After reading //Speak//, you will be asked to write about how the poem that you have chosen relates to the book.

I’m Nobody! Who are You? By Emily Dickinson

I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us — don't tell! They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!

Discussion Please answer the following quesitons about the poem:

Is the speaker really nobody? What is the speaker’s mood? (Bitter? Playful? Sad?) What is the poem really talking about? Is the desire to be alone always a sign of bad mental health? What are some other reasons for wanting to be alone? When somebody rejects our company, how do we feel? Whose problem is it? Record your initial reaction as well as your thoughts after we have discussed the poem. How did your view of the poem change?

Elephant in the Room (Author unknown)

There’s an elephant in the room. It is large and squatting, so it is hard to get around it. Yet we squeeze by with, “How are you?” and “I’m fine,” and a thousand other Forms of trivial chatter. We talk about the weather. WE talk about work. We talk about everything else, except the elephant in the room.

There’s an elephant in the room. WE all know it’s there. We are thinking about the elephant as we talk together. It is constantly on our minds. For, you see, it is a very large elephant. It has hurt us all.

But we don’t talk about the elephant. Oh, please, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

For if I cannot, then you are leaving me…. Alone…. In a room…. With an elephant.

Please answer the following questions on lined paper or the discussion board: Who is the speaker in this poem? What is the “elephant”? What does the elephant represent? What will be accomplished it they talk about the elephant? What are your thoughts about the mood of the poem? What elements of dialogue are used in the poem? Why are they effective?

The free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky.
 * I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings**
 * Maya Angelou**

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.

What does the caged bird symbolize? The free bird? What literary techniques are used in the poem? Describe the mood(s) of the poem.

Preview of Vocabulary
media type="custom" key="20940430"

Vocabulary Practice/Study Guide media type="custom" key="20844342"

Character List


Literary Terms As we read, please be aware of the literary devices that are employed. You can keep track of your literary devices by using this sheet: