Page 13 - Point 5 Literature Program Option 1 Teachers Guide (2) (1)

Answer Key to Summative Assessment
(see rubrics on page 87)

The answer key offers possible answers to the Summative assessment questions. Students’ answers
will vary. remember to accept any answer that the student can justify from the text.

Answers might include:
1. At the beginning of the poem the traveler is in the middle of a wood.

2. a. It is the fall / autumn.
b. The words that tell us this are yellow wood because leaves turn yellow before they fall off the trees,
and also lay in leaves, because this tells us that the leaves were already falling from the trees and were
covering the ground. In leaves no step had trodden black also gives the idea of dead leaves falling, as
green leaves would not turn black.
3. a. This verse means that the traveler expected to remember the other road and come back to it at
some other time.

b. No, the traveler knew that he probably wouldn’t come back to that exact place because a journey
(life) takes you on to other places.

4. a. The poem talks about how the traveler chose the road he did, so one might think it logical to call the
poem ‘The road Taken’. Perhaps the poet chose his title to make the poem sound more interesting.
On the other hand, maybe he chose it to show that he was still thinking about the other road – the
one not taken – and was perhaps sad about his missed opportunities.
b. The HOTS of Distinguishing different perspectives helped me see that there are different ways to
identify and understand the meaning of the title of the poem.

5. This poem fits this description of Frost’s poetry because it has a natural setting and also because he
is talking about a person and how he chooses to behave (human nature). In the poem the journey
represents our lives in society and the fact that we have to find ways to make choices.

The road noT Taken 13