STAR Block Day 1—SATP Prep

1. Silently read the first poem all the way through one time.2. Now, silently read the poem again, writing the main idea from each stanza in the right margin. 3. Read the poem through one more time, this time marking any evidence that supports the theme of Equality of Race and Gender.4. Now read the second poem and follow the steps above.5. Class discussion of results.

AIN'T I A WOMAN?

That man over there say     a woman needs to be helped into carriagesand lifted over ditches     and to have the best place everywhere.Nobody ever helped me into carriages     or over mud puddles     or gives me a best place...

And ain't I a woman?     Look at meLook at my arm!     I have plowed and plantedand gathered into barns     and no man could head me...

And ain't I a woman?     I could work as muchand eat as much as a man —      when I could get to it — and bear the lash as well     and ain't I a woman?

I have born 13 children     and seen most all sold into slaveryand when I cried out a mother's grief     none but Jesus heard me...

And ain't I a woman?     that little man in black there saya woman can't have as much rights as a man     cause Christ wasn't a womanWhere did your Christ come from?     From God and a woman!Man had nothing to do with him!     If the first woman God ever madewas strong enough to turn the world     upside down, all alonetogether women ought to be able to turn it     rightside up again.

Copyright © Sojourner Truth, 1852.

For Women By Talib Kweli

A daughter come up in Georgia, ripe and ready to plant seeds,Left the plantation when she saw a sign even though she can’t readIt came from God and when life get hard she always speak to him,She’d rather kill her babies than let the master get to ‘em,

She on the run up north to get across the Mason-Dixon In church she learned how to be patient and keep wishin’,The promise of eternal life after death for those that God blessShe swears the next baby she’ll have, will breathe a free breathAnd get milk from a free breast,And love being alive,Otherwise they’ll have to give up being themselves to survive…

Some will grow to be old women, some will die before they born,They’ll be mothers and lovers who inspire and make songs,But me, my skin is brown and my manner is tough,Like the love I give my babies when the rainbow’s enuff,I aint got time to lie, my life has been much too rough,Still running with bare feet, I aint got nothin’ but my soul,Freedom is the ultimate goal,Life and death is small on the whole, in many waysI’m awfully bitter these daysBecause the only parents God gave me, they were slaves,And it crippled me, I got the destiny of a casualty,And I live through my babies and I change my reality

Maybe one day I’ll ride back to Georgia on a train,Folks ‘round there call me Peaches, I guess that’s my name.

Name_______________________________________________________________ English Teacher________________________________________STAR Block Day 2—SATP PrepSet up a simple outline for the two poems read on Day 1 that matches the following prompt. Be sure to write a thesis statement that addresses the prompt, a topic sentence for each body paragraph, and evidence from each poem that supports your topic sentence. You do NOT have to write the essay, just the thesis statement, topic sentences, and a list of evidence to be used. This will be sent to your English teacher for a grade.

Prompt: Sojourner Truth is a celebrated, famous poet who has received great recognition for her literary efforts. Talib Kweli is a skillful Hip-Hop poet whose work is largely unknown outside the contemporary world of Hip-Hop music. Yet, both poets develop the same theme of Equality of Race and Sex.

Write an essay in which you analyze the different approaches the authors take to develop the theme of Equality of Race and Sex. Use specific evidence from both passages to support your analysis.(Circle the key terms in the prompt that tell you what you are doing in the essay.)

Write a sentence that states WHAT THE PROMPT IS TELLING YOU TO DO.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Outline

Thesis Statement:

Body Paragraph 1: Topic Sentence:

A. Evidence from Text:

B. Evidence from Text:

Body Paragraph 2: Topic Sentence:

A. Evidence from Text:

B. Evidence from Text:

Name__________________________________________________________English Teacher___________________________________________STAR Day 3—SATP PrepInstructions: Read the follow prompt, develop a thesis statement for it, and write one body paragraph that addresses the prompt. This will be sent to your English teacher and taken for a grade.

You have read two poems, “Ain’t I a Woman?”by Sojourner Truth and “For Women” by Talib Kweli. The main characters in both poems have similar character traits.

Write an essay in which you analyze the similarities of the two characters in these poems. In your essay, be sure to discuss the similar personality traits that both characters have. Use specific evidence from both passages to support your analysis. (Hint: Be sure to use your text evidence to PROVE YOUR POINT.)(Circle the key terms in the prompt that tell you what you are doing in the essay.)

