Pre-AP English: The 5-S Strategies
for Passage Analysis
Author: Connie Shelnut
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 Why Pre-AP and the 5-S Strategies?
 To introduce AP terminology and analysis strategies
gradually in grades 6 through 12.
 To provide the building blocks for writing success to
ALL college bound students.
 To provide teachers and students tools to efficiently
target important components of poetry or prose for
analysis.
 To provide teachers and students a structure to
develop close reading skills in all grade levels and all
subjects.
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 Apply three basic literary terms (Diction,
Syntax and Imagery) used in passage
analysis to a short poem to gain a deeper
sense of how, through close reading, such
terminology can focus and deepen the
quality of any analysis.
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Helpful Hints for Beginning Analysis:
 Have dictionaries handy for students to look up
unfamiliar words.
 Choose a word definition appropriate for the context of
the passage.
 Re-read the passage or poem and seek answers for
what is unusual or significant in the diction, syntax or
imagery?
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Opportunity by Edward Sill
This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:-There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle , and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince’s banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle’s edge,
And thought, “Had I a sword of keener steel –
That blue blade that the king’s son bears – but this
Blunt thing!” he snapt, and flung it from his hand,
And lowering crept away and left the field.
Then came the king’s son, wounded, sore bestead,
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
Hilt-buried in the dry and trodden sand,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout
Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.
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 Activity with the poem, Opportunity
 Circle words that you think are significant or
important and ask yourself why this use of
diction is important.
 Underline places in the passage that contain
significant syntax and ask yourself why it is
important. What does it do?
 Put an asterisk over words or phrases that
evoke imagery. Ask yourself what creates this
imagery.
 Discuss with group and share results
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 Review basic literary terms most often
used in analysis
 Become familiar with the 5-S Strategies
for Passage Analysis and reflect on the
skills that effective close reading entails
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 Basic Terms for Passage Analysis
 Allusion – reference to a famous person or fictional character,
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assuming the reader knows the connection
Crux – the most crucial line(s) in a poem or prose passage that
shows the main point
Dialogue - conversation between two or more characters set off
by quotation marks
Diction – an author’s choice of words, i.e. denotation,
connotation, slang, etc.
Figures of Speech – states something that is not literally true in
order to create an effect, i.e. comparisons such as similes,
metaphors, and personification OR tropes such as allusions,
apostrophes, oxymorons and hyperboles
Imagery – descriptive words that appeal to the five senses
Irony – surprising, interesting or amusing contrast between
reality and expectation
 Basic Terms for Passage Analysis continued
 Meter – the rhythmic pattern of poetry: iambic, anapest, dactyl,
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trochee and spondee; and number of measures: tetrameter,
pentameter, hexameter, etc.
Mood – feeling created by the passage or poem
Motif – a thematic pattern repeated in the passage
Organization – the means by which the passage is presented:
chronological, thematic, etc.
Plot – the sequence in which the author arranges the story events
– developed by conflict, flashback, foreshadowing, suspense
Point of View – from whose view is the passage related – note any
shifts of speakers
Punctuation – dashes, commas, italics, etc.
Sentences (Syntax) – types, functions, patterns
Sentence Variety – short, long, openings, order
 Basic Terms for Passage Analysis continued
 Setting – the place and time period of the story
 Sound Devices – alliteration, assonance, consonance,
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onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm
Style – a writer’s typical way of expressing himself, including his
choice of diction, syntax and imagery
Syntax Techniques – anaphora, antithesis, ellipsis,
juxtaposition, parallelism, repetition, inversion, rhetorical
question, punctuation, etc.
Symbolism – a physical object that stands for an idea, i.e. our
flag represents American ideals
Theme – the unifying idea of the story that answers the
question, “What is the work about?”
Tone – author’s attitude toward the subject (shown by the
diction used) – any shifts are very important
Voice – the speaker or narrator telling the story, 1st, 2nd or 3rd
person, omniscient, etc.
 Activity with the poem, Opportunity
 Reflect on the list of terms and check the ones that you use
with your own students.
 Place check marks next to the terms used regularly and
place a tentative grade level next to those terms.
 Working with the table group, compare annotations,
discuss order and level for introduction of the top 10 terms
 One person serves as the recorder to share table results
with the whole group
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 Activity with the poem, Opportunity
 Reflect upon on your own teaching to determine the
aspects of diction, syntax and imagery that you should
emphasize with their students.
 Write out your list and share it at your table
 One person serves as the recorder to share table results,
in grade level order, with the whole group
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Purpose of 5-S training:
 To provide students the building-blocks
needed to develop reliable close-reading
and analysis skills
 To give students using the 5-S close-
reading skills an edge for better reading
and analysis in any class
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5-S Strategies for Passage Analysis
 1. Discover the key sentences. Preview the passage by reading
the first sentence, the last sentence, and by skimming the text
in between to determine the scope of the work. By carrying
out this step first, you gain an overview that allows for
effective pacing.
