Name: _________________________________
Date: _________________________
HR: ___________________________________
Teacher: ______________________
Objective:
Do Now:
Look at the painting on the overhead and in color that your teacher is
giving to you.
What do you see? (list as many specific things as you can, but at least 10.)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
What do you think about what’s happening in the painting?
I think…
I think…
I think…
I think…
I think…
What questions do you have about what’s happening in the painting?
I wonder…
I wonder…
I wonder…
I wonder…
Pair Share:
How do you predict this image connects with a brother?
Early Sunday Morning
By Dan Masterson
5
10
15
20
25
30
My big brother & I grew up behind
Three windows over our father’s barber
Shop where half-drawn shades painted
Squares of buttery light on the wall
Beside the sink & on the mirror near
The worn end of the corduroy sofa.
We played barefoot stickball with Mongie
Stritt & Potatoes McGowen & Dutch Finn
& if the cobblestones got too hot
We’d send Mongie for his father’s stilson
Wrench & open the fireplug crank-nut
& hose caps, the sideways flood splish
Splashing downhill past Cudlip’s Candy Store
& around the diner into the schoolyard.
I don’t know why the iceman came early
On Sunday mornings, but he did, hauling
50-pound blocks of ice into McGinley’s
Before dancing up the outside stairs
With 25-pounders for all the neighbors,
While my brother & I scooped up slivers
Of ice from the wet wooden planks
Of the wagon & fed them to the pull-horse,
Watching him do his own kind of dance,
Happy to be done with his awful thirst.
On muggy nights, we’d climb out our bedroom
Window & go up the fire escape to spread
Double layers of newspapers side by side
On the bubbly tar roof & lie on our backs
Giving new names to old stars & listening
To the Hudson River slap the rocks on its
Way to the Atlantic where soon my brother
Would sail off to war & promise to come back.
He even crossed his heart & hoped to die.
1. How do the last two lines contrast with the rest of the poem?
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2. What effect do the last two lines have on the rest of the poem? How does the contrast of the
last two lines alter the mood of the poem?
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3. Why does the author create so much imagery and description of the neighborhood and
activities throughout the poem leading up to the last two lines?
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4. What effect does the structure (punctuation, line breaks, stanza and sentence length) have on
the poem?
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5. How does the painting affect the way you interpret the poem?
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1. Based on the poem, which of the following adjectives best describes the young boys:
a. Adventurous
b. Deceptive
c. Serious
d. Intellectual
2. In the fourth stanza of the poem the author writes:
On muggy nights, we’d climb out our bedroom
Window & go up the fire escape to spread
Double layers of newspapers side by side
On the bubbly tar roof & lie on our backs
Based on these lines why did the boys spread newspaper on the roof?
a. The brothers read the articles to each other
b. They wanted protection from the cold night
c. They did not have blankets to use
d. The melted tar was too hot and dirty to lie on
3. Which of the following lines indicates that the speaker and his brother are not wealthy?
a. My brother and I scooped up slivers/of ice from the wet wooden planks
b. We’d send Mongie for his father’s stilson/Wrench &open the fireplug crank-nut
c. Squares of buttery light on the wall/Beside the sink & on the mirror near/The worn end
of the corduroy sofa
d. Lie on our backs/giving new names to old stars &listening/To the Hudson River
4. Based on the poem how does the speaker feel when he remembers his childhood?
a. Regret that he did not spend more time with his brother
b. Anger that his brother died in the war and he could not prevent it
c. Fondness for the activities of his neighborhood and youth
d. Confusion about where his father was throughout his life
Think, Write, Pair, Share
1. What one color describes this poem and why?
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2. What is the most important image from the poem and why?
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3. What symbolizes the poem and why?
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4. What one word from the poem is most important and why?
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