Brown Girl Dreaming & Elements of Poetry

What is the most likely reason the author tells her memoir in verse, not prose?

• To reflect the way people often recall memories

• To describe several events from her childhood

• To tell about the events of her life in order

• To emphasize the setting and characters

Read the sentences from the poem “writing #1.”

Which idea do these lines best express?

When I speak,/ the words come pouring out of me.

The story / wakes up and walks all over the room.

• Making up stories often gets the speaker into trouble

• Writing stories is part of the speaker's family traditions

• Sharing stories with others is enjoyable to the speaker

• Telling made-up stories aloud comes easily to the speaker

Read the sentence from “writing #1.”

But as I bend over my composition notebook, / only my name / comes quickly.

How does the sentence contribute to the poem "writing #1"?

• It introduces the speaker.

• It adds imagery.

• It describes the setting.

• It establishes the conflict.

In the poem "late autumn," the speaker changes from feeling -

• fascinated to bored

• frustrated to hopeful

• confident to discouraged

• misunderstood to beloved

In contrast to the poem "the other woodson," the poem "reading" shows how the speaker -

• struggles in school

• wants to be a writer

• behaves and thinks like her sister

• feels pride in being different from her sister

Read the dictionary entry.

fussing \fŭs-ing\ v 1. showing unnecessary concern about something 2. complaining about something unimportant 3. moving around or busying oneself restlessly 4. disturbing or bothering someone

Which definition best matches the meaning of fussing as it is used in this stanza of the poem "stevie and me"?

If someone had been fussing with me

to read like my sister, I might have missed

the picture book filled with brown people, more

brown people than I’d ever seen

in a book before.

• Definition 1

• Definition 2

• Definition 3

• Definition 4

Read the last three lines of the poem "when i tell my family".

I’ll think about it, I say.

And maybe all of us know

this is just another one of my stories.

These lines show that the speaker -

• is better at writing stories than telling them

• considers becoming a teacher or a lawyer

• plans to be a writer regardless of what others say

• wants to write stories about her school and family

The speaker's frequent comparisons between herself and her sister best emphasize -

• how talented the speaker's sister is

• how incapable the speaker feels compared to her sister

• how much the speaker has improved as a student

• how much the speaker wants to be like her sister

Which phrase does the author use to convey her relationship with her sister?

• I am the other Woodson

• We are allowed / to take out seven books each.

• Words from books curl around each other

• this is just another one of my stories

What is the message of the poem "stevie and me"?

• Pictures can help a story come to life for young readers.

• Adults should not tell children what books they should read.

• It is difficult for children to find books that they enjoy in a library.

• It is important for children to see people who are like them in stories.