 2. Discover the speaker. Look for such things as the number of
speakers and the narrator’s point of view – this is most often
either first-person (omniscient, limited omniscient, or
objective). Unless otherwise specified, analyze from the
speaker’s vantage point. Note anything that gives a clue about
the speaker’s attitude
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5-S Strategies for Passage Analysis
 3. Discover the situation. What is happening? State the
situation in one clear sentence. Be sure to examine the title
of the piece and its relevance to the situation.
 4. Discover the major shifts in structure, syntax, or diction,
such as wording that evokes certain connotations and sudden
changes in tone, attitude of the author, sentence length,
rhythm, punctuation, or patterns of imagery. Find areas of
the passage where you can locate the most dramatic
changes, and closely annotate them.
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5-S Strategies for Passage Analysis
 5. Discover obvious concentrations of unusual or
otherwise significant syntax and its purpose.
 Look for changes in sentence length, sentence
order, use of punctuation, and typographical
elements such as italics, sentence inversion, or
rhetorical questions, etc. that create emphasis.
 Mark the predominant syntax. Often it will guide
the reader to the part of the passage that conveys
the most meaning – the crux.
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 Activity with the poem, Opportunity
 Participants need to extend the list of elements that
cause a sudden change – or shift – within a passage.
 Shifts are the clues to meaning that students must
recognize to successfully “decode” writing.
 Participants should brainstorm ways that shifts occur –
for instance, changes in sound is a helpful beginning
 Using the list of terms as a guide, work at each table to
find shifts in the poem and the effect produced
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 Purpose: To demonstrate how the 5-S Strategies may be
applied to poetry analysis
 Activity with the poem, Richard Cory
 Read the E. A, Robinson poem, Richard Cory, aloud. A
second and even a third reading aloud is helpful to students
unused to or afraid of poetry
 Write out your responses to the 5-S’s of the poem and
share with your group
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Richard Cory by E.A. Robinson
Whenever Richard Cory went down town
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich – yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
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 There are 3 basic rules for Poetry or Prose Analysis:
 All of the details within the poem must be accounted for in
the interpretation – none should contradict the
interpretation.
 The best interpretation is that which requires the fewest
assumptions – but that allows for reasonable and logical
inferences to be made from word clues.
 If you run out of supporting evidence from the poem, stop
interpreting – some things may be left unknown. We cannot
know why Richard Cory killed himself, just that he was
distraught enough to do so.
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 When creating an “Analysis” prompt for students to
address, don’t forget –
 “Analysis” comes in two varieties:
 The “What – How” type that requires the student to
identify a “What”, such as the author’s attitude or
purpose, or the effect of the passage upon the reader, and
“How” the author achieved the “What”, such as with the
rhetorical strategies of diction, syntax, imagery,
personification, irony, satire, humor, punctuation, allusion,
etc..
 The “Compare – Contrast” type that requires the student
to read two passages and compare them for similarities
and differences in such areas as noted above in the “What”
and “How” discussion.
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 An Example Prompt of the “What – How” sort:
 Read the excerpt from “A Day in the Life of a
Writer”. Then, analyze the author’s attitude
toward the subject of the passage (what) and
its effect upon the reader (what). Discuss the
rhetorical strategies used to achieve both (how)
and (how).
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 Students should begin their paragraph or essay
with a claim that broadly answers the “what”
and the “how”, then go on to prove it with
evidence and explain what is revealed.
 Of course, students are expected to provide
specific examples from the text of the poem
or passage to support both the “what” and
the “how” that they claim is true.
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 Activity– Prose Analysis
 The following passage contains wording that
connotes speed, but the syntax does not enhance
the effect of diction.
 Think of some syntactical tools you could use – i.e.,
punctuation, repetition, or clauses and phrases
linked together in different patterns and orders.
 Then experiment with syntax to create a fast pace,
so the reader feels the rush of the wind and the
racing vehicle. Change any diction that you feel
would add to the pacing.
 Share your ideas with your table group and choose
one sample to read aloud to the whole group.
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Around the bend sped the yellow
racecar. Sparks darted from the wheels.
The car tilted slightly at the bend.
Roaring was everywhere. The driver felt
the whoosh of wind flatten the skin on
her face. She navigated yet another
hairpin turn and kept on zooming around
the track. The wheels appeared to hover
above the ground. The crowd soon
became dizzy with motion.
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Excellent
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Sentences
-accurate
forecast
-examples
Speaker
-accurate
forecast
-pt of view
effect
Situation
-accurate
-connect to title
Shifts
-examples
-thorough
-devices
Syntax
-examples
-discussion
-connection
Crux
-main message
Good
Needs Work