Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: Mid-term Break
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
At a Glance
Approximate
Grade Range: Poetry
Difficulty Index: Considerate . . . . . . . . . . . . Challenging
Structure:
Purpose:
Richness:
Relationships:
Vocabulary:
Style:
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Genre: Poetry
Topic: The sudden death of a young man’s four-year-old
brother during his college vacation
Author: Seamus Heaney
Source: “Mid-term Break”
Lexile Measure: 1080L
Note: Most FAST-R passages have a balance of
Referential and Inferential questions; however, due to the
style of writing in this poem, we included more inference
questions.
Mid-term Break
I sat all morning in the college sick bay1
Counting bells knelling2 classes to a close,
At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying—
He had always taken funerals in his stride—
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
5
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram3
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were “sorry for my trouble,”
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse4, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
Richness: This scene contains coming-of-age themes: As
his father is incapacitated by grief, the old men treat the
speaker as “the man of the house.”
See especially: Questions 7-8
10
15
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops5
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,
He lay in the four-foot box as in a cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
Purpose: In this narration of how a college-aged speaker
deals with the news of his younger brother’s sudden
death, Heaney conveys the limitations of language in
expressing grief. There is much description about what is
happening, but almost none about the speaker’s feelings.
See especially: Questions 1-6, 10
20
Style and Vocabulary: The syntax is straightforward,
with simple sentences and generally accessible
vocabulary. As is typical for free verse, some sentences
do break across stanzas.
Stanzas 3-4 contain alliteration of the “s” sound, which
evokes the whispers of the neighbors and strangers
gathered in the home.
See especially: Question 8
Relationships: Readers are left to infer much about
the speaker’s relationship with his parents and his dead
brother, as well as his broader perspective on life and
death.
See especially: Question 10
A four-foot box, a foot for every year. Seamus Heaney
Continued on next page
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Seamus Heaney is from “Death of a Naturalist”, Copyright 1966.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
1
hospital
to ring slowly and solemnly, especially for a funeral
3 a baby carriage
4 historically and culturally in many places throughout the world,
it is customary to display a body in the home before burial so
that friends and family can say a last “good-bye.”
5 white flowers that bloom in early spring
2
Ideas for Connected Writing Activities:
• Write a newspaper article based on the events in the
poem
• Write a newspaper article based on an interview with
the speaker’s neighbor (retellling the events from a
different perspective)
• Write about an event that changed your own life, then
change the story into a poem
Spotlight On: Seamus
Heaney
Seamus Heaney was born in
Northern Ireland in 1939. His
father’s side of the family came
from a long line of rural cattle
farmers, while his mother’s
side embraced the advances
in technology and industry.
Much of his writing deals with
the tension between small town
rural life and the consequences
of a developing society. When
he was 12 years old, he won
a scholarship to St. Columb’s
College in the city of Derry. He
was always grateful to have
experienced “the earth” by
working on his family’s farm,
but he considered education to
be “heaven.” He currently lives
in Dublin, Ireland and periodically teaches here in the United
States at Harvard University.
He was the winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1995.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Seamus Heaney is from “Death of a Naturalist”, Copyright 1966.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: Mid-term Break
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Poetry
The annotated answer key below highlights common reasons students might choose each answer, and the sidebar gives more
insight into the question types, to help you understand patterns of student responses. Always make time to follow up with students
in conferences or small groups to probe their thinking, teach in response to patterns, and help them apply effective reading and
thinking strategies to their everyday reading.
Note: You may find it helpful to refer to the “Types and Levels of Questions on FAST-R” sheet from your teacher resource
folder as you examine your students’ responses. The icon in the right-hand column, below, corresponds to that sheet’s more
detailed explanations of the kinds of thinking each type of question asks of readers.
