"A Father to His Son" by Carl Sandburg

2/25/2014

In class on Tuesday we discussed the poem "A Father to His Son" by Carl Sandburg. During that discussion, I modeled a close reading strategy to help you with "DIGGING DEEPER" in a text in order to make meaning. Based on our classroom discussion, answer the following for today's classroom assignment.

A. How did yesterday's close reading activity change your understanding of the text?

B. How does word choice, figurative language, and repetition add to the overall meaning of this particular text?

C. What did you learn about yourself as a reader through analyzing "A Father to His Son"?

56 Comments

Garrett

2/26/2014 02:22:30 am

Go to my blog http://msusportsupdate.weebly.com/ A. The close reading really helped me. You can't really look at it once then know what it means. So it really helped me understand the text.
B. The language you use is very important. If you use a higher vocabulary then you sound smarter. Repition is when you do something over and over like in a poem so it helps you understand that its a poem.

C. I learned that it takes more than reading a story once to understand it. I can't just look at a story once to understand it. It takes me multiple times to understand a text.

Liz

2/26/2014 06:41:46 am

A. My whole understanding of that text changed yesterday. It made me look deeper into the text and actually look for point of view and what he meant with his figurative language. I actually started to go through a thought process that i usually dont go through when annotating.
B. Most of his blog is figurative language and you will not understand the actual meaning if you dont look deep into what he's saying. His repetition showes a relationship between what he is actually trying to say and the point of view this is coming from.
C. I learned that I cant just go right into a text and automatically get the message you have to start small with your annotating to actually get the underlying message.

Jeremy

2/26/2014 02:23:44 am

A. Yes, it helped me understand it more when at first I didn't get it. The activity made me think about what I was reading more.
B. They all helped to make a point in the text. Repitition made it sound like it was important to know, word choice made it sound more professional, figurative language made it more like a poem. Like every poem, it is using metaphors, similies, and things like that.
C. I learned that there are way harder texts to read than I am right now and that i need to keep working and not to think I am a rerally good reader.

Kaitlyn S. link

2/26/2014 02:25:49 am

A) Close reading the text helped understanding the text much easier. By reading it the first time, it sounded like a conflicted father, wanting to help his son exell in life, as he is growing into a man. This was shown in the line, "A father sees his son nearing manhood, what shall he tell that son?" (lines 1 &2) As we dug deeper in the text, the life lessons and choices of words show how deeply he cares for his son, and how much he truely wants him to change the world.
B)The word choice, figurative language, and repetition add to the poem, not only in the meaning of the poem, but also to the quality of the peom itself. The choice of words and how they were used were chosen so particuarly, that it shows to the extent of how much he wants to help his son, and the desire to aid him in life after he is a grown man.
C) I learned that although I am a very strong reader, I often overlook the deeper meanings of texts. Yes, I find Literary devises such as imagrey and figurative language adding to the true beauty found in words, but until lately, I have over looked their true purpose.

nick.m

2/26/2014 02:26:47 am

A) reading the passage over and over let me get a feel for the passage.After breaking it down and anotating it let me understand what the authur was trying to tell him readers.
B) The word chioce and figerative language through out the passage created a wall that mad me want to "dig depper" into the passage.It mad me try to relate the passage to my everday life.!
C) This passage tought me that I need to step it up and try to understand the passage as im reading.I need to reread the passage over and over again.

Austin B

2/26/2014 02:32:27 am

A. The close reading activity that we did yesterday affected the understanding of the text by reading closer every time and going deeper with the annotations we did.
B. They helped make the point deeper in the reading.
C. I learned that I can read deeper than I thought I could.

McKenna.

2/26/2014 02:33:26 am

A. Yes, the close reading helped me. It chanded my understanding by when I have an idea in my head and I will read the passage while thinking about the question or idea.
B. It adds to the over all meaning because when you use word choice like that it makes you text stronger, thorough, and helps your readership.
C. What I learned about myself when I analyzed the text is to dig deeper while reading and not just seeing and stating the obvious things. I learned that if I read like i did yesterday with certain thoughts flowing through my head it will help my readership for when I write something by using high developed vocabulary.

