Sofia Rittenhouse
ENG 504
Writing Assignment:
Family Traditions – Controlling Idea Essay
The Larger Context
During the fourth quarter of the school year, a tenth grade class begins a unit on the genre of
poetry. This unit will lead into a poetry writing assignment that requires students to write their
own poetry after they have internalized the genre. Early on in the unit, we discussed several
techniques for analyzing this genre, and students have had practice identifying how a technique
lends itself to a particular component of the overall meaning of a piece of poetry. For example,
we used the poetic devices worksheet that appears at the end of this document to discuss terms
such as assonance, consonance, imagery, symbols, and stanzas. We have taken these terms and
discussed how they contribute to the form and feel of poetry. The class has already looked at
poetry on love, loss, and pain. As we looked at poems on these topics, we discussed how poetic
devices shape words and descriptions in order to create the form and feel of those poems.
Students are now familiar with thinking in terms of form and feel. We are now looking at poetry
that conveys identity, and we are focusing in on how identity is portrayed through family
traditions.
Before the class begins to look at examples of poetry on family traditions, we used our writing
journals to explore the meaning of tradition. I asked the class to jot down examples of traditions
they practice at home in the form of a list. I also took out my writing journal and did the exercise
with the class. One student read from his list, “My father and I carve our Thanksgiving turkey
together at the head of the dinner table.” Another student shared, “My brothers and I hang our
Christmas lights on the house each December.” Finally, I shared, “My husband and I visit our
parents every Sunday afternoon.” I could see that the class was associating traditions only with
major holidays, and I wanted to illustrate how traditions can be small, everyday activities that are
repeated over time. Another girl raised her hand once I had finished this explanation and said,
“My mom and I go to Temple every Saturday.” On the board, I asked a member of the class to
begin jotting down these different examples of traditions. When we were finished reading from
our journals, I asked the class to help me come up with a good definition of family tradition.
Finally, we decided that a tradition can be classified as any particular action that you practice
with loved ones and honor as a part of your identity.
Immediate Context
As students began to understand the different levels of family tradition, I introduced the poem
“Knoxville Tennessee” by Nikki Giovanni. I read this poem aloud to the class and also provided
them with a copy for their ELA class binders.
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Knoxville Tennessee
By Nikki Giovanni
I always like summer
Best
you can eat fresh corn
From daddy's garden
And okra
And greens
And cabbage
And lots of
Barbeque
And buttermilk
And homemade ice-cream
At the church picnic
And listen to
Gospel music
Outside
At the church
Homecoming
And go to the mountains with
Your grandmother
And go barefooted
And be warm
All the time
Not only when you go to bed
And sleep
After I read this poem, students took a few moments to silently write their responses to the poem
in their writer’s notebook. I gave them a starting sentence, “Summer tradition is…” I then read
the poem aloud a second time and asked students to expand upon their initial comments in their
journals. Finally, I read the poem aloud a third time, and I paused to demonstrate what I would
be thinking as I read each line to myself. This “think aloud” is useful in showing students how to
read a piece of poetry when they are alone. As we talked about the short descriptions of food,
church, the mountains, and music, we thought about how these words made the form and feel of
the poem come alive. We also tried to relate tradition to our own summer experiences. I asked
the class to think about the ways they spend their summer vacations when they are not in school.
I told them to make a list of any objects that symbolize special summer traditions. Students read
off items such as seashells from the beach, beaded necklaces made by friends, scabs on their
knees from falling off of bikes, and sunburns on their backs from playing volleyball. This brief
exercise helps students to think about tradition in small, tangible ways.
This process of reading a poem three times combined with opportunities for writing in our
journals was repeated with the next poem, “Those Winter Sundays.”
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Those Winter Sundays
By Robert E. Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
As we read and journaled our impressions on each of the two poems, I asked the class to take out
their writer’s notebooks once more. I asked them to turn to a clean page in their journals and jot
down answers to the following questions:
1. How did you notice that both poems feel similar?
2. How did you notice that the each poem feels different?
3. What family tradition(s) is(are) described in each poem?
4. What family members are discussed in each poem?
5. By the end of each poem, what feeling does the narrator leave us with?
6. Reread each poem once more, one after the other. What do both narrators tell us about
family traditions?