Write a sentence that states WHAT THE PROMPT IS TELLING YOU TO DO.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thesis Statement:

Body Paragraph:

STAR Day 4—SATP PrepInstructions: Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Directions:Read the following selections. Then answer the questions that follow.From The Bedquilt by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

The Elwells were not consciously unkind to their aunt, they were even in a vague way fond of her; but she was so insignificant a figure in their lives that she was almost invisible to them. Aunt Mehetabel did not resent this treatment; she took it quite as unconsciously as they gave it. It was to be expected when one was an old-maid dependent in a busy family. She gathered what crumbs of comfort she could from their occasional careless kindnesses and tried to hide the hurt which even yet pierced her at her brother’s rough joking. In the winter when they all sat before the big hearth, roasted apples, drank mulled cider, and teased the girls about their beaux and the boys about their sweethearts, she shrank into a dusky corner with her knitting, happy if the evening passed without her brother saying, with a crude sarcasm, “Ask your Aunt Mehetabel about the beaux that used to come a-sparkin’ her!” or, “Mehetabel, how was’t when you was in love with Abel Cummings?” As a matter of fact, she had been the same at twenty as at sixty, a mouselike little creature, too shy for anyone to notice, or to raise her eyes for a moment and wish for a life of her own.

Her sister-in-law, a big hearty housewife, who ruled indoors with as autocratic a sway as did her husband on the farm, was rather kind in an absent, offhand way to the shrunken little old woman, and it was through her that Mehetabel was able to enjoy the one pleasure of her life. Even as a girl she had been clever with her needle in the way of patching bedquilts. More than that she could never learn to do. The garments which she made for herself were lamentable affairs, and she was humbly grateful for any help in the bewildering business of putting them together. But in patchwork she enjoyed a tepid importance. She could really do that as well as anyone else. During years of devotion to this one art she had accumulated a considerable store of quilting patterns. Sometimes the neighbors would send over and ask “Miss Mehetabel” for the loan of her sheaf-of-wheat design, or the double-star pattern. It was with an agreeable flutter at being able to help someone that she went to the dresser, in her bare little room under the eaves, and drew out from her crowded portfolio the pattern desired.

She never knew how her great idea came to her. Sometimes she thought she must have dreamed it, sometimes she even wondered reverently, in the phraseology of the weekly prayer-meeting, if it had not been “sent” to her. She never admitted to herself that she could have thought of it without other help. It was too great, too ambitious, too lofty a project for her humble mind to have conceived. Even when she finished drawing the design with her own fingers, she gazed at it incredulously, not daring to believe that it could indeed be her handiwork. At first it seemed to her only like a lovely but unreal dream. For a long time she did not once think of putting an actual quilt together following that pattern, even though she herself had invented it. It was not that she feared the prodigious effort that would be needed to get those tiny, oddly shaped pieces of bright-colored material sewed together with the perfection of fine workmanship needed. No, she thought zestfully and eagerly of such endless effort, her heart uplifted by her vision of the mosaic-beauty of the whole creation as she saw it, when she shut her eyes to dream of it—that complicated, splendidly difficult pattern—good enough for the angels in heaven to quilt.

But as she dreamed, her nimble old fingers reached out longingly to turn

her dream into reality. She began to think adventurously of trying it out—it would perhaps not be too selfish to make one square—just one unit of her design to see how it would look. She dared do nothing in the household where she was a dependent, without asking permission. With a heart full of hope and fear thumping furiously against her old ribs, she approached the mistress of the house on churning-day, knowing with the innocent guile of a child that the country woman was apt to be in a good temper while working over the fragrant butter in the cool cellar.

Sophia listened absently to her sister-in-law’s halting petition. “Why, yes, Mehetabel,” she said, leaning far down into the huge churn for the last golden morsels— “why, yes, start another quilt if you want to. I’ve got a lot of pieces from the spring sewing that will work in real good.” Mehetabel tried honestly to make her see that this would be no common quilt, but her limited vocabulary and her emotion stood between her and expression. At last Sophia said, with a kindly impatience: “Oh, there! Don’t bother me. I never could keep track of your quiltin’ patterns, anyhow. I don’t care what pattern you go by.”Mehetabel rushed back up the steep attic stairs to her room, and in a joyful agitation began preparations for the work of her life. Her very first stitches showed her that it was even better than she hoped. By some heaven-sent inspiration she had invented a pattern beyond which no patchwork quilt could go.She had but little time during the daylight hours filled with the incessant household drudgery. After dark she did not dare to sit up late at night lest she burn too much candle. It was weeks before the little square began to show the pattern. Then Mehetabel was in a fever to finish it. She was too conscientious to shirk even the smallest part of her share of the housework, but she rushed through it now so fast that she was panting as she climbed the stairs to her little room.

