Visibility & Invisibility in Short Texts

Lesson 13
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ELA

Unit 13

9th Grade

Lesson 13 of 15

Objective


Analyze how the author uses literary devices to convey the speaker’s complex experience.

Readings and Materials


  • Poem: “Super Orphan” by Fatimah Asghar 

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Target Task


Writing Prompt

In the following poem by Fatimah Asghar, the poet explores the complex experiences of being orphaned. Write a response in which you analyze how the poet uses literary devices to illustrate the speaker’s complex experience as an orphan.

Sample Response

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Key Thinking


Annotation Focus

What lines, words, or phrases reveal the speaker's complex experience? What is Asghar doing with language in these lines, words, and phrases? 

Scaffolding Questions

What makes the speaker a super orphan?

Trace the use of questions in the poem from beginning to end. What is the speaker questioning? Why is the speaker questioning herself/himself? What effect do the rhetorical questions have on the overall meaning of the poem?

Trace the use of dashes in the poem from beginning to end. Generally, what are dashes used for? How do the dashes relate to the speaker? What effect do the dashes have on the overall meaning of the poem?

The poet chooses to start the poem in the same way that she ends it: “Today, I donned my cape like a birth certificate & jumped, arms wide into the sky.”  Why does the poet use the structure of a circular ending? What effect does it have on the overall meaning of the poem?

Discourse Questions

What makes the speaker’s experience as an orphan complex? How does this connect to the title?

What can you do to demarginalize or center people, like the speaker, who are on the margins of society?

Homework


  • Prepare for tomorrow’s summative socratic seminar by crafting key points and selecting and citing strong evidence per question.

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Standards


  • LO 1.3B — Analyze how the writer's use of stylistic elements contributes to a work of literature's effects and meaning.
  • RL.9-10.4 — Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

Supporting Standards

LO 1.4B
LO 5.1A
LO 5.1B
RL.9-10.1
RL.9-10.2
SL.9-10.1
W.9-10.2

Next

Formulate and share unique arguments about meaning in and across all texts from Unit 1. Support arguments with strong and thorough textual evidence in a summative Socratic Seminar.

Lesson 14
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