“The Sun Goes Down on Summer” By: Steve Lawhead

Steve Lawhead's poem, "The Sun Goes Down in Summer" creates a picture of a student returning to school after a long sweet summer. But is that all there is to the poem? Aside from the obvious surface message, what deeper messages or themes do you read in this work?

YOUR TASK Write a paragraph describing at least one deeper message in the poem.

(1) topic sentence (a guiding sentence with a subject and an opinion about that subject). Remember, when you’re writing a paragraph about a piece of literature, your introduction must include the name of the text and the author.

(2) After your topic sentence(s) that describes the deeper message, write your concrete detail to back it up (example quote from the poem that illustrates your opinion).

(3) Finally, add your commentary about how that quote proves your topic sentence to be true.

(4) Repeat with another sentence or two of concrete detail providing proof from the poem to back up your opinion and then another sentence or more of commentary that discusses that proof and how it relates to your topic sentence.

(5) You need to write at least two commentary sentences for each concrete detail or example you provide.

(6) Finish with a concluding sentence.

Let’s read through an example and see if the student completed all of the steps… Use the rubric at your table to guide you.

“The Sun Goes Down on Summer" explains that it is sometimes difficult to find the real you. "That's what I want most," cries Lawhead,“to be myself. But that's hard." That quote proves that the topic is true because it is explaining that to be yourself is ahrd and frustrating but you just got to believe. Things you may get out of knowing yourself is that you can maybe discover something new about you, you never knew about. You might worry about what your friends might think of you but you should know that your true friends shouldn't care, they should just encourage you to be yourself. The author also says that you need to change to survive.... Well I disagree. You just need you, yourself, and that's all! So it might seem hard or difficult, but just think of all the good things that will come out of it.

Now try it on your own. Read the paragraph on your paper and use the rubric at the top as a check list. If the example demonstrates the task well, place a check beside the task. If you don’t see evidence of the task, leave it blank.

YOUR TASK Write a paragraph describing at least one deeper message in the poem. Use the rubric to guide your paragraph. Use “quotation marks” when you copy a line from the poem.