Every time she opened the door, no matter what weather hung outside the one small window, she always saw the little room flooded with sunshine. She smiled to herself as she bent over the innumerable scraps of cotton cloth on her work table. Already—to her—they were ranged in orderly, complex, mosaic- beauty.

Finally she could wait no longer, and one evening ventured to bring her work down beside the fire where the family sat, hoping that good fortune would give her a place near the tallow candles on the mantelpiece. She had reached the last corner of that first square and her needle flew in and out, in and out, with nervous speed. To her relief no one noticed her. By bedtime she had only a few more stitches to add.

As she stood up with the others, the square fell from her trembling old hands and fluttered to the table. Sophia glanced at it carelessly. “Is that the new quilt you said you wanted to start?” she asked, yawning. “Looks like a real pretty pattern. Let’s see it.”

Up to that moment Mehetabel had labored in the purest spirit of selfless adoration of an ideal. The emotional shock given her by Sophia’s cry of admiration as she held the work towards the candle to examine it, was as much astonishment as joy to Mehetabel.

“Land’s sakes!” cried her sister-in-law. “Why, Mehetabel Elwell, where did you git that pattern?”

“I made it up,” said Mehetabel. She spoke quietly but she was trembling.“No!” exclaimed Sophia. “Did you! Why, I never see such a pattern in my

life. Girls, come here and see what your Aunt Mehetabel is doing.”The three tall daughters turned back reluctantly from the stairs. “I never could seem to take much interest in patchwork quilts,” said one. Already the old- time skill born of early pioneer privation and the craving for beauty, had gone out of

style.“No, nor I neither!” answered Sophia. “But a stone image would take an

interest in this pattern. Honest, Mehetabel, did you really think of it yourself?” She held it up closer to her eyes and went on, “And how under the sun and stars did you ever git your courage up to start in a-making it? Land! Look at all those tiny squinchy little seams! Why, the wrong side ain’t a thing but seams! Yet the good side’s just like a picture, so smooth you’d think ‘twas woven that way. Only nobody could.”

The girls looked at it right side, wrong side, and echoed their mother’s exclamations. Mr. Elwell himself came over to see what they were discussing. “Well, I declare!” he said, looking at his sister with eyes more approving than she could ever remember. “I don’t know a thing about patchwork quilts, but to my eye that beats old Mis’ Andrew’s quilt that got the blue ribbon so many times at the County Fair.”

As she lay that night in her narrow hard bed, too proud, too excited to sleep, Mehetabel’s heart swelled and tears of joy ran down from her old eyes.

DirectionsAnswer the following questions about the excerpt from “The Bedquilt.”

1. You can draw the conclusion from lines 1–13 that Mehetabel A. feels inferior to her family members B. wishes to move away from her family C. seeks revenge against her brother D. avoids spending time with the family

Text Evidence:_______________________________________________________________

2. The Latin root fig means “form.” What is the most likely meaning of the word figure as it is used in line 2?

A. feelingB. place

C. idea D. person

Text Evidence:________________________________________________________________

3.Reread lines 7–13. You can infer that the story is set in a place that A. receives large amounts of rain B. withstands harsh winds C. grows many apple trees D. experiences cold win

Text Evidence:________________________________________________________________

4. The sensory detail “she shrank into a dusky corner” from lines 9–10 helps you understand A. the Elwells’ values B. Mehetabel’s situation C. Sophia’s feelings D. the art of quilt making

5. Reread lines 16–19. You can infer that the Elwells live A. alongside a river B. in the mountains C. near their neighbors D. in the count

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

6.What do lines 16–20 foreshadow about Mehetabel? A. She will fail at something. B. She will argue with her brother. C. She will have some joy in her life. D. Her sister-in-law will cause a problem

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

7. The details in lines 31–46 foreshadow the A. fear Mehetabel has about asking for help B. beauty of the quilt that Mehetabel begins C. speed with which Mehetabel does chores D. hurt that Mehetabel’s brother causes her

Text Evidence:_____________________________________________________________________________________

Name______________________________________________________English Teacher______________________________________________STAR Day 5—SATP PrepInstruction: Write a narrative paragraph retelling a portion of “The Bedquilt” from Sophia’s first-person point of view. Think carefully about the character of Sophia and how the narrative will change based on her point of view. Include details from the story in your paragraph. This will be sent to your English teacher for a grade. (Circle the key terms in the prompt that tell you what you are doing in the essay.)

