Lesson 24: Red, White, and Whole, Part 8: “The River” to ”The Phone Call”

Organize students into pairs. Students use a Think-Pair-Share routine to discuss how La Rocca links the themes of blood and betrayal.

Think-Pair-Share

Say these Directions: In the previous lesson, we tracked how blood in the novel can mean both life and loss. Today we are going to notice what changes when Reha starts to see blood as betrayal. This matters because our final literary analysis asks us to explain how one poem uses symbolism or imagery, such as blood, to reveal an important connection. Take a moment to think about the prompt, then exchange ideas with your partner.

• Ask: Think about a time you were hurt and suddenly you couldn't do something that you normally do without even thinking. What changed about your day or your routine?

  • When I jammed my finger in a door, I couldn't write or even hold my fork without it hurting. Something I normally never think about suddenly got in the way of everything. In Reha's story, that feeling is even bigger because her mother's blood — the same blood Amma works with every day in her lab and the same blood that connects them as family — is now the thing making her mother sick.

Connection to Today's Learning:

• Say: Now, let’s focus our attention on the specific language LaRocca uses to make blood seem active and dangerous.

Morphology & Vocabulary

Display the following text “The River,” and read aloud:

In The River, Reha asks, “...what happens when your own blood betrays you” (p. 106)?

• Say: That question is the heart of the whole poem. Before we reread closely, we need a name for the craft move LaRocca uses to assign human qualities or actions to blood, such as when blood makes a choice or breaks trust. We call this personification.

Teach: Morphology of Personification

• Say: When I hear the word personification, I do not try to memorize the whole long word at once. I look for meaning parts. I see the base person, which tells me this word has to do with human beings. Then I think about personify, which means to make something seem like a person. Finally, -ation turns that action into a thing or process, so personification means the act of giving human traits to something that is not human.

• Say: LaRocca does not mean that blood literally chose to betray when she describes it as a “betrayer;”; she is using personification to show how deeply hurt and angry Reha feels. That is why this craft move matters for our reading today; it turns a bodily substance into something that feels personal.

• Say these Directions: In your Personal Dictionary, write personification and betrayer. Next to each word, write a student-friendly meaning and one note about why that word matters in “The River.”

Display and read the word list:

• person → a human being

• personify → to make something seem human

• personification → the act of giving human qualities to something nonhuman

• betray → to break trust

• betrayer → one who breaks trust

Verify Meaning: Prompt students to use a dictionary or other reference material to confirm the meaning of the word.

• Say: Check your definition using a dictionary or other reference material. Does the definition match what we figured out? Revise as needed.

Erase/Hide: Stop displaying the target words for a moment.

• Say: Write the word personification from memory in your Personal Dictionary. Then write betrayer from memory.

Check: Display the words again.

• Say: Check your spelling and correct anything that does not match.

• Say: There is no prefix in personification. Underline the base person and circle the suffix -ification. In betrayer, underline betray and circle the suffix -er.

• Ask: Which part of the words helped you remember how to spell them?

  • The base person helped me remember personification because it is the part I already knew. For betrayer, the base word, betray, helped because I could hear that word clearly inside the longer word.

Connection to Today's Learning:

• Say: Now that you understand the meaning of personification, you will do a close reading of the poem, “The River,” to look for examples. You should then be able to not just what the poem says, but how LaRocca makes that meaning feel personal.

Today’s poems include illness, medical treatment, and emotionally intense family moments. Normalize quiet participation options, allow brief pause time if needed, and remind students they may respond through writing before speaking.

Part A: Reading Blood as Betrayal (RL.7.4) (12 minutes)

When students have completed the task, reconvene the class to model close reading and lead a whole-group discussion.

Think-Pair-Share

Say these Directions: With your partner, reread “The River” (p. 106) two times. During the first read, mark words or phrases that make blood seem alive, powerful, or dangerous. During the second read, talk about what it means for blood to betray you, and use the words personification and betrayer in your response.

Teach: Close Reading Figurative Language

• Say: When I do a close read of this poem, I start with the strongest word choice. The word betray jumps out because betrayal is not a small mistake; it means broken trust. Then I connect that word to the title “The River.” A river keeps moving, and it can carry things beyond our control, so the title makes blood feel like a force that will not simply stop when Reha wants it to. That combination helps me see that Reha is not just asking a medical question; she is asking what it means when something inside you that is supposed to give life starts to feel like it is working against you.

