1. Complete the web showing choices and decisions you may have to make in the next few years and the factors that affect these choices.

Share your choices and decisions with your partner.

2. List common dilemmas that teenagers face involving the choice of one or more “roads.” Give examples of “roads” that you must travel (e.g., facing peer pressure, choosing friends, observing school and parent’s rules, acting on your own values).

_________________________________________________________________3. Title:

Notice the emphasis on “the road not taken.”Why might this emphasis

be important? Keep this in mind as we read the poem.

1. Fill in the chart.

Determining Factors

Interests

Choices

Friends Parents

Setting (Where and When?)

Events (What happened?)

Character (Who?)

2. Answer the questions:

1. Where is the “traveler” as he starts telling his story?

2. What prevents the “traveler” from seeing father down the road?

3. What regret does he express in the first stanza of the poem?

4. Which road does the traveler choose?

5. What does the word “that” refer to?

6. What similarities between the two roads does the traveler point out?

7. What is said about the two roads on that fall morning?

8. What decision did the traveler make in the woods, as the two roads “equally lay” before him?

9. What does the traveler realize as he takes one of the roads?

10.

Does he think his decision will have any impact on his life? Yes / NoQuote from the poem to justify your answer.

3. The sentences below explain the poem in less poetic language. Match the sentences to the appropriate line numbers in the poem.

1. A traveler has reached a crossroads in a forest.

2. The traveler regrets or feels comforted by his choice.

3. The traveler’s choice of road directly impacted his life path.

4.The two roads were, in fact, more similar that different (2 lines)

5. The road he did not take seemed to have been used by more travelers.

6. However hard he tried to look down the road, the vegetation of the forest prevented him from seeing where it led (2 lines)

7. In life, one event or choice leads to another and it’s unlikely we can go back to where we started

1. What is the speaker’s dilemma in the poem and how does he solve it? Complete the graphic organizer. Use the thinking skill of Problem Solving.

A stanza is a group of lines that forms a unit in a poem.

Stanza 1

Stanza 2

Stanza 3

Stanza 4

Problem / Dilemma

Option 1 Option 2

Solution

2. Answer the questions:

1.Why doesn’t the speaker think he will ever have a chance to walk the other road? What does this tell us about our decisions?

2. What kind of a person do you think the speaker is?

3. The speaker does not yet know how his choice has affected his life. He says he “shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence.”

3.

* Fill in the table using the word bank:

Metaphor It symbolizestwo roads diverged in the woods (line 1)yellow wood (line 1)to where it bent in the undergrowth (line 5)then took the other, as just as fair (line 6)it was grassy

4.

* Fill in the blanks to complete the following paragraph that deals with the theme of the poem. Use the word bank:

A metaphor – is a type of comparison in which one thing is described

as if it were something else. For example: “Life is a dream”

A metaphor – is a type of comparison in which one thing is described

as if it were something else. For example: “Life is a dream”

A metaphor – is a type of comparison in which one thing is described

as if it were something else. For example: “Life is a dream”

a sudden decision, future, unconventional (less used), fall, choice

Symbolism – is the use of a concrete image (symbol) to present an abstract idea. For example: sunshine may symbolize happiness

The theme – is the central philosophical idea of a story or a poem. We can usually find the theme by asking, “What is this work

about?”

In the poem the speaker stands at a 1___________ in the road. Frost uses the road as a 2_____________ of life. The poet tries to see where the 3__________ in life will lead. He looks down one road until it “bends in the 4_______________” and he cannot see any further. Similarly, it is difficult for us to see what will happen in the 5____________. We can only see the immediate future and then our vision becomes 6____________ by the unknown. The poet finally chooses the other road, justifying his 7____________ by saying that it was “grassy and wanted wear”. He chooses it because fewer people have walked that way and he sees it as the less 8______________ and more adventurous choice. However, he knows that both roads are equally inviting – his 9__________ to take one or the other is totally arbitrary. He tries to console himself with the thought that he will return and take the “other” road, but he knows that “way leads on to way” and one can never 10___________ to the same point again.

In the final 11_________ the poet projects himself into the future and contemplates the consequences of his decision. There are several interpretations of this stanza. The poet’s sigh might be one of 12____________ and satisfaction with his decision, which has made “all the difference” in his life. However, it could also be one of 13___________that he will never know what he missed by not taking the other road, or that things didn’t work out as he had hoped. It is 14_____________ that the poem is called “The Road Not Taken”, as the poet wonders what would have happened if he had taken the other road.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claimBecause it was grassy and wanted wear,Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I marked the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere ages and ages hence:Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.

3. Read the fourth paragraph and find out the following:

a). What "momentous decision" was made by Frost?

___________________________________________________________________

b). How old was he when he had to make this decision?

___________________________________________________________________

c). Why was it so difficult to make this decision? Think and give more than

one reason.

___________________________________________________________________

d). Was the "road" Frost had taken easy "to travel"?

By Robert Frost Post-Reading Activity

regret, appropriate, return, relief, stanza, decision, conventional, obscured, choice, future, undergrowth, roads, symbol, fork

Think of a situation in life which requires making an important choice.

Describe the situation and think of two separate kinds of experiences you

might encounter as a result of choosing one road over another. (120

words)

Think of a choice you have made. Do you have any regrets? Do you think

your life would have been different had you made a different choice? (120

words)

Write the speech the speaker makes at his 80th birthday party. (120

words)

Do a PowerPoint Presentation of the poem with your interpretation.

If the road in the poem could talk, what would they say? Write what each

road “says” to convince the reader to choose it. Begin:

If you choose me, … (120 words)

Write a poem or a song of your own about the theme of this poem. Use

metaphor.

Did you like the poem? Explain your answer in at least two sentences.

What did you find interesting or memorable about this poem?

What did you learn from reading the poem?

Do you think that being aware of the stages of Problem Solving will help

you make better decisions and solve problems more easily in the future?