Write a sentence that states WHAT THE PROMPT IS TELLING YOU TO DO.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

STAR Day 6—SATP PrepInstructions. Read the following passage and answer the questions below.

Can Art Be Raw? By Eldin Clow

The history of fine art is full of “movements,” such as Impressionism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop Art. As art students learn about these movements, few may pause to wonder whether if there are alternatives to “fine art.” As it turns out, alternatives abound in the metaphorical conservatory called “Raw Art.”

A dictionary would define fine art as a creation—painting, sculpture, tapestry, engraving, jewelry, video, and so on—that a person makes for the sake of its intrinsic beauty rather than for a practical use. In contrast, a craftsperson makes a craft object for a practical use; if the object is also beautiful, people may consider it a work of art.

Beyond these categories, the person who makes raw art (also called outsider art) is not interested in other people’s perception of beauty or usefulness. Instead, this artist follows an inner passion and vision and has little or no artistic training. Sometimes this category also includes artists who create out of medical necessity, such as people with autism or schizophrenia.

The term raw artis an English translation of Art Brut,a concept advanced by French artist Jean Dubuffet in 1948. Dubuffet was fascinated with works that were “uncooked” by academic and cultural flames. Dubuffet collected numerous works from untutored artists. His acquisitions formed the core of the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, a vibrant museum that continues to acquire and exhibit the work of raw artists from around the world.

As Michel Thévoz, once the museum’s curator, explains: “Working outside the fine art ‘system’ (schools, galleries, museums, and so on), these people have produced, from the depths of their own personalities and for themselves and no one else, works of outstanding originality in concept, subject and techniques. They are works which owe nothing to tradition or fashion. . . . ‘Art brut’ artists . . . create their works for their own use, as a kind of private theatre.”

Most outsider artists have intriguing, even baffling, life stories. Their biographies share humble childhoods and a passionate creativity that no one could have predicted. The artist Scottie Wilson is an example. Born in 1888 in Scotland, he left school at age eight to help support his family. He entered the military when he was eighteen. After World War I he moved to Toronto, Canada, and ran a second-hand shop. He began doodling with a fountain pen one day in the 1920s or 1930s. His intricate drawings usually pitted good against evil. He was “discovered,” but exhibited his drawings only after overcoming a deep distrust of art dealers. After he died, people found that this man who complained of poverty had money hidden under his bed and in many bank accounts.

Other outsider artists have similar stories. For example, Madge Gill was placed in a London orphanage when she was nine, and then she was sent to Canada to work on a farm. She returned to London and married in the early 1900s. After two of her children died, she began trying to contact them through the spirit world. In drawings as small as postcards and as large as rolls of fabric, her subject matter was always her own spiritual quest.

Minnie Evans of North Carolina left school in sixth grade. She began drawing her dreams when she was forty-three years old. She continued, inspired by her work as a gatekeeper for the elaborate gardens owned by her husband’s employer. Although some local people called her crazy, she eventually won nationwide fame for her art.

In another category is the savantartist, a person who has a single remarkable talent. Most savants live in institutions for the disabled. One representative savant is Stephen Wiltshire, the subject of a German documentary film in the late 1980s.

Wiltshire has autism, a condition in which a person’s interaction with the world, including relationships and communication, is limited and unusual. Wiltshire is able to draw buildings in intricate detail and with perfect perspective. He can see a complex structure, even just in a photograph, and recall every detail when he later begins to draw. He does not add his own style to the buildings he draws; he reproduces them exactly.

Wiltshire attended a school for children with special needs. When he started to draw, he also began to develop relationships with other people. Wiltshire is unusual in that he later showed similar musical skills (savants with more than one talent are rare). As an adult, Wiltshire has published books and opened his own London art gallery.

Appreciation has grown for raw art since Jean Dubuffet’s time. Today, every major city has one or more galleries devoted to works of the people called outsiders, folk artists, self-taught artists, and “marginal artists.” Furthermore, any cross-country trip offers opportunities to stop at “visionary environments” created from such materials as hubcaps, bottle caps, and rocks. Can art be raw? It certainly can.

