Page 51 - 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. It refers to the dream and then refers to when the speaker was young.
2. The speaker is a black man. He states this in line 14 and also writes about his dark hands in line 21.
3. The simile is bright like a sun. The speaker is comparing his childhood dream to a big shining sun, lighting up
his life.

4. a. Making connections
b. The poet dreamed as a young man of a shining future, according to the expectations of the American dream.
The wall represents the barriers of social oppression against African-Americans during that time, which
prevented the speaker from reaching his dream.

c. The HOTS I chose is Making connections. I chose it because the question asked for an explanation of how two
specific aspects of the poem, the wall and the dream, connect.
5. a. As I Grew Older begins with a childhood dream of equality and opportunity for African-Americans. Due to the
circumstances of social oppression at the time, however, skin color prevented the speaker in the poem from
reaching his goals in life. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the leader of the civil rights movement, active towards
the end of the poet’s life. This movement probably encouraged the speaker in the poem to fight for social
equality, demonstrating his great courage and strength of character.

b. This information shows that the poet was one of many voices in America calling for African-Americans to stand
up for the equality they deserved.

as I grew older 51