Examining poetry through class discussion and journal reflections helps students to internalize
the genre of poetry. Once students have participated in activities like these ones, they are ready
to begin their comparative essay on poetic devices. Now that students have thought about the
feel of poetry, they are ready to apply poetic devices to each feeling created by the author. The
following writing assignment helps students understand the roles that poetic devices play in
creating the form and feel of each line or stanza. Students have written comparative essays
throughout the school year as we looked at novels, plays, and works of nonfiction. This
particular comparative essay assignment on poetry will allow students to critique the
effectiveness of poetic devices in poems, and they can use this knowledge in the near future
when they write their own poetry. The comparative essay assignment that is explained below is
a good lead-in exercise for a poetry writing workshop. In that workshop, students can recall the
poetic devices they compared in their writing assignment. Then they can use some of those
poetic devices in poetry that they create and publish in a class book.
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The Assignment
Your Task:
Write a comparative essay using the two poems “Knoxville Tennessee” and “Those Winter
Sundays.” In your essay, discuss the ways in which each narrator establishes a controlling idea
about family tradition. In order to discuss this controlling idea, you must offer evidence from
each poem that conveys messages about family tradition. You must also support this evidence
by discussing the poetic devices that were used to create the form and feel of family tradition in
each poem.
Purpose and Audience:
We have read and discussed “Knoxville Tennessee” and “Those Winter Sundays” together as a
class. Now you must write an essay that speaks to an audience outside of our classroom. This
audience has not studied these poems as we have, and it is unfamiliar with the ways in which
each speaker expresses family traditions. Therefore, you want to thoroughly explain each
literary device you use, and you must also back up each device with examples from the poems.
After reading your essay, your audience should be able to understand how these poems address
family tradition and how they use literary devices to communicate this controlling idea.
Format:
Your paper should be two to three pages in length. Type your essay using Times New Roman
12-point font, double spaced, with one-inch margins. Staple your graphic organizer, rough draft,
and peer editing checklist to the back of your final copy.
Checklist For Peer Editing and Final Turn-In:










Did I clearly state my controlling idea about family tradition in the introductory
paragraph of my essay?
Did I include the title in quotation marks and author’s name for each poem in the
introduction?
Did I discuss at least one poetic device from my graphic organizer worksheet and
explain the meaning of it?
Did I use direct quotations from the text to support each literary device I
discussed?
Did I discuss the meaning of the quotes and the literary device(s) that I chose?
Did I organize my paper so that each poem’s discussion is separate and smooth?
By the end of my essay, did I thoroughly develop my controlling idea about
family tradition?
Did I follow all of the format requirements?
Did I re-read my essay for typos, misspellings, extra / missing words, etc?
Did I staple my graphic organizer, rough draft, and peer editing checklist to the back of
my typed final copy?
Schedule:
Rough Draft Due: Monday, April 10th
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(You must submit two copies: one for me and one for your peer editor.)
Peer Editing Day: Tuesday, April 11th
(You will receive back your rough draft from me with comments, and you will also take home
your rough draft that was peer reviewed with the checklist.)
Final Draft Due:
Friday, April 14th
The assignment is broken down into three due dates: one for the rough draft, one for the peer
review checklist, and one for the final draft. Two copies of the rough draft will be turned in by
the student: one copy for me (the teacher), and one copy to be used during the peer review
session. The day after the rough drafts are turned in, I will return them with comments. This is
also the day that students will be receiving peer review feedback. During this workshop, I will
circulate around the classroom, return papers, and speak to each workshop group about their
progress and shortcomings. I will give students a sense of what they need to do individually to
improve upon their papers.
The day after the peer reviews have been completed and rough drafts have been returned, I will
spend one class period discussing status-marking errors, which are commonly identified as those
errors that can have the greatest negative effect on a person when used in the professional world.
Status marking errors highly interfere with a reader’s understanding and should be corrected
immediately. I will explain to the class that I have written their most serious errors on the back
of their rough drafts, and we will discuss how to correct them as a group. Common status
marking errors include: pronoun references, subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent
agreement, sentence fragments, and comma splices. Once this discussion on editing is
completed, students will have two days to edit, revise, and turn in their final copy. A six-step
rubric will be used to grade final copies of the essay:
Rubric for Controlling Idea Essay on Family Traditions in Poetry
MEANING
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5
4
3
2
1
Your
choices for
comparison
are
excellent.
You
thoroughly
explain the
similarities
and
differences
in the
poems. You
show insight
throughout
your essay.
Your choices
for
comparison
are good.
You
adequately
explain the
similarities
and
differences in
the poems.
You show
insight
through most
of your essay.