1. From the term “outsider art,” you can infer that art school graduates A. have privileged childhoods B. are “insiders” C. make craft, not art D. love art for its usefulness

Text Evidence:____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. You can conclude from lines 20–25 that Art Brut creations are unusually A. traditional B. fashionable C. original D. technical

Text Evidence:________________________________________________________________

3. Which is the main idea in lines 26–35? A. Many outsider artists have similar backgrounds. B. Most outsider artists hide their money. C. Passion is unique to outsider artists. D. Canada has an unusual number of outsider artists

Text Evidence:________________________________________________________________

4. You can draw the conclusion from lines 44–55 that Stephen Wiltshire A. has attracted public attention B. suffered poverty and hunger C. makes highly original art D. is a very typical savant

Text Evidence:________________________________________________________________Answer the following questions about the excerpt from “The Bedquilt” and “Can Art Be Raw.”

5. From evidence in both selections, you can infer that art schools A. suffer from the burden of tradition B. try to attract outsider artists C. offer classes in quilting techniques D. do not produce outsider artists

Text Evidence:___________________________________________________________________

6. How does Mehetabel’s life history resemble that of an outsider artist? A. She makes extraordinary quilts all her life. B. She is forced to work as a child. C. Her talent emerges when she is an adult. D. When she matures, she distrusts people.

Text Evidence:__________________________________________________________________

7. Mehetabel’s experience supports which main idea from “Can Art Be Raw”? A. The raw artist follows an inner vision. B. Raw artists have medical conditions. C. Education may trigger artistic expression. D. Quilters are often raw artists.

Text Evidence:__________________________________________________________________

Name_________________________________________________________________English Teacher_____________________________________STAR Day 7—SATP Prep

Instructions: Reread “Can Art Be Raw?” Below, list the author’s major claim and the support he uses for that claim.

Major Claim:

Support Used for the Major Claim:

STAR Day 8a—SATP PrepRead the following selection and answer the question and answer the questions that follow.

This article was written and published before Pluto’s planetary status was taken away.War of the Worlds by Mike Brown

Last year, two colleagues and I announced that we had found an unknown body slightly larger than Pluto in the far reaches of our solar system. Since then, astronomical confusion has reigned on Earth and, depending on whom you ask, our solar system has 8, 9, 10 or, shockingly, 53 planets.

Next week, the International Astronomical Union, which oversees astronomical rules and conventions, will vote on a strict definition of “planet.” The result of that vote is hard to predict, but soon, we’ll likely lose a planet we’ve gotten to know for the past 76 years, or gain at least one more.

From a scientific point of view, the status of Pluto and the newly discovered object—stuck with the cumbersome label 2003 UB313 until astronomers decide what it is—is easy to discern. If you were to look unemotionally at the hundreds of thousands of bodies orbiting the sun, only eight (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) would clearly distinguish themselves by their large sizes.

The remaining objects, which are significantly smaller, are mostly either rocky bodies in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt in the distant regions beyond Neptune. Of the more than 1,000 known objects in the Kuiper Belt, 2003 UB313 and Pluto are the largest and second largest.

So why is there any debate at all, if the scientific view is so clear?It all dates back to the discovery of Pluto in 1930. At the time, Pluto was thought to be considerably larger than it is now known to be, and the existence of the rest of the Kuiper Belt was unknown. No other reasonable category existed in which to place the object, so Pluto became the oddball planet at the edge of the solar system.

Since then, Pluto has been very much a part of our mental map of the universe. You’ll find it on lunchboxes, postage stamps, NASA Web sites, and in the mnemonics that children learn to remember the planets. Pluto’s qualifications may be more cultural than scientific, but we’ve fully embraced it as a planet in good standing.

This is why astronomers who question Pluto’s status come across as bullies trying to kick everyone’s favorite cosmic underdog out of the club. And while they have a point—after all, it’s not a great idea to let cultural attachmentsdictate scientific categories—they’re missing an important part of the picture.Think of it this way. The term “planet” is similar to “continent.” The word helps us organize our world, but the division between continents and subcontinents is thoroughly arbitrary. Yet no union of geologists has tried to vote on a definition of “continent,” and no one is concerned that letting culture determine the difference between Australia, the smallest continent, and Greenland, the largest island, somehow erodes science.