1. This poem is about
A. a young man’s plans for his school vacation. (OOP2, title and stanza 1)
B. the busy scene at a hospital emergency room. (OOB)
 C. the sudden death of a young man’s little brother.
D. a family celebration. (OOP2)
MI2: Determine a
singular meaning
from the sum total of a
particular paragraph
2. How old was the boy when he died?
A. just a baby (OOP2, confusion with baby in line 7)
 B. four years old
C. college age (OOP2, confusion with speaker)
D. there is not enough information in the poem to tell (OOP2 line 22)
FE2: Recognize evidence
explicitly stated at
multiple locations or
with varied wording in
the text
3. Which detail helps readers infer how the boy died?
A. “it was a hard blow” (line 6) (OOP2)
B. “coughed out angry tearless sighs” (line 13) (OOP2)
C. “stanched and bandaged by the nurses” (line 15) (OOP1)
 D. “the bumper knocked him clear” (line 21)
MI1: Determine
implicit meaning from
words in context
4. How did the boy die?
 A. He was hit by a car.
B. He suffocated in a box. (OOP2, lines 20-22)
C. Big Jim Evans hit him on the head. (OOP2, line 6)
D. He died in his sleep. (OOP2, line 20)
MI1: Determine
implicit meaning from
words in context
5. The “four-foot box” mentioned in lines 20 and 22 is actually a
A. cot. (OOP2, line 20)
B. box of the speaker’s books from college. (OOB)
C. stretcher from the ambulance. (OOP1, line 14)
 D. coffin.
FE2: Recognize evidence
explicitly stated at
multiple locations or
with varied wording in
the text
6. In line 15, the speaker refers to the body as a “corpse,” but in lines 17-21, the speaker uses pronouns such as “him” and “he.” What does this shift suggest about the
speaker’s state of mind?
A. He is fascinated by corpses. (OOP2, line 15)
 B. He was beginning to accept that his brother had died.
C. He believes the nurses were responsible for his brother’s death. (OOP2, line 15)
D. He thinks his brother is only sleeping. (OOP2, lines 16-20)
MI1: Determine
implicit meaning from
words in context
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Seamus Heaney is from “Death of a Naturalist”, Copyright 1966.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Grades 8-9 • Poetry • “ Mid-term Break”
7. What does the second stanza imply?
A. That the speaker’s father is upset to see him (OOP2, line 4)
 B. That it is unusual for the speaker to see his father crying
C. That the speaker’s father and Big Jim Evans had been fighting (OOP2, lines 4-6)
D. That funerals are a common part of life (OOP2, line 5)
MI1: Determine
implicit meaning from
words in context
8. Why was the speaker “embarrassed by old men standing up to shake [his] hand”
(lines 8-9)?
A. He knew they had seen his father crying. (OOP1, line 4)
B. He was afraid they thought the baby’s laughter was disrespectful. (OOP1, line 7)
 C. He wasn’t used to the old men treating him like an adult instead of a child.
D. He didn’t mean to cause the old men to stand up when it was difficult for them
to do so. (OOB)
MI1: Determine
implicit meaning from
words in context
9. The author most likely uses alliteration of the “s” sound in stanzas three and four to
create the effect of
A. a hissing snake. (OOB, a common association with alliteratives)
 B. whispers.
C. an ambulance siren. (OOP1, line 14)
D. rhymes. (OOP2, misapplication of another literary term)
MI5: Determine meaning by using an understanding of literary
concepts
10. What’s the MOST LIKELY reason the author describes the events in the poem using ordinary, matter-of-fact details?
A. To demonstrate that speaker has learned about journalistic writing at college.
(OOB)
 B. To help readers share the speaker’s shock at the news of his brother’s death.
C. To imply that the speaker didn’t care about his younger brother’s death. (OOP2)
D. To prove to critics that you can write a good poem without using a single metaphor. (OOB)
MI5: Determine meaning by using an understanding of literary
concepts
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Seamus Heaney is from “Death of a Naturalist”, Copyright 1966.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
Date
“Mid-term Break” • Poetry
Teacher/Class
Read the following poem to learn how one young man returns home from college to deal with a family tragedy. Use
information from the poem to answer the questions that follow.
Mid-term Break
I sat all morning in the college sick bay1
Counting bells knelling2 classes to a close,
At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home.
Spotlight On: Seamus
Heaney
In the porch I met my father crying—
He had always taken funerals in his stride—
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
5
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram3
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were “sorry for my trouble,”
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse4, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
10
15
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops5
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,
He lay in the four-foot box as in a cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
20
Seamus Heaney was born in
Northern Ireland in 1939. His
father’s side of the family came
from a long line of rural cattle
farmers, while his mother’s
side embraced the advances
in technology and industry.
