1.

Complete the web showing choices and decisions you may have to make in the next few years and the factors that affect these choices. Determining Factors

Interests Friends Choices Parents

Share your choices and decisions with your partner. 2. List common dilemmas that teenagers face involving the choice of one or more roads. Give examples of roads that you must travel (e.g., facing peer pressure, choosing friends, observing school and parents rules, acting on your own values). _________________________________________________________________ 3. Title: Notice the emphasis on the road not taken.Why might this emphasis be important? Keep this in mind as we read the poem.

1. Fill in the chart. Setting (Where and When?) Character (Who?) Events (What happened?) 2. Answer the questions: A stanza is a group of lines that forms a unit in a poem.

Stanza 1

1. 2. 3.

Where is the traveler as he starts telling his story? What prevents the traveler from seeing father down the road? What regret does he express in the first stanza of the poem? Which road does the traveler choose? What does the word that refer to? What similarities between the two roads does the traveler point out? What is said about the two roads on that fall morning? What decision did the traveler make in the woods, as the two roads equally lay before him? What does the traveler realize as he takes one of the roads? Does he think his decision will have any impact on his life? Yes / No Quote from the poem to justify your answer.

Stanza 2

4. 5. 6.

Stanza 3

7. 8.

9.

Stanza 4

10.

3. The sentences below explain the poem in less poetic language. Match the sentences to the appropriate line numbers in the poem.
1. A traveler has reached a crossroads in a forest. 3. The travelers choice of road directly impacted his life path. 5. The road he did not take seemed to have been used by more travelers. 2. The traveler regrets or feels comforted by his choice. 4.The two roads were, in fact, more similar that different (2 lines) 6. However hard he tried to look down the road, the vegetation of the forest prevented him from seeing where it led (2 lines) 7. In life, one event or choice leads to another and its unlikely we can go back to where we started

1. What is the speakers dilemma in the poem and how does he solve it? Complete the graphic organizer. Use the thinking skill of Problem Solving.

Problem / Dilemma Option 1 Option 2

Solution

2. Answer the questions: 1.Why doesnt the speaker think he will ever have a chance to walk the other road? What does this tell us about our decisions?

2. What kind of a person do you think the speaker is? 3. The speaker does not yet know how his choice has affected his life. He says he shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence.

3.

metaphor

is a type of comparison in which one thing is described as if it

were something else. For example: Life is a dream

Symbolism

is the use of a concrete image (symbol) to present an abstract

idea. For example: sunshine may symbolize happiness

* Fill in the table using the word bank: a sudden decision, future, unconventional (less used), fall, choice Metaphor two roads diverged in the woods (line 1) yellow wood (line 1) to where it bent in the undergrowth (line 5) then took the other, as just as fair (line 6) it was grassy It symbolizes

The theme

is the central philosophical idea of a story or a poem. We

can usually find the theme by asking, What is this work about?

4.

* Fill in the blanks to complete the following paragraph that deals with the theme of the poem. Use the word bank: In the poem the speaker stands at a 1___________ in the road. Frost uses the road as a 2_____________ of life. The poet tries to see where the 3__________ in life will lead. He looks down one road until it bends in the 4_______________ and he cannot see any further. Similarly, it is difficult for us to see what will happen in the 5____________. We can only see the immediate future and then our vision becomes 6____________ by the unknown. The poet finally chooses the other road, justifying his 7____________ by saying that it was grassy and wanted wear. He chooses it because fewer people have walked that way and he sees it as the less 8______________ and more adventurous choice. However, he knows that both roads are equally inviting his 9__________ to take one or the other is totally arbitrary. He tries to console himself with the thought that he will return and take the other road, but he knows that way leads on to way and one can never 10___________ to the same point again. In the final 11_________ the poet projects himself into the future and contemplates the consequences of his decision. There are several interpretations of this stanza. The poets sigh might be one of 12____________ and satisfaction with his decision, which has made all the difference in his life. However, it could also be one of 13___________that he will never know what he missed by not taking the other road, or that things didnt work out as he had hoped. It is 14_____________ that the poem is called The Road Not Taken, as the poet wonders what would have happened if he had taken the other road.

regret, appropriate, return, relief, stanza, decision, conventional, obscured, choice, future, undergrowth, roads, symbol, fork

The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

3. Read the fourth paragraph and find out the following: a). What "momentous decision" was made by Frost? ___________________________________________________________________ b). How old was he when he had to make this decision? ___________________________________________________________________ c). Why was it so difficult to make this decision? Think and give more than one reason. ___________________________________________________________________ d). Was the "road" Frost had taken easy "to travel"?

By Robert Frost
Post-Reading Activity Think of a situation in life which requires making an important choice. Describe the situation and think of two separate kinds of experiences you might encounter as a result of choosing one road over another. (120 words)

Think of a choice you have made. Do you have any regrets? Do you think your life would have been different had you made a different choice? (120 words)

Write the speech the speaker makes at his 80th birthday party. (120 words)

Do a PowerPoint Presentation of the poem with your interpretation. If the road in the poem could talk, what would they say? Write what each road says to convince the reader to choose it. Begin: If you choose me, (120 words) Write a poem or a song of your own about the theme of this poem. Use metaphor. Did you like the poem? Explain your answer in at least two sentences. What did you find interesting or memorable about this poem? What did you learn from reading the poem?

Do you think that being aware of the stages of Problem Solving will help you make better decisions and solve problems more easily in the future?