Name: Kevie Davis
Title: What predictions can you make from the title? What are your initial thoughts about the poem?
What might be the theme of the poem?
Period:1st
What I think the poem American hero is going to be about is something that has to deal with war or someone saving a person and becoming a world hero.
Paraphrase: Rewrite the poem in your own words.
I have nothing to lose tonight. All of my team players are tired, cheering me on as I spin the ball on my middle finger. The floor lights up. I dribble the ball while I’m sweating hard. My eyes tight; I aim at the goal and shoot for the win. All I hear is backboard, so I dunked the ball through the net. The whole gym goes wild as we have won this game. They are cheering me on as I have scored thirty-two points. All of these people are screaming my name as they are my friends right now, but if we were on the same neighborhoods, I don’t think we would they would acknowledge me.
Connotation: Write the connotative or interpretive meaning of the poem.
What’s below the surface? What is the connotative meaning of the poem?
Find examples of imagery, metaphors, similes, etc. and elaborate on their connotative meanings.
The meaning of the poem is that the boy has played his skills to the max that night and the last shot depends on him for his team to win the game. Can he make the shot to become the American Hero of the
School?
Attitude: What attitude does the poet have toward the subject of the poem?
Find and list examples that illustrate the tone and mood of the poem.
Shift: Is there a shift in the tone/attitude of the poem? Where is the shift? What does the tone shift to?
Title: Revisit the title and explain any new insights it provides to the meaning of the poem. Discuss the meaning on an interpretive level.
The attitude was glories, excitement, and happiness.
No, there wasn’t a shift in the poem that I noticed.
American Hero is someone achieving their goal with all their might. No hesitations, worries, or doubts that that person can do the best he can do.
Theme: What is the overall theme of the poem? What is the poet saying?
The theme for the poem is that everyone loves a basketball star, except not to many people were very loving to a black basketball star in their neighborhood.

Name: Kevie Davis Period:1st