Timothy A

2/26/2014 02:33:33 am

A. I was not here but close reading helps alot.

B.They all helped to make a point in the text

C.i learned that there a always hard txt to read.

Jacob B

2/26/2014 02:34:23 am

A. The close reading activity we did yesterday really helped me understand the text better. It really helped me see the text in many different ways then I normally do.
B. Using 5 dollar words and figurative language makes you sound like you know what your talking about and makes you sound smarter.
C. I learned that the deeper you read the more you pull out of a text and the more you learn form it.

clayton

2/26/2014 02:37:10 am

the close reading helped me by helping me understand the message and how it relates to the eq.
The lanuage is very important because in the grammer choice choosen by the athour made us think what it ment and we larened some new words.
I larned that im need some help annotating a text and larn how to realy under stand the text when i read it

Lizzie Balmer link

2/26/2014 02:38:24 am

A. Yesterday, the close reading activity changed the my understanding of the text by actually feeling the love from the father to the son. I could see that he wished that he had some one tell him this when he was coming of age. Over all, this was very sentimental and sweet, it meant a lot not only to the son, but to the father.

B. The authors word play and choice of figurative language adds to the text by being both literal and metaphorical. It's got a lot of meaning and it puts emphasis on the meaning, especially the repetition. He didn't use too much, but he didn't use not enough, it was perfect.

C. After reading and analyzing "A Father to His son", I learned about myself as a reader that I can relate to these types of texts because I'm so close to mom and I saw myself in this text.

Morgun

2/26/2014 02:40:18 am

A. Reading the text more closely, helped me by giving me a better understanding it better. Before we read it real close, and annotated it, I could barely understand what I was reading.
B. All these help you get a better understanding of the texts.
C. I learned that reading a text just once, doesn't mean that you will understand it right then, especially when the text is at a higher reading level.

damien

2/26/2014 02:41:37 am

A.it helped me by understanding the text better because we looked over it and talk about it in class and it helped me understand the message and how it relates to the eq.
B. the language that we use every day helps how wright and how people understand us
C. that i need help on annotating a text to understand it better

Jake.R.

2/26/2014 02:41:49 am

A. It got me to read the pasage more than one time.
B. It helped make point in the text.
C. I learned that there are way harder texts to read.

Elenaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

2/26/2014 02:42:14 am

A- it made me understand the passage better like with the move advance words, like what they meant and also the context clues with it. It made reading the passage easier to understand.

B- It makes the text harder to read, but at the same time it makes the text more intersiting to read and it gives very good descriptive details.

C- I learned that the harder the text the more details there are in it which gives me a good visula image of the passage. also that i need to annotate the passage better.

Raistlin

2/26/2014 02:42:47 am

A. It helps me understan all the different postions of the poem and how you can interpret the lines and the great ways on the poem

Brianna

2/26/2014 02:43:28 am

A. The close reading helpped a lot, cause if you only read it once you won't know what it means and won't get it.
B. THe language you use in you daily life is really important. It helps you get deeper into the text that you are reading.
C. Reading a text only once, even when the text is difficult, you won't understand what you are reading.

Kaylee

2/26/2014 03:27:22 am

A.) Yesterday's close reading activity changed the way I understood it several times. It helped me look into the meaning of life advice and family matters.
B.) Word choice, repetition and metaphors added emphasis to the life advice. It showed that the things he was telling his son really were important.
C.) I learned that I needed to start reading a text more than once to really grasp a deeper understanding of the meanings behind it.

kensie grace.

2/26/2014 03:34:02 am

A. The close reading helped a bunch. If you were to only read it once you wouldn't get it or know what it means.
B. The word choice, figurative language, and repetition add to the poem, meaning to the poem, and also quality to the peom.
C. I learned that if read a text more than once, even if it is difficult, you will understand it better.

Garrison

2/26/2014 04:16:26 am

A. The close reading helped because I really got to understand the poem. If I didn't close read, I wouldn't fully understand it.
B. It puts and emphasis on something. For example, if you use repetition, it's something the author wants to get across and is important.
C. I learned that if I close read I can really understand any text, no matter the level of it.

