Lesson to the poem by Gary Soto, "Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes"

1. Ode To Pablo’s
Tennis Shoes
A Poetry Study

2. Ordinary Objects
• In pairs:
• List a few everyday, common things for which
you’re grateful
• Pick one of your “common thing” and explain
why it’s important to you

3. What is a Ode?
• Ode is a poem that celebrates a subject
• Goes back to Ancient Greece
• Sung and danced in a theater
• Formal
• Contemporary Ode is less formal

4. Mood of a Poem
• The ATMOSPHERE of a piece of writing
• How does the piece make you feel?
• Scared or sad or angry?
• After you read “Ode to Pablo’s Tennis Shoes”
• How did you feel when reading?
• How do you think Pablo feels?

5. Implications -
Inferences
• What are some things you notice about the poem?
• What are some things you learned about Pablo that
aren’t stated in the poem?
• What are some things you learned about the tennis
shoes that aren’t stated in the poem?

6. Figurative language
• Non-literal expressions to create a certain images
or ideas more vividly
• Metaphor: a comparison of two or more things
that are different but implying some equality or
similarity through the comparison
• Simile: a comparison that uses “like” or “as”
• Circle any place in the poem “Ode to Pablo’s
Tennis Shoes’ where the author compares one
thing to another

7. Questions
• Jot down any question you have about this poem

8. Activity
• Study your notes about the following:
• Ode
• Mood of a Poem
• Implication
• Figurative Language
• Choose one of the following three tasks to show your understanding of
the poem:
• TASK #1 - Write an essay that describes the Author’s purpose in
writing this poem.
• TASK #2 - Write an essay that describes the image the Author
create with the poem.
• TASK #3 - Re-write the poem into a fictional narrative story

9. Task #1
• Think about:
• What is a ode?
• Why did the author pick the tennis shoes?
• How is the figurative language used to convey what the author
is trying to say?
• What is the mood of the poem? What feeling does the author
want the audience to feel? Why?
• Your essay should have at least three paragraphs:
• Introduction - State author’s purpose
• Body - Explain, using specific examples from the poem
• Conclusion - Restate the purpose and summarize your
explanations
•

10. Task #2
• Think about:
• What comparisons do you see in the poem?
• What is the implied setting of the poem?
• What is the implied characteristic of Pablo?
• How are the tennis shoes and Pablo alike?
• What do the figurative language tell you about what Pablo is like?
• What do the figurative languages tell you about what the tennis shoes look like?
• Your essay should have at least three paragraphs
• Introduction - Quickly describe the image you see when reading the poems (where is it, who is
in it, and what is the character doing)
• Body - Explain with specific details in the poem
• Conclusion - Restate the general image of the poem and summarize your explanations

11. Task #3
• Think about the elements or a story:
• Setting
• Character
• Plot
• Think about the poem and make notes about these story elements
• Rewrite the poem into a narrative story
• Begin by describing the setting and the tennis shoes
• Then describe the character, Pablo
• Describe what the character is doing and what some events that
may have led up to what is going on in the poem
• Remember to use your imaginations!!!

12. Task #1 Example
In the poem “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe depicted a man
driven to insanity by his memories of his wife who had passed away.
The general mood of the poem was that of fear. The author
successfully created a sense of fear and insanity using various
imageries and figurative languages.
The poem immediately instill a sense of darkness and within the
first stanza with the line “Once upon a midnight dreary”... ... ...
... The refrain of the word “nevermore” gave a sense of delirium... ...
In the poem “The Raven”, the author wanted to create a poem
that let the audience feel the feeling of fear and insanity that is felt by
the character in the poem who recent lost his wife to death. The
author used imageries and figurative language and repeated words to
create such feeling in the poem... ... ...

13. Task #2 Example
The author of the poem “The Raven” created a image of a man
going mad in his sadness after his wife’s death. The image of the
poem is that of a man sitting in his study who upon the entrance of a
raven began to express his thoughts in much like that of a madman.
The author used very specific words and figurative speech to create
such image.
The poem opens with a man sitting in his study that is quite dark
and cold. The poem most likely took place in the night. This is
evident from the very first line “Once upon a midnight
dreary”. ... ... ... The audience can see that this sad man had lost his
wife to death from the line “From my books surcease of sorrow,
sorrow for the lost Lenore”. ... ... ... In the end, the audience can
began to see that the man is frustrated with the raven and his madness
began to emerge. This is evident from the line “Get thee back into the
tempest and the Night’s Plutonia Shore”. ... ... ...
The author created a image of a desperate man who is driven mad
by the sadness he feels from the lost of his wife. The raven which
frustrates him symbolizes what is obscuring his wisdom and
logic... ... ...