Like continents, planets are defined more by how we think of them than by someone’s after-the-fact pronouncement.

How then should we think about 2003 UB313? I’m biased, but I like to

imagine this question through the eyes of the child I was in the 1970’s, when astronauts had just walked on the Moon, the first pictures were coming back from the surface of Mars and the launch of Skylab promised a future of unbroken space exploration.

If I had heard back then about the discovery of something at the edge of the solar system, I wouldn’t have waited for a body of astronomers to tell me what it was. I would have immediately cut out a little disk of white paper and taped it to the poster of planets on my bedroom wall. That night, I would have looked up, straining to see the latest addition to our solar system, hoping that I, too, might someday find a new planet.

Recently, many plans for exploration and scientific study have been scrapped, and those that haven’t are being scaled back. It’s hard to have the same excitement about a limitless future in space.

The astronomical union isn’t helping matters by forcing a Hobson’s choice: stick with the current nine planets or open the floodgates to a yawn- inducing 53 or more. It’s a “No Ice Ball Left Behind” policy.

I hope the union takes another galactic approach, and simply declares 2003 UB313 our 10th, full-fledged planet. Doing so might convince schoolchildren to put new paper disks on their walls, to look up to the sky and realize that exploration does continue, and that they can be part of it, too.

1. What is the author’s claim? A. Pluto and 2003 UB313 are small but interesting. B. Unlike the other eight planets, Pluto has an unusual orbit. C. Scientists should allow Pluto and 2003 UB313 to have planetary status. D . 2003 UB313 should be the only new planet allowed into the solar system.

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

2. The phrase “lose a planet we’ve gotten to know for the past 76 years” appeals to your A. emotions B. ethics C. desires D. values

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

3. Use context clues to answer this question about specialized vocabulary. In line 11, the word astronomers means something related to A. Pluto B. orbits C. scientists D. labels

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

4. A thesaurus lists synonyms of distinguish as “spot, set apart, observe, remark.” Which word could be substituted for distinguish as it is used in line 14? A. spot B.set apart C. observe D. remark

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

5. A thesaurus lists synonyms of existence as “lifetime, actuality, duration, individual.” Which word could be substituted for existence as it is used in line 22? A. lifetime B. actuality C. duration D. individual

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

6. The author uses a counterargument against the concern that A. culture should not shape science B. 2003 UB313 is not in the Kuiper Belt C. Pluto is not important to the solar system D. scientists cannot control planet popularity

Text Evidence:_________________________________________________________________

7. What evidence does the author use to show that there should be no strict meaning for the word planet? A. The label 2003 UB313 is awkward. B. Pluto appears on postage stamps. C. Astronomers like only large planets. D. Geologists do not define continent.

STAR Day 8b—SATP PrepDirections: Read the following passage and answer the questions.

Why Pluto Had to Go by Bryan Gaensler

For thousands of years, the field of astronomy focused on making measurements and catalogues, often painstakingly built up over years or decades. But the modern astronomer’s emphasis is now on understanding, rather than just measuring. How are stars born, why do they shine, and how do they die? How old is the universe, what is it made of, and what is making it expand? It’s the need to answer these questions, not just to make pretty pictures of the sky, that motivates my colleagues and me.

But recently the focus of world astronomy has been back on measuring and labeling. This past week in Prague, thousands of astronomers gathered together for the general assembly of the International Astronomical Union. And amidst the debates about new scientific theories and the announcements of exciting discoveries, astronomers decided to change the number of planets in the Solar System.

This came about when a resolution passed that a planet should hereon be defined as a spherical object that orbits a star, and which has cleared the neighborhood around it. The number of planets in the Solar System consequently drops from nine to eight; Pluto has now been demoted, and joins a variety of other small objects, such as Ceres, Sedna and Orcus, in a new yet-to-be-named category of “dwarf planets.”

The new definition of a planet is simple and sensible. A celestial body can only be round if it is large enough for its gravity to pull it into a spherical shape. This excludes the vast majority of Solar System bodies, most of which are small misshapen asteroids. The requirement that a planet orbit a star also makes sense, since some of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are otherwise big enough to qualify as planets. Finally, the key criterion that has demoted Pluto, that a planet must be able to clear out its neighborhood, is based on our understanding that a newly forming planet around a young star clears out a large area around it as it sweeps up surrounding debris. While the first eight planets all rule their orbits, Pluto follows an unusual elongated path that crosses the orbit of Neptune. Clearly it does not make the cut.