Taila

2/26/2014 04:21:38 am

A. The close reading helped me alot. It shows me how if you read it over and over then you get into it deeper and deeper.
B. The figurative language, repetition showed how what he was telling his son was life advice.
C. I learned as a reader that if you read over what you read once you can get deeper in the text. Also if you only read it once then you will miss important facts.

cammm<3

2/26/2014 04:24:25 am

a- The close reading really helped. When you just read once you dont really get the u nderstanding. Not even the second time, but by the third time you finally start to really understand and relate to the text and can make connections, etc.
b- All of the figurative language really keeps the reader interested and keeps them wanting to read on.
c- The poem is really easy to relate to and makes you realize how much parents teach you about life and life lessons. Also, after going through it with the class it makes how much you miss when you just read it once or even just twice. By highlighting words you dont know and looking them up it can totally change the meaning or the perspective on how you interpret the text.

Victor

2/26/2014 04:26:03 am

A. I feel that many times we think we're reading closely, but truly we're reading passively. We're also not taking time to annotate what something means. Yesterday's activity helped us understand what it really meant to closely read.
B. Word choice and figurative language help the poem by imbedding certain pharses that sometimes are too hard to put with regular words. It also helps because it gets the author's point across.
C. I realized that many times I overlook many important things. I also realized that sometimes it takes more than once to understand and truly annotate the "guts of the text".

Ali

2/26/2014 04:29:34 am

A. The close reading really helped me understand the text better by reading it more than once made me realize what the text was really saying.
B. It helped me make sense of the text and really understaning it.
C. I've learned that I need to read a text more than once to actually understand the meaning of the reading.

Briana H.

2/26/2014 04:30:38 am

A. It help me understand the reading than normally when i read on my own.
B. It showed that some of the things he said in the poem was important
C. I learned if I read the text more than once it will help me understand the text even more

Jorge

2/26/2014 04:35:54 am

A. The close reading activity helped me understand the text better because the first time we read through it I didn't catch all of the figurative language in it. I also didn't catch all the life lessons until we were told to look for them.
B. The word choice, figurative language, and repetition add to the overall meaning of the text because it helps put emphasis on certain phrases that need more complicated words to sound good. It helps the author get his point across more effectively.
C. I learned that when I read articles one time only I don't fully understand what it means.

Tyler O

2/26/2014 04:37:05 am

A. It helped me because of reading it 3 times.
B.It made more meaning to the text to understand what it is about.
C. That I learned more to read twice and understanding.

Morgann.

2/26/2014 04:42:44 am

A.Yesterdays close reading activity made me start reading things three times to understand what i actually am reading.
B.Word Choice is so important with out using "higher" words we would sound like complete idiots.
C.i learned that if i read anything closely i can comprehend it no matter how hard i might think it is

Bryce

2/26/2014 04:44:28 am

A: It changed and helped me by understanding it better, and you have to look deeply to understand it.
B: Word choice is a great way to show that you know what yout talking about. In the text, it used great word choice and made the text stronger.
C: After this text, I learned that I sometimes need to reread to fully understand them.

Carson C.

2/26/2014 04:45:49 am

A. Yesterday's close reading activity helps me see other people's viewpoints of the story. By doing this it helps me see the true meaning behind what is being said in the text by digging deeper within the reading.
B. The word choice, the figurative language use, and the repetition use can help me understand the true meaning and the emphasis behind their writing.
C. Some things that by understanding the definition of some words can change your thoughts about the text. Also, by digging deeper you can truely get a better understanding of the text.

2/26/2014 04:46:07 am

A.it helped me understand that there were life lessons in the text
B. it makes it harder to understand the text you have to read it more that once.
C. i learned that i can analyze a text the right way if i read it more that once.

Alexis I

2/26/2014 04:49:05 am

A. Yesterdays close reading made me understand that if you just read a text once you could miss a whole lot of things.
B. It Word Choice is important because of all the words that could make you sound "stupid" or "non-intelligent" are changed to make you sound smart and intelligent.
C. That when i read a text more than once i could make out what its saying like "reading in between the lines" which helps me alot with reading texts.

