*
Mrs. Schepergerdes
* My Checklist (Day 1)* Read Dear Future
* Answer the Character, Plot, Authors Craft, and
Inference questions on the side of the article.
There are a total of 9 questions!
* You need to write the question, and then
write down your response.
* Answer the EQ-this is your 10th Q
*Essential Question: How does the
main characters attitude about the
future change over the course of the
story?
*Warm-Up 11-4-2014
*In your Daily Spark Section, write
5-6 sentences about how you feel
about remembering being 10 years
old. What did you like about 4th-5th
grade? If you miss anything about
that age, what is it? If you dont
miss that age, tell me why.
*My Checklist (Day 2)- On Turning 10
*Lets make sure our Dear Future work is completed
(all ten questions answered)
*In the same Daily Spark section, title a new page On
Turning 10
*You DO NOT need to write down the questions you are
about to see, but need to practice completed
sentences.
* Technically, the voice of our poem could be a girl or boy,
lets just say it is a boy to make things easy.
* On the top of your page make sure you label these notes
Stanza 1
* 1)Locate the simile and write it down. (Look up in your
notes what a simile is if you dont remember)
* 2)What are the three examples of how he feels he is
coming down with something?
* 3)In your own words, explain how turning 10 makes the
speaker feel.
* The whole idea of it makes me feellike I'm coming
down with something,something worse than any
stomach acheor the headaches I get from reading in
bad light--a kind of measles of the spirit,a mumps of
the psyche,a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.
* Now label this section of notes Stanza 2
* 1)In two sentences, summarize what the speakers
description of his childhood was like between ages 1 through
9.
* 2)When the speaker says he was certain people when he was
younger, and that he could become invisible, what does he
mean? Was he really those people? Could he actually become
invisible?
* You tell me it is too early to be looking back,but that is
because you have forgottenthe perfect simplicity of
being oneand the beautiful complexity introduced by
[Link] I can lie on my bed and remember every
[Link] four I was an Arabian wizard.I could make
myself invisibleby drinking a glass of milk a certain
[Link] seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.
* Label this section Stanza 3
* 1)What two objects does the speaker look out his window
and see?
* 2)What are the two things that are happening now that
never happened when he was younger?
* 3)Write as many verbs that you see in this entire stanza.
What do they have in common? What kind of activity do
they describe?
* 4)Why do you think the speaker describes the two objects in
particular?
* But now I am mostly at the windowwatching the late
afternoon [Link] then it never fell so
solemnlyagainst the side of my tree house,and my
bicycle never leaned against the garageas it does
today,all the dark blue speed drained out of it.
* Label this section Stanza 4
* 1) (Fill in the blank) Age 10 is at the beginning of?
* 2)Write one thing that is associated with childhood from
this stanza.
* 3)What does the speaker say it is time for him to do?
*
4)The speaker says that turning age 10 is at the beginning
of something, and at the end of something. What is it? Use
your own words to explain.
*This is the beginning of sadness, I say to
myself,as I walk through the universe in my
[Link] is time to say good-bye to my
imaginary friends,time to turn the first big
number.
* Label this section of notes Stanza 5
* 1)Write the things the speaker says are true about himself when
he was younger.
* 2)What does the speaker say happens to him when he falls upon
the sidewalks of life?
* 3)Why do you think he says the sidewalks of life? How does
adding of life to that phrase make it better or more descriptive?
* It seems only yesterday I used to believethere was nothing
under my skin but [Link] you cut me I could [Link] now
when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,I skin my knees. I bleed.
By: Billy Collins
*4)End of Poem Question- How
does the speaker feel about
growing up? Write this response
in your own words.