• Ask: What does it mean for blood to betray you in this poem?

  • In “The River,” blood betraying Reha means the thing that should sustain life and connect her family is now threatening to take her mother away. Asking “what happens / when your own blood / betrays you” makes it feel like a relationship, not just a body, was harmed.

• Ask: How does the title “The River” strengthen that idea?

  • The title makes blood seem like something always moving and hard to control. A river can carry danger and keep going, so the title strengthens the personification by making blood feel powerful, not calm or safe.

Part B: Tracing the Ripple Effect (RL.7.4, W.7.2.a-d) (18 minutes)

Form expert groups and assign one poem to each group: “The Moon,” “Waiting,” “The First Day Back,” “The Treatment,” or “The Phone Call.” After expert discussion, students return to home groups and teach their poem.

Jigsaw Reading

• Say these Directions: In your expert group, read your assigned poem and find one moment that shows the ripple effect of blood’s betrayal. Record the moment, and then explain how it affects emotions, relationships, or daily life. When you return to your home group, teach your poem in two clear sentences: one sentence naming the moment, and one sentence explaining the effect.

Teach: How to Find the Ripple Effect

• Say: When I look for a ripple effect, I ask what happens next. If I were reading “Waiting,” for example, I would look for how the delay changes a feeling, a relationship, or a routine. Then I would turn that into an explanation: “The betrayal starts in the body, but it spreads into time, family life, and Reha’s sense of control.” That helps me move from one moment in one poem to a bigger idea across several poems.

• Ask: Across the jigsaw poems, what ripple effects do you notice blood’s betrayal has on Reha and her family?

  • Across the jigsaw poems, blood's betrayal spreads into almost every part of Reha's life. In “Waiting,” the line “Everyone is quiet, / even the little brothers” shows how the betrayal changes a whole family so that even the youngest children feel it.

  • In “The First Day Back,” when “the tears that I haven't cried all weekend / finally fall,” it shows how Reha has been holding everything in, and the ripple hits her the moment she returns to normal life.

  • A pattern I notice is that the betrayal does not stay inside the body. In “The Treatment,” the detail that “Amma will lose her hair / Amma will have pain and vomiting and trouble eating” shows the betrayal rippling into Amma's daily physical life. In “The Moon,” the line “she only shows us one face. / The strong one” shows it rippling into relationships, since Amma is hiding her pain, which changes how the family connects. This pattern reveals that illness reshapes a whole family's routines, emotions, and honesty, not just one person's body.

After home groups share, bring students back together for one final discussion.

Say these Directions: Now listen for how LaRocca connects these everyday ripples to a larger story. As we discuss “Savitri, Part 3” (p. 115), think about why the novel returns to that myth right here, after so many poems about fear, waiting, and treatment.

• Ask: Why does LaRocca return to “Savitri, Part 3” at this point in Reha’s journey?

  • LaRocca returns to “Savitri, Part 3” here because Reha is facing the possibility of losing her mother, and the line “Please, O Lord, said Savitri, / do not take my husband away” mirrors that desperation. After poems about waiting, treatment, and frightening changes, this allusion places Reha's fear alongside a story of someone begging to keep a loved one alive, connecting Reha's experience to a larger tradition of fighting against loss.

Students write a short response, then share ideas with the class.

Quick Write

Say these Directions: Write 3–4 sentences and begin with a clear thesis statement.

• Ask: How does LaRocca develop blood’s betrayal into a larger theme about connection, loss, or hope? Use one detail from “The River” and one detail from either “Savitri, Part 3” or another poem to support your answer.

Optional sentence starter: LaRocca develops blood’s betrayal into a larger theme by showing that ___.

• LaRocca develops blood’s betrayal into a theme about both loss and connection. In “The River,” blood is described as something that no longer flows the way it should, showing how Reha feels disconnected from her own body. In “Savitri, Part 3,” the idea of sacrifice connects blood to love and protection, suggesting that even when blood fails, relationships can still create meaning and hope.

Instruct students to read “Lost,” “Two,” “Thanksgiving,” “Guilt,” “Dutiful,” “Under Hospital Lights,” and “Not Allowed.”

LaRocca uses the same poem title, “Two,” twice in this book: once in the very beginning and once here. Students should respond to the following questions in their Journal:

• Ask: What do you think two meant to Reha at the start of the book?

• Ask: What does it mean to her now?