2/26/2014 05:00:37 am

A. The close reading activity that we did yesterday really helped me to look at the text in many different ways and helped me to understand it.
B. The language that he used made it harder to read and i had to read it more than once but i thing i got more out of it because everytime I read it I saw it in a different way.
C. I learned that if i read something more than once it is eaisier to understand and easier to annotate

Logan E. link

2/26/2014 05:46:12 am

A) Sometimes when we read books we think that we are reading closely but if we were asked to test on all of our readings, a lot of the time we would fail proving we actually read passively. Yesterday when I first recieved it I read it to myself and thought I read closely but after we broke it down in DIGGING DEEPER I was able to find more and more details I missed at first. This activity also allowed me to truly do close reading.
B) The figurative language and repitition not only add a deeper meaning to the poem and helps identify the writers new perspective but also adds a ryhthym to the poem that would not be their if the author used more long and literal language.
C) I realized that when I read the first time that I don't really get the general idea of a text. I also realized that to be able to really read between the lines you often have to read the text multiple times.

Lexie

2/26/2014 05:46:26 am

A. Yesterdays activity helped as a whole. It taught me exactly what close reading meant and some strategies for close reading. The activity helped me realize just how important reading a passage more than once.
B. Word choice, repitition, and figurative language help the meaning of this poem alot. The word choice is interesting and makes you think. The repitition helps put focus on certain things and the figurative language makes you think alot and sometimes helps explain things.
C. By reading "A Father To His Son" I learned that I tend to skim through things. When I do this I often miss the meaning of text. I usually dont take the time to look at figurative language. When we did this activity though it taught me how to look closer and understand these things.

Holly H.

2/26/2014 05:47:02 am

A. It made me think about all the different interpretations. It isn't a straight forward literal piece but it can be interpreted different ways.
B. All of the "Tell him" means he isn't telling the son yet. He is preparing. His son might be really young. All the metaphors mean he wants the son to follow his advice but not to live by it strictly. He should have his own opinion and his own interpretation.
C. As a reader, I fly through texts. I'm a passive rather than an active reader. I tend not to think too hard about what I'm reading and just enjoy it. After I read it I forget about it. I don't take time to absorb the text. I just pass it by.

Ezra

2/26/2014 05:49:23 am

A. It really helped me get a bigger grasp on the text as a whole and it showed me things that I wouldn't have when just passively reading it. For example, I learned that the author put hidden meanings all over the text.
B. The figurative language help the reader understand the perspective the author is writing from. Although it is not clear what position the author is, it is clear that he is trying to be a helpful mentor. The repetition work in the same way, strengthening to perspective and stance of the author as a mentor.
C. I learned that just generally reading any piece of writing I do not look at it near closely enough. I passively read and only take in part of what I read/understand. This really showed me how it helps and what to do when close reading.

Michael Okuda

2/26/2014 05:49:34 am

A. Yesterday's close reading activity helped me understand the text by looking at it in different angles. Even though it takes more than one time to read it through to closely read, I am able to absorb more and look at things I didn't think before.
B. Figurative language adds to the understanding of the text by giving emphasis and tone. This makes a passage sound more professional and allows the reader to enjoy analyzing and comprehending the implicit meanings behind them.
C. I learned how much I didn't know about families. For example, I can't believe how much people have distorted the "traditional family", even though I've heard of many things from General Conference talks about how the family is splitting from the deceptions of Satan.

Faith

2/26/2014 05:49:41 am

A. I think it helped me realize that there are underlying situations and scenerios behind a sentence, more figuratively than literally.
B. The word choice and figurative language give most of the emphasis to the piece. It also showed an underlying urgency to stress this point.
C. I learned that I need to sometimes look deeper into the meanings.

Lee S.

2/26/2014 05:51:09 am

A. My understanding changed because I dug deeper into the meaning instead just being a poem
B. It makes it more powerful and moving because if they just very limited techniques and vocabulary it would lack meaning
C. I learned that I tend to put a bad spin on everything

Emily

2/26/2014 05:52:42 am

A. Yesterday's close reading activity affected my understanding of the text because I was able to noticed things that I would usually notice.
B. I think the repetition help the reader decifer what the meaning of the poem is. Also, it seems that the word choice and figurative language helps make the author sound much wiser than if he had used simple everyday words or spoken in an everyday language.
C. As a reader I've realized that the more I read a text, the better I understand the text.

