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Unit 5
Reading Poetry
OBJECTIVES
Listen and respond to poems.
Identify how meaning is conveyed through word choice.
Read poetry fluently.
Connect ideas and themes across texts.
Model Fluent Reading
Read "The Best Paths" aloud, using a thoughtful tone of voice. Discuss how the rate and volume of your voice affects the tone.
Discuss the Poem
"The Best Paths"
1 Facts and Details • Literal
According to the speaker, which details do people walking on a path "easily miss"?
Possible responses: The speaker says that people miss "whispers in the grass," "a bent twig," "a token," and "a hint."
2 Theme • Critical
What is the theme, or main idea, of this poem?
Possible response: The theme might be stated as, "The best choices in life are often not the most obvious ones."
Model Fluent Reading
Read "Roller Coasters" aloud. As you read, slowly increase your rate of speech to suggest the excitement of a roller-coaster ride and decrease your rate as you read the final lines of the poem.
Discuss the Poem
"Roller Coasters"
1 Author's Craft • Inferential
What image does the arrangement of lines suggest?
Possible response: The way the lines are arranged suggests the swerving of a roller-coaster ride.
2 Draw Conclusions • Critical
Why might the speaker describe riding a roller coaster as both misery and fun?
Possible responses: The speaker's description makes the ride sound both scary and exhilarating.
Onomatopoeia
Explain that words that sound like their meanings are called onomatopoeia. The words roar, whiz, squeaky, and squeals in the poem "Roller Coasters" are examples of onomatopoeia.
EXTEND SKILLS
UNIT 5
Poetry
The Best Paths by Kristine O'Connell George
Roller Coasters by X. J. Kennedy
When you go shooting down to find
 You’re sitting on thin air.
 And that’s all right, I guess. But I
Like riding roller coasters.
What misery! What fun!
And, dizzily, you stagger off—
Declare your trip all done
 Whiz! up a slightly lower hill!
The cold steel bar shoves hard
Old timbers thunder under wheels,
Shrill screams and hollers sound,
From coast to coast some like
     to fly
Or tack up rock-star posters,
A roller coaster—it’s the most.
I love that first huge scare
 
While, tilting, round a curve you roar,
A mile from solid ground.
   Against your two tight-knuckled fists—
Now squeaky brakes bombard
Your ears with squeals—the slowing
     wheels
you didn’t know
you wanted to go.
to where
lead you
The best paths
comes along.
until the right
someone
hide themselves
The best paths
easily missed.
a token, a hint,
a bent twig,
in the grass,
are whispers
The best paths
1
2
1
2
 
   
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Practice Fluent Reading
Have partners take turns reading "The Best Paths" aloud. Tell students to read the poem several times, varying the rate and volume of their voices. Then have students listen to the AudioText of the poem and compare and contrast their readings with the CD recording.
Audio CDAudioText
WRITING POETRY
Have partners write their own poems about a thrilling experience they
have had—perhaps visiting a new city or flying in an airplane for the
first time. Encourage students to describe the excitement of the
experience in detail.