1. Life Doesn’t Frighten me
By: Maya Angelou

2. Vocabulary word list A clasp [KLASP] n. hold; grip
maids [MAYDZ] n. women who do cleaning work
might [MYT] n. strength, ability, or power
overhead [oh vuhr HED] adv. above; up in the sky
spoil [SPOYL] v. wreck or ruin
weep [WEEP] v. cry; shed tears

3. Vocabulary word list B
avow [uh VOW] v. promise; say in front of other people
charm [CHAHRM] n. object a person might carry to bring good luck
parting [PAHRT ing] n. the act of leaving
pitiless [PIT i lis] adj. cruel; with no sympathy
quantities [KWAHN tuh tees] n. amounts
sulkily [SUHL kuh lee] adv. in a way that shows unhappiness or a bad attitude

4. Exercise A
Fill in each blank in the paragraph below with an appropriate word from Word List A. Use each word only once.
Lars ripped the flyer out of his sister’s [1] _____________________. “Don’t call us
CLASP
[2] _____________________,” he said. “Nico and I are cleaning professionals. If you use
MAID
the wrong word, it will [3] _____________________ our ad. No one will hire us!”
SPOIL
Lars and Nico hoped to make money by cleaning houses. They were trying with all
their [4] _____________________ to save money for a trip to Mexico.
“If we don’t get to go,” said Lars, “I think I will just break down and
MIGHT
[5] _____________________.”
WEEP
“Don’t worry,” said Nico. “People will call us up and give us work. Pretty soon we’ll be
on one of those planes flying [6] _____________________. I’m sure we will earn the money
OVERHEAD

5. Exercise B
Revise each sentence so that the underlined vocabulary word is used in a logical
way. Be sure to keep the vocabulary word in your revision.
Example: If you are not more careful, you might help yourself.
If you are not more careful, you might hurt yourself.
Some people carry a rabbit’s foot as a lucky charm to make sure bad things happen.
(make sure nothing bad happens)
It was Bob’s first time away from home, so parting from his family was easy.
(was hard)
Sheila is a pitiless person; she feels terrible if anyone else is unhappy.
(doesn’t care if anyone else is unhappy)
My sister jumped up and down sulkily because she was happy with her gift.
(wasn’t happy with her gift)
Why did you bring me such large quantities? I told you I needed a lot.
(Small)
At a wedding, the bride and the groom avow their dislike for each other.
(love)

6. Reading skills Context clues Paraphrasing Rhythm Rhyme Ask questions
Reread
Read aloud according to punctuation
Rhythm
A grouping of similar items
Rhyme
Wall, hall. Loud, cloud

7. Maya Angelou Changed her childhood name
Marguerite Johnson
Never stopped exploring who she is
A poet, best-selling author, educator, historian, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer, and director

8. Before the reading What might the tittle tell us about the poem?
What might the picture tell us about the poem?
What are the stanzas and lines in a poem?

9. Reading check (pg-530)
The poet uses lists of things to build Rhythm and rhyme, what things does she list in the first stanza?
The poet lists shadows, noises, bad dogs, and ghosts
How does the speaker reacts to the scary things in stanzas 1 and 2.
She doesn’t cry, she just smiles and scares them away.
What words help you know the meaning of shoo in line 14? What does shoo mean?
The words boo, make fun, run and fly are context clues for the word shoo. Shoo means to drive or frighten away.

10. Reading check (pg-531)
Repetition can give a poem a musical quality, what repeated words help create rhythm in this poem?
“Life doesn’t frighten me at all” along with “They don’t frighten me at all”
Looking at the picture, What details show that this girl is confident and determined?
Her facial expression shows great determination; her posture indicates that she is moving toward the ball; she is holding a large bat with confidence.

11. Activity: workbook Complete #1 pg-17
1) Don’t SHOW me FROGS and SNAKES/ and LIS-ten FOR my SCREAM/ if IM a-FRAID at ALL/ it’s ON-ly IN my DREAMS.
Selection Test A: # 1,2,3, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18
Use a dictionary if you need to