Many people feel very passionate about Pluto’s status as a planet, and will be disappointed or disbelieving that astronomers have voted to change this. But Pluto’s status as a planet was only ever a historical accident. For decades, astronomers had been convinced that the orbits of Uranus and Neptune hinted atthe gravitational influence of a massive, more distant body, “Planet X.” When Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930, this exciting new object was quickly anointed as the ninth planet, before much was even known about it. But subsequent study showed that Pluto is puny, barely a quarter the size of our own Moon. And we now know that Planet X never existed, the product of some subtle errors in some century-old mathematical calculations.

So Pluto was only a planet because it was in the right place at the right time. Demoting this tiny lump of rock was a good decision. I encourage all Pluto- lovers to have a look at Pluto for themselves. Even through the largest telescope, it is barely distinguishable from the stars around it. Compare this to the spectacular sight of Jupiter’s moons and cloud bands, or the majesty of Saturn’s

rings. When one factors in the presence of over 200 planets now known around other stars, all with their own weather systems, moons, rings and other features waiting to be studied and understood, it’s clear that it was time for little Pluto to step aside.

1. Which sentence best summarizes the key point of lines 1–7? A. Pictures of the sky motivate scientists to research space. B. Some astronomical catalogues are thousands of years old. C. Astronomers now focus on understanding, not measuring. D. Stars are born through a complicated process.

2. Use context clues to answer this question about specialized vocabulary. In line 5, the word universe means something related to A.catalogs B. measurements C. pictures D. astronomy

3. Which sentence best summarizes the key point of lines 14–19? A. Ceres is one of many small objects in the Solar System. B. Sedna and Orcus are in a new category of “dwarf planets.” C. A resolution passed that resulted in Pluto’s demotion to “dwarf planet.” D. There are eight planets in the solar system.

4. Which information supports the author’s opinion that it is a sensible requirement that a planet must orbit a star? A. Some of Jupiter’s moons are large enough to be planets. B. Many misshapen asteroids exist in the solar system. C. Pluto follows an elongated path that crosses Neptune’s orbit. D. Saturn cleared out a large area around itself as it swept up debris.

Name_________________________________________________________________English Teacher_____________________________________STAR Day 9—SATP Prep

Instructions: Fill in the following answers for the two previously read passages.

“War of the Worlds”

Major Claim:

Evidence that supports major claim:

Any counter claims addressed:

“Why Pluto Had to Go”

Major Claim:

Evidence that supports claim:

Any counter claims addressed:

Name___________________________________________________________English Teacher_____________________________________________STAR Day 10—SATP Prep—Research SimulationInstructions: Develop a thesis statement for the following writing prompt. Write one body paragraph for the essay. This will be turned into your English teacher for a grade.

Writing Prompt: You read the passages pertaining to Pluto, “War of the Worlds” and “Why Pluto Had to Go.” Write an essay that compares the primary argument in the passages regarding where or not Pluto should be considered a planet. Your essay should explain how effectively each passage uses evidence and/or reasoning to support the primary argument. Be sure to support your answer using evidence from each passage. BE SURE TO INCLUDE THE PROPER DOCUMENTATION WITHIN PARENTHESES WHENEVER YOU USE TEXT EVIDENCE FROM THE SOURCES. (Circle the key terms in the prompt that tell you what you are doing in the essay.)

Write a sentence that states WHAT THE PROMPT IS TELLING YOU TO DO.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thesis Statement:

Body Paragraph:

Name_________________________________________________________________English Teacher_____________________________________STAR Day 11—SATP PrepInstructions: Read the following U.S. document and answer the questions after.

Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg by Abraham Lincoln(November 19, 1863)

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

1. What is Lincoln’s purpose for writing this speech? Who was the audience?

2. In what ways does he accomplish that purpose?

3. To what task does Lincoln refer when he says, “the great task remaining before us”?

4. Lincoln wrote this speech on an envelope on the way to the battleground, yet it is considered to be an important U.S. document. Why is it considered to be so important?

Name_________________________________________________________________English Teacher_____________________________________STAR Day 12 and 13—SATP Prep

Instructions: Read the following poem and answer the questions.

When You Are Old

When you are old and gray and full of sleepAnd nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft lookYour eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,And loved your beauty with love false or true;But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead,And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

1. Find at least five poetic devices.

2. What is the theme? What specific lines from the text indicate this theme?

Now read the following poems.

