Lesson 46: Literary Analysis and Original Poem: Poem Presentations

Have students take out their final poems, author’s notes, and the Performance Task Rubric. Give students a moment to star one strength and circle one speaking or listening goal.

Checklist Reviews

• Say these Directions: Take out your final poem, author’s note, and the Performance Task Rubric. Star one strength and circle one speaking or listening goal. Turn to a partner and share your plan in one sentence so your goal is clear before we begin.

• Say: Today’s audience has an active job: to listen for one exact image, symbol, or line that lands effectively and be ready to explain what it accomplishes and why it is effective. As you present, use your author’s note to help you explain why your image or symbol matters. Review the checklist and mark one move you already do well and one move you want to focus on today. Then turn to a partner and share your plan in one sentence so your goal is clear before we begin.

• Ask: Which presentation move already feels strong for you, and which one do you want to focus on today?

  • One move that feels strong for me is reading clearly enough for people to follow my poem. Today I want to focus on pacing because I sometimes rush the most important line instead of pausing so the image can land.

• Say: In previous lessons, we drafted poems anchored by symbolic images and explained our choices in our author’s notes. Today, we share those choices out loud so an audience can hear how different kinds of connection shape identity and belonging. This final presentation completes the performance task by asking us to be both thoughtful presenters and attentive listeners.

Display the Performance Task Rubric.

Connection to Today's Learning:

• Say: Now that you have named a clear goal, you are ready to rehearse how delivery and listening choices help a poem’s meaning come through.

Pair students for one brief rehearsal. Explain that the task, audience, and purpose should guide both the reader and the listener.

Turn-and-Talk

Display page 106 from Red, White, and Whole and direct students to read these lines from “The River:”

But what happens

when your own blood

betrays you?”

• Say: These lines should be familiar from earlier lessons. Today, focus on how pacing and emphasis help the audience hear the meaning, and how the printed line on the page supports that meaning visually.

Teach: Model Strong Presentation Pacing and Emphasis

• Say: When I get ready to present, I start with TAP: my task is to read my poem and author’s note clearly, my audience is my classmates, and my purpose is to help them notice why my image matters.

• Say: Because this is a formal presentation, my speech should match the task and audience. Formal English helps listeners follow my ideas clearly and shows respect for the audience. Before I begin reading, I might introduce my poem by saying, “My poem is titled ________, and the central image I want the audience to notice is ________.”

• Say: If I read this line too fast, the question feels flat, and the pause after happens disappears. I would mark a small pause after happens, and put a star on blood, because that is the word I want listeners to notice on the page and in my voice. Then, in my author’s note, I might say, “First I chose this image because it shows connection, but later I realized it also carries loss.”

• Say: This is the same work you did in your author’s note, explaining why your image matters, but now you are doing it out loud for an audience. As a listener, my job is not to say “That was nice.” My job is to mark one exact image, symbol, or line and explain what it does and why it is effective

• Say: During my presentation, I should avoid casual fillers such as “like,” “um,” or “you know,” and instead speak in complete sentences with clear pacing. At the end of my presentation, I can formally acknowledge the audience by saying, “Thank you for listening” or “Thank you for your attention.”

• Say these Directions: First, mark your own poem with one pause, one word to emphasize, and one line or image you want the audience to notice on the page. Then practice introducing your poem in formal English using complete sentences. Read your poem aloud once to your partner and read at least the first two sentences of your author’s note. Close your presentation with a brief formal acknowledgment of your listeners. Partners, follow along on the page, mark one specific line or image that lands effectively, and be ready to explain what it does and why it is effective. You will each have about one minute to rehearse. As you respond, build on others’ ideas by referring to the line they named or by adding a new interpretation.

• Ask: What specific line or image landed effectively for you in your partner’s poem, and why?

  • The line about bangles clinking in the sink landed for me because I could hear it and picture it right away. It made the family moment feel real, and it hinted at a cultural connection without saying it in a direct way.

Presenting and Listening in Real Time

Students have now rehearsed both sides of the performance task: presenting with intention and listening with precision.

Whole-Class Discussion

Decide whether presentations will take place as a whole class or in smaller groups. Smaller groups will allow time for all students to present and receive feedback within the time frame. In either structure, every presenter should read the poem first and then the author’s note. Audience members should have the printed poem packet in front of them and annotate one exact image or line that lands and be ready to explain what it does and why it is effective.

Establish the speaking order. Remind students that the printed poem functions as a visual support and that the author’s note should explain the image or symbol clearly. Explain that presenting and listening will happen at the same time: as each student presents, listeners annotate one exact line or image that lands and prepare a response. After every two or three presenters, pause for brief audience responses.

• Say these Directions: When it is your turn, read your poem first and then your author’s note. Use the pause and emphasis marks you planned in rehearsal, and guide the audience to the exact line or image you most want them to notice on the printed page. As you listen, annotate one exact image, symbol, or line that lands effectively and be ready to explain what it accomplishes and why it is effective.

Pause after every two or three readers for a short audience response.

• Ask: Which line or image landed for you, and what made it effective?

  • The image of henna drying on the speaker’s hands landed for me because the reader slowed down on that line, so I really noticed it. It felt effective because the image connected celebration and family memory at the same time.

• Ask (optional): What does that line do, and how did the printed poem help you understand the reader’s meaning?

• Ask (optional presenter response): If the reader wants to respond, what can they add to help the audience understand the symbol even more clearly?

• Say: As you present, check yourself for three things:

  • Did I slow down for the sake of emphasizing particular words or phrases?

  • Did I explain why my image or symbol matters?

  • Did I help the audience notice the line on the page that carries my meaning?

Scoring Rubric

The Performance Task Rubric is located on the second page of the Performance Task Handout:

Bring the class back together for a brief final synthesis. Invite two or three students to respond to each question and keep responses concise. Invite students to look across all the poems they heard rather than retelling one presentation.

Whole-Class Discussion

• Say these Directions: We are going to end by looking across the poems we heard today. Think about what kinds of connections showed up most often, which images stood out or surprised you, and how our classmates’ poems help us answer the unit question about culture and belonging.

• Ask: Looking across our class poems, what kinds of connections came up most often—biological, cultural, social, emotional, or more than one at once—and which image or symbol surprised you?

  • More than one kind of connection showed up at once in a lot of the poems. I noticed cultural connections through food, clothes, and family traditions, but those images also carried emotional connection. One image that surprised me was a lunchbox zipper because it seemed small at first, but it ended up showing embarrassment, care, and identity all together.

• Ask: Based on our classmates’ poems, how would you answer the question: What is culture, and how does it shape our identity and sense of belonging, especially when we move between more than one world?

  • Culture is made of everyday things people carry, repeat, remember, and share. Our classmates’ poems showed that culture shapes identity because it affects how people speak, eat, dress, celebrate, and feel connected, even when they move between different spaces or expectations. A lot of the poems showed that belonging is not just one thing. It can be built from family, language, memory, and the symbols people choose to hold on to.

• Ask: How did hearing others explain what their images or symbols accomplish and why they are effective help you better understand how writers use craft to convey feeling and meaning?

  • Hearing others explain their images helped me understand that symbols are not random. Writers choose them on purpose to show a deeper idea. When people explained what their image did, I could see how the same kind of object can mean different things depending on how it is used in the poem.

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Instruct students to complete the following tasks in their Journal:

• Write about one image from a classmate’s poem that you are still thinking about.

• Explain why the imagery stayed with you.