Your choices
for
comparison
are
satisfactory,
but not the
best choices
for a strong
discussion.
You
demonstrate
an ability to
identify
similarities
and
differences.
Your insight
is present but
not
consistent.
Your choices
for comparison
are weak. Your
similarities and
differences are
inaccurate or
poorly
explained. You
show little
insight.
Your choices
for
comparison
are
insignificant
to the idea of
family
tradition that
you discuss.
You did not
include
similarities
and
differences.
Your insight
is not
demonstrated.
Your controlling
idea is not
established; no
connections,
analysis, or
understanding
displayed; poetic
devices are not
discussed. You
show a lack of
insight and
understanding of
the poetry and
controlling idea
on tradition.
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DEVELOPMENT
ORGANIZATION
LANGUAGE
USE
CONVENTIONS
You
thoroughly
explain each
literary
device and
point of
comparison.
You use
many direct
quotes from
each poem.
You support
your
controlling
idea at all
times.
You
establish
your
controlling
idea in the
opening
paragraph.
You
structure
your
discussion
of poetic
devices in
separate
paragraphs
and address
each poem
separately
when citing
examples.
You
conclude
your essay
in a final
paragraph.
You have
used
excellent
vocabulary
words and
have
avoided the
repetition of
certain
words.
You
adequately
explain each
literary device
and point of
comparison.
You use
atleast one
direct quote
from each
poem. You
mostly
support your
controlling
idea.
You offer
some
explanation
of your
literary
devices and
points of
comparison.
You give
some
evidence
from the two
poems to
support your
controlling
idea.
Your
controlling
idea about
family
tradition is
present in the
essay, your
structuring of
literary
devices was
acceptable.
You gave
some
indication of
a concluding
though.
You offer a
single literary
device without
definition and
few points of
comparison.
Your evidence
is incomplete,
or you did not
provide
references from
both poems.
You suggest a
poetic device
but do not
compare it in
the poems.
You confirm
that evidence
is present in
both poems
but do not
properly
identify that
evidence.
You have failed
to identify one or
more poetic
devices. You
offer no evidence
of poetic devices
used in the
poetry. You do
not support or
acknowledge a
controlling idea.
Your
controlling idea
on family
tradition is
mentioned but
not developed
clearly. You
have included
literary devices
but not
organized them
in the most
effective order.
Your essay
conclusion is
present but not
well-developed.
Your
controlling
idea on family
tradition is not
logically
stated. Your
literary
devices and
supporting
evidence do
not flow
together.
Your essay
conclusion is
either missing
or unclear.
You did not put a
controlling idea in
your opening
paragraph. You
did not structure
your essay in any
acceptable
manner. You
have no
conclusion at the
end of your essay.
Your
vocabulary is
correct and
varies
appropriately.
You have not
misused any
words.
Your
vocabulary
varies but
you could
have used
more words
that were as
sophisticated
as the ones
we learn in
our
classroom.
Your
vocabulary
usage is correct
in most cases,
but you have a
few instances of
incorrect word
usage. Some
words are used
inappropriately.
Your vocabulary
is unacceptable.
You have
misinterpreted
and misused
many words in
your essay. Your
reader will not be
able to understand
your essay.
Few or no
spelling,
syntax, or
punctuation
errors
Some
spelling,
syntax, or
punctuation
errors
Spelling,
syntax, or
punctuation
errors are
sometimes
distracting from
the essay
You have
repeated many
words without
showing your
range of
vocabulary.
You have not
challenged
your language
usage, and
you do not use
any
sophisticated
words.
Spelling,
syntax, or
punctuation
errors make
the essay
difficult to
read
No spelling,
syntax, or
punctuation
errors
Your
controlling
idea is
mentioned in
your opening
paragraph.
Your essay
structure was
purposeful
and
premeditated.
You offered a
concluding
paragraph.
Spelling, syntax,
or punctuation
errors make the
essay
incomprehensible
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Monitoring Progress
In preparation for the comparative essay, I gave each student a graphic organizer worksheet.
This organizer can be used to help students formulate their essay by incorporating at least three
key poetic devices as they compare and contrast “Those Winter Sundays” and “Knoxville
Tennessee.” I asked students to work in groups of three as they completed this worksheet. Once
students had approximately fifteen minutes to brainstorm ideas together, I asked the class to
reconvene. At that time, I went around the room and asked for students to share some of the
poetic devices they were using to compare the two poems.