Justin V link

2/26/2014 05:53:59 am

A. - It made me look deeper and not just at literal things. It made me contemplate voice, Point of View, and Theme. Our close reading really helped notice invisible detail. It helped me understand the understood meanings of things. It helped me find the Embedded meanings that were too deep for a first reading.
B. - It helps enforce his point. It is really effective when all three, word choice, figurative language, and repitition, are coupled together in an understood method. By "understood" I mean not on the surface. When they are mostly embedded and still working together when not obvious is the most effective, and Carl Sandburg does this perfectly.
C. - I learned that I really need to dig deeper into the meaning of the text. I need to delve into the understood and not obvious. I need to figure the figurative language, and get behind the true meaning of the text and what it is trying to tell me.

Avery

2/26/2014 05:56:14 am

A. Yesterday's close reading activity changed the way I interpreted the story behind the poem. Whenever I first read it I just saw it as a bunch of advice, but after I read it over again I saw from a different perspective.
B. Word choice, figurative language and repetition add emphasis to certain parts in the poem. For example, the repetition of "Tell Him" adds a sense of urgency and makes you think about who is narrating.
C. After reading "A Father To His Son" I learned that most of the time I am a passive reader. I usually don't specifically try to look for depth in a passage. I need to work on reading deeply.

Madison H.

2/26/2014 05:56:37 am

A: The close reading activity really helped me because, when we read, we don't really go deep enough into the text and don't truly understand what the text is saying or what it means, but when we did that activity, it taught me how to read deeper into the text and taught me what the text really means.
B: Word choice, figurative language, and repetition add to the overall meaning of the text by emphasising an important part of the text and making sure the reader understands a certain part of the text, that otherwise would be missed by the audience.
C: I learned about myself as a reader through analyzing the text "A Father to his son" is that whenever I read, I don't really analyze the text and I just read what is on the surface and don't try to see what is hidden inside the text.

Tyer

2/26/2014 06:34:13 am

A. It changed my understanding of the text by taking me deeper into the acctual meaning of the text, at first I just thought it was about a father talking to his son.
B. To me it shows that the author was trying to portray a message in his text, and was trying to share something with his audience.
C. It's not what I learned, it's what I realized. I realized that I have been missing the meaning of so many sentences, paragraphs, and stories for so long.

Eleri

2/26/2014 06:36:34 am

A. The more we read it I started to dig a little deeper into it and get more of an understanding of the text.
B. I think it gives the text a deeper meaning and it allows everyone to have their own personal interpretation of it.
C. I learned that the more I read it and the more I got into it the more highlevel my interpretations and understandinga were.

Jade

2/26/2014 06:38:58 am

A. By doing the close reading activity yesterday it helped me to understand the text better.
B. word choice, figurative language, and repetition help to add a whole new meaning to the poem. It makes you think more about what you're really reading and what it means.
C. By analyzing the text, "A Father To His Son" I learned that it takes more than just reading over the text once to really understand the meaning of the text. You have to read the text at least three times to fully understand it. You can't just read it, you have to read it closely and think about it as you read it every time. You have to actually scrutinize it deeply.

Claire

2/26/2014 06:50:47 am

A. It really helped me reading the poem this way because reading it just one time aloud does not help me at all. I need to go over multiple times to really get deep in the text, so I liked reading it like this
B.The writing techniques the author uses adds emphasis to important parts and helps readers to decipher the deeper meaning of the text. It also just makes the text more interesting to read.
C.I learned that I can go in a million different directions on a text if I actually know and understand the deeper parts of texts and analyze it closer.

Patience

2/26/2014 06:51:05 am

A. Yesterdays activity helped me look into the text deeper. By reading it 3 times with 3 different purposes I was able to look at it in 3 different ways which helped understand it better.

B. The languge that he used and the way he used it actually helped me understand. For example, he uses repetion when he says"tell him" over and over. This showed me that the author thinks it is very important to 'tell him' whatever he needs to be told.

C.By reading the poem, I learned that I can understand a text better by reading it more that once.