Much of his writing deals with
the tension between small town
rural life and the consequences
of a developing society. When
he was 12 years old, he won
a scholarship to St. Columb’s
College in the city of Derry. He
was always grateful to have
experienced “the earth” by
working on his family’s farm,
but he considered education to
be “heaven.” He currently lives
in Dublin, Ireland and periodically teaches here in the United
States at Harvard University.
He was the winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1995.
A four-foot box, a foot for every year.
Seamus Heaney 1
hospital
2
to ring slowly and solemnly, especially for a funeral
3
a baby carriage
4
historically and culturally in many places throughout the world, it is customary to display a body in the home before burial
so that friends and family can say a last “good-bye.”
5 white flowers that bloom in early spring
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Seamus Heaney is from “Death of a Naturalist”, Copyright 1966.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
Date
“Mid-term Break” • Poetry
Teacher/Class
Directions: Answer the following multiple-choice questions by filling in the circle for the best
answer on your answer sheet.
1. This poem is about
A. a young man’s plans for his school vacation.
B. the busy scene at a hospital emergency room.
C. the sudden death of a young man’s little brother.
D. a family celebration.
2. How old was the boy when he died?
A. just a baby
B. four years old
C. college age
D. there is not enough information in the poem to tell
3. Which detail helps readers infer how the boy died?
A. “it was a hard blow” (line 6)
B. “coughed out angry tearless sighs” (line 13)
C. “stanched and bandaged by the nurses” (line 15)
D. “the bumper knocked him clear” (line 21)
4. How did the boy die?
A. He was hit by a car.
B. He suffocated in a box.
C. Big Jim Evans hit him on the head.
D. He died in his sleep.
5. The “four-foot box” mentioned in lines 20 and 22 is actually a
A. cot.
B. box of the speaker’s books from college.
C. stretcher from the ambulance.
D. coffin.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Seamus Heaney is from “Death of a Naturalist”, Copyright 1966.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Name
Date
School
Teacher/Class
6. In line 15, the speaker refers to the body as a “corpse,” but in lines 17-21, the
speaker uses pronouns such as “him” and “he.” What does this shift suggest
about the speaker’s state of mind?
A. He is fascinated by corpses.
B. He was beginning to accept that his brother had died.
C. He believes the nurses are responsible for his brother’s death.
D. He thinks his brother is only sleeping.
7. What does the second stanza imply?
A. That the speaker’s father is upset to see him
B. That it is unusual for the speaker to see his father crying
C. That the speaker’s father and Big Jim Evans had been fighting
D. That funerals are a common part of life
8. Why was the speaker “embarrassed by old men standing up to shake [his]
hand” (lines 8-9)?
A. He knew they had seen his father crying.
B. He was afraid they thought the baby’s laughter was disrespectful.
C. He wasn’t used to the old men treating him like an adult instead of a child.
D. He didn’t mean to cause the old men to stand up when it was difficult for
them to do so.
9. The author most likely uses alliteration of the “s” sound in stanzas three and
four to create the effect of
A. a hissing snake.
B. whispers.
C. an ambulance siren.
D. rhymes.
10. What’s the MOST LIKELY reason the author describes the events in the
poem using ordinary, matter-of-fact details?
A. To demonstrate that the speaker has learned about journalistic writing at college
B. To help readers share the speaker’s shock at the news of his brother’s death
C. To imply that the speaker didn’t care about his younger brother’s death
D. To prove to critics that you can write a good poem without using a single
metaphor
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Seamus Heaney is from “Death of a Naturalist”, Copyright 1966.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Teachers: Please duplicate and use this answer sheet only for students for whom you did not receive a pre-printed answer sheet!
FAST-R Answer Sheet
Name
School Date
Grade
Passage Title
Teacher Name
Completely fill the circle
for the correct answer.
1.
A
B
C
D
2.
A
B
C
D
3.
A
B
C
D
4.
A
B
C
D
5.
A
B
C
D
6. A
B
C
D
7.
A
B
C
D
8.
A
B
C
D
9.
A
B
C
D
10.
A
B
C
D
Class
Write your answer to the open response prompt in the lined space below.
if your teacher directs you to do so.
OFFICE USE ONLY
RESEARCH:
Y
N
OPEN RESPONSE: 1 2 3
4