Graphic Organizer
Name ______________________________
Date ______________________
Class/Subject ______________________
Teacher ___________________
Compare/Contrast Essay: Family Traditions
Poem Names 
“Knoxville Tennessee”
“Those Winter Sundays”
Poetic Device 
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Then I presented the class with my model graphic organizer, which can be found below. I put
this model on the overhead projector, and I explained how I chose the poetic devices of stanza,
consonance, and imagery to effectively compare the two poems.
Name: Mrs. Rittenhouse’s Example
Date ______________________
Class/Subject ______________________
Teacher ___________________
Compare/Contrast Essay: Family Traditions
Poem Names 
“Knoxville Tennessee”
“Those Winter Sundays”
No separation by stanzas used
3 stanzas used
Poetic Device 
Stanza
Free flowing poetry with no
breaks
Consonance
Repetition of b/p sound:
Best, cabbage, Barbeque,
buttermilk,
Gospel, barefoot, bed
A soft feeling emerges.
Tone feels warm, not cold or
harsh.
Imagery
Food & Music:
Homemade ice cream,
Fresh corn,
Barbeque & buttermilk,
Gospel Music
Happy feelings, each food his its
own line
Poem is broken into three
separate remembrances:
Father wakes up.
Father calls to child.
Child responds.
Repetition of c/k sound:
Clothes, cold, cracked, ached,
chronic
A harsh feeling emerges. Tone
feels painful, not warm.
Eventually repetition of s/sh
sound:
Rise, dress, slowly, speaking,
polished, shoes
A softer feeling emerges as if the
snow is melting. The narrator’s
immaturity is also melting.
Winter Weather:
Blueblack cold, cold splintering
breaking, cracked hands that
ached
Feeling of tiredness, hard work,
bitter winter, frigged cold, but
safety inside.
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After we had completed the graphic organizer and writer’s notebook assignment, I gave students
their essay assignment. I told them to turn to the page in their journals where we had previously
answered a few questions on the feel of the poetry. I asked them to revisit these questions once
more:
1. How did you notice that both poems feel similar?
2. How did you notice that the each poem feels different?
3. What family tradition(s) is(are) described in each poem?
4. What family members are discussed in each poem?
5. By the end of each poem, what feeling does the narrator leave us with?
6. Reread each poem once more, one after the other. What do both narrators tell us about
family traditions?
After they had refreshed their memories, I told students to look at their poetic devices worksheet
and their graphic organizers. I asked them to think about the relationship between these
questions and the poetic devices that were used in the poems. I reiterated that poetic devices
shape the form and feel of poetry in different ways. The writing assignment that they were about
to engage in required them to pair feelings with devices. In other words, students needed to pair
the impressions in their journals with the poetic devices that were defined and explained on their
definition worksheets and graphic organizers.
Modeling
I gave students the following model essay which I had written as an example of the expectations
of the writing assignment. I read the essay aloud for students, provided them with photocopies
of the model, and asked them to highlight the poetic devices and examples from the poetry that
were worked into the model. Students are used to this kind of modeling exercise, because I try to
provide examples of expectations as often as possible in my classroom.
Writing Assignment Model:
Family traditions create meaningful experiences and lasting memories for children. This is
exemplified in “Knoxville Tennessee” by Nikki Giovanni and “Those Winter Sundays” by
Robert E. Hayden. Both of these poems use the literary devices of consonance and imagery to
create different feelings on the role of family traditions. Each poem also plays with the
technique of stanzas to create certain feelings about memories of tradition. Yet the feelings
conveyed in both poems help the reader to understand how important it is for children to
experience and remember family traditions.
The speaker in “Knoxville Tennessee” recalls the garden foods her family prepared every
summer using consonance. The repetition of the “b” sound evokes a soft feel to the poem, and
this suggests warm, happy memories surrounding these meals. The deliberate listing of foods
like cabbage, barbeque, and buttermilk helps the reader to understand the coziness of family
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traditions during this speaker’s summer vacations. This is contrasted by the consonant sounds in
“Those Winter Sundays,” which evoke memories of the harsh winter weather. The repetition of
the hard “c” sound suggests the painful, cold feel of dark Sunday mornings. Words such as cold,
cracked, ached, and chronic are used to create this harsh feeling. While the speakers of both
poems keep their memories of family traditions sacred, they both experienced these traditions
under different circumstances. By using consonance, one poem is able to create a warm feeling
of summer, while the other poem creates a cold feeling of winter.