Audrey

2/26/2014 06:59:08 am

A. Yesterday's reading showed me that if you look at a text more then once you can find something different and more in-depth everytime. It also showed me that the Authors words may mean something ENTIRELY different then what it seems the first time you read it.
B.The figurative language puts emphasis on the authors point of view and it brings out meaning where you usually wouldn't notice. It also help to make the poem more descriptive, meaningful, and exiting.
C. This poem made me realize that we all interpret things differntly. Everything means something different to each person. I also learned that i tend to look on both sides: positive and negative. It helped me realize some of the importance of family and life itself.

Hannah

2/26/2014 08:22:34 am

A. Yesterday's close reading activity allowed me to dig into the text and pull out deeper meaning. If you read a complicated text once you are bound to miss several pieces of figurative language.
B. His word choice and figurative language made the text more complex. His repetition shows you where he wants to emphasis certain lines. It also shows how important he thinks the subject matter it.
C. I learned that I often don't read texts deeply. I get caught reading to quickly and I recently learned to read slower so I can comprehend fully what I am reading.

Xavier Brown

2/26/2014 10:21:46 am

A. It helped me see the text in a whole new way by allowing me see it in a deeper level.
B. It emphasizes the theme which I believe was that sons still need advice as they grow in order to avoid mistakes that could destroy good opportunities.
C. I learned that I tend to almost never reread a text when I should because if I don't I could miss important textual clues about the theme or what the author is trying to get across.

Katie

2/26/2014 01:11:05 pm

A. The close reading of the text helped me immensely, to fully understand the text. Looking at the text in different perspectives really helped me realize the deeper meanings of the text. Each new perspective was like looking at the text through a lens, and each new perspective added a lens making the text clearer with each lens. The close reading technique really helped me fully understand the text.
B. Other than adding emphasis to certain important word and phrases, the repetition added to the rhythm of the poem. The figurative language not only showed how the passage could be read from different perspectives, but it also gave insight to what the author thought a person should be like.(be steel ;be a rock; be gentle go easy; be a fool every so often; be alone often etc.) This gives you insight to the authors morals, beliefs and family upbringing.
C. During this analysis I learned that I like to read things through one lens(my point of view, the one that comes most natural). The analysis taught me that I should broaden my horizons when I closely read a text. I should think about all different ways of looking at the subject, not just mine. I should look specifically for different parts to more precisely understand the meaning of the passage. This technique really improved my close reading skills.

Suzanna Grady

2/26/2014 01:48:34 pm

A. The activity yesterday that included the closes reading of the text helped me to better understand the text. It showed me a deeper meaning of the poem and the possible stories behind it. It was easier to relate it to the essential question after reading it closer and gave me more of an insight.
B. The word choice, figurative language, repetition, and other similar things helped to enhance the importance of certain pieces in the text. It also drew out the details that were going to help go deeper into the meaning of the poem in contrast with pieces that didn't include those elements.
C. I learned that I, as a reader, can use close reading to better understand the text. When using close readings I can draw deeper conclusions of what the text might be portraying. Expanding the ways I look at the text and the point of views that I read the text helps me.

Marshall

3/2/2014 12:21:44 am

A. I was not here for the close reading activity.

B. The figurative language was tough to understand, but it still added more meaning to the poem in a sense. Instead of Carl Sandburg just outright saying things, he used the abstract, "long way around".

C. I learned that it takes me at least twice to get a poem like this. I can't just skim through and hope that it makes sense. I have to dig down and try to figure out the meaning of the text.

Bryce

3/12/2014 04:28:11 am

A) I understood it more, especially because when I had trouble my group was there to help me understand it more.

B) Word choice is a key factor, it shows that you know the text if you use them correctly. It also makes you look smarter.

C)I have learned that it takes me a couple times reading some things to fully understand them.

"A Father to His Son" by Carl Sandburg

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Kimberly Barrett, NBCT, Bachelor of Arts of English, Murray State University, 1996, Master's Degree in English, MSU, 2004

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"A Father to His Son" by Carl Sandburg

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Kimberly Barrett, NBCT, Bachelor of Arts of English, Murray State University, 1996, Master's Degree in English, MSU, 2004

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