He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead by William Butler Yeats

Were you but lying cold and dead,And lights were paling out of the West,You would come hither, and bend your head,And I would lay my head on your breast;And you would murmur tender words,Forgiving me, because you were dead:Nor would you rise and hasten away,Though you have the will of the wild birds,But know your hair was bound and woundAbout the stars and moon and sun:O would, beloved, that you layUnder the dock-leaves in the ground,While lights were paling one by one.

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,Enwrought with golden and silver light,The blue and the dim and the dark clothsOf night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:But I, being poor, have only my dreams;I have spread my dreams under your feet;Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

What is the theme of these two poems? Underline lines in the text that indicate this theme.

Set up a two-column chart below that compares and contrasts these three poems.

Compare Contrast

Name_________________________________________________________________English Teacher_____________________________________STAR Block 14—SATP PrepRead the excerpt from the author’s biography, and complete the comparing and contrasting exercise following this passage.

Excerpt from “Yeats Meets the Digital Age, Full of Passionate Intensity” by Jim Dwyer Published: July 20, 2008

William Butler Yeats is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Born in Ireland, Yeats was constantly affirming and extolling his Irish nationality. Although he lived in London as a child and during parts of his adult life, Yeats maintained his Irish roots. The subject of his life and his literature is Ireland and Irish people.

The most important event in Yeats’ life was his acquaintance with Maud Gonne, a tall, beautiful, prominent young actress with striking red hair. Yeats soon fell in love with Gonne, and for nearly three decades he courted her. Yeats wrote in 1889 after their meeting, “the troubling of my life began.”

With her in mind for the lead role, he composed a play, The Countess Kathleen. When it finally opened 10 years later, Gonne did not appear in the play. This was not the first, or the last time, that she broke his heart. She had several other lovers despite his pleas for her to marry him. She turned him down at least twice. She married another man, and, when that marriage ended, she turned to Yeats for support, which he gladly offered.

In 1916, when he was still a bachelor at 51, he turned again to Gonne with an offer of marriage. She declined. After that refusal, he married a 26-year-old woman. They had two children. He, allegedly, was never unfaithful to her, although whether or not he ever saw Gonne again is unclear.

Read all three poems again. Knowing what you know about Yeats’ life, write a short essay about how his real relationship with Gonne affected his poetry. Use specific lines (at least one from each poem) to support your position. (You are simply gathering evidence to use in an essay.)

How it affected his poetry Text Evidence

STAR Lesson 15—SAPT Prep

In this poem, the speaker is going to be talking about the fact that she is “phenomenal.” However, when she says this, she is probably not being conceited. She is probably not trying to put anyone else down. On the contrary, it is more likely that she is trying to show readers the way she thinks in order to help readers

learn to think that way about themselves too. In other words, although it’s about a “phenomenal woman,” the poem can teach all of us, men and women, how to improve our self-esteem and be proud of who we are. Read the following poem.

Excerpt from “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s sizeBut when I start to tell them,They think I’m telling lies.I say,It’s in the reach of my armsThe span of my hips,The stride of my step,The curl of my lips.I’m a womanPhenomenally.Phenomenal woman,That’s me.

I walk into a roomJust as cool as you please,And to a man,The fellows stand orFall down on their knees.Then they swarm around me,A hive of honey bees.I say,It’s the fire in my eyes,And the flash of my teeth,The swing in my waist,And the joy in my feet.I’m a womanPhenomenally.Phenomenal woman,That’s me…“Now you understandJust why my head’s not bowed.I don’t shout or jump aboutOr have to talk real loud.When you see me passing,It ought to make you proud…”

Name_____________________________________________________________English Teacher________________________________________1. Find five examples of figurative language in the poem. Label and explain the purpose. Why did the

author choose to use this?

2. Re-read lines 1 and 2. Make an inference about what the speaker looks like.

3. Throughout the entire poem, what are some qualities that she possesses that she thinks makes her “phenomenal?”

4. Most of these qualities are probably figurative. What is the essential quality or qualities she possesses that maker her phenomenal?

5. Re-read lines 30-35. Why does she say that? Why should we be proud of her?

6. What can YOU learn from this poem? Write a paragraph about what could apply to your own life. Why are we ALL “phenomenal” people? Use specific lines from the poem to support your answer.