Nikki Giovanni also uses the poetic device of imagery in her poem to further describe the
speaker’s experiences of summer family traditions. This poem is organized around the nouns
that Giovanni uses, and a listing of food, music and religion begins to appear for the reader. For
example, okra, greens, cabbage, and ice cream are all written on separate lines to help the reader
imagine these foods, their fresh colors, and their different tastes. Each food has its own line in
the poem, suggesting that the tradition of eating certain things was very important to the speaker
as a child. While Robert E. Hayden does not use a list to describe the details of his Sunday
traditions, he still exemplifies the poetic device of imagery. Hayden does this by igniting the
senses of sight and touch for the reader. The blueblack cold, for example, helps the reader see
the darkness of the morning in his mind. The image of the speaker’s cracked hands that ached
also help the reader to feel the stiff, weathered fingers and palms of a father who worked hard for
his family. The images created in “Knoxville Tennessee” and “Those Winter Sundays” are very
different, yet they help the reader use his senses to understand the importance of family
traditions.
Most obvious about the style of these two poems is the authors’ choices regarding stanzas and
line separations. Nikki Giovanni wrote her poem in one, continuous description of memories
without breaking to signal new stanzas. This causes a feeling of excitement as the speaker
rushes through the list of his traditions without taking a pause. As a result, the reader shares this
childlike excitement about summertime traditions in Knoxville, Tennessee. Robert E. Hayden
chooses to separate his poem into three stanzas, suggesting that the speaker visits three separate
memories about Sunday morning traditions. The first stanza meditates over the sacrificial
waking and rising of the speaker’s father. After a pause, the second stanza meditates over the
father’s call to the speaker. As the speaker arose to his father’s voice, he ponders the cold of
winter that was broken by his father’s warm fire. After a final pause, the last stanza allows the
speaker to meditate over his indifference to his father’s Sunday morning rituals as a child. We
feel that the speaker is now an adult who is looking back on a powerful memory of his father.
We also feel that the speaker has a new sense of appreciation for his father’s commitment to
rising each cold Sunday morning to warm his house for his children. The memory of this
tradition helps the speaker love his father.
As we carry our memories of traditions and share them with others through poetry, we can use
specific techniques to help our audience feel the impact of those traditions. In these two poems,
the poetic devices of consonance, imagery, and stanzas all work together to show the reader how
important family tradition is. Traditions remind us of our past, the things that make us happy in
life, and our family’s priorities.
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NYS ELA Standards
Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression (2). Students will
listen to poetry as it is modeled, respond through class discussion, and journal reflections in the
writer’s notebook. Students will read, write, listen and speak for critical analysis and evaluation
(3). Students will compose a comparative three-page essay on a controlling idea that is present
in two separate pieces of poetry. Students will read, write, listen and speak for social interaction
(4). Students will participate in class discussion and peer editing sessions.
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POETIC DEVICES
Term
alliteration
assonance
consonance
imagery
internal rhyme
metaphor
onomatopoeia
personification
rhyme
rhyme scheme
Meaning
Example
repetition of the initial consonant
sounds
repetition of vowel sound
terrible truths and lullaby lies
mystery disguised within
repetition of consonant sounds, but not
gloomy woman
vowel sounds
language that evokes sensory images
drip of ruby teardrops (aural/sound)
to wake up where the green grass grows
(visual/sight)
lips like cool sweet tea (oral/taste)
streaming through a velvet sky (tactile/touch)
the stench of the underworld
(olfactory/smell)
rhyming that occurs within the line
(rather than at the end)
comparison of unlike things
(made without using like or as)
a word that imitates the sound it
represents
giving human qualities or
characteristics
to animals or objects
a pattern of words that contains similar
sounds
at the end of the line
a repeated pattern of rhymed words
at the end of the line
simile
a comparison using like or as
stanza
a group of poetic lines (also called a
verse)
symbol
an object or action that means more
than its literal meaning
piece of me emerges
I am the "Lone Star"
Boo! Who?
tears of amber fall from my soul
life for me
is wild and free
lusty eyes (A)
passionate cries (A)
rich blood, (B)
bitter sweat (C)
she/he loves (D)
and dies (A)
notes dance across the page like stars twinkle in
the night sky
Like glistening sun
and moon like day and gloomy night
like pure earth and gentle clouds
transformation - life and death
always open like a rosebud about to bloom
(a young girl)
Selected and Defined by Judi Moreillon, Teacher-Librarian
Sabino High School, Tucson, Arizona
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