Question: In 100-150 words explain 2-3 specific moves you plan to make in your debriefs after reading this transcript and why you believe those moves will make significant change in

your instruction.* Your answer All right, everyone, we're gonna come back together as a class. I had a chance to look at all of your critical ideas for the second passage today, Dog and Squirrel. First of all, did you enjoy it, that poem? Me too. I always, I kind of think about, I'm sure this is before your time, but if you've ever watched Looney Tunes and you think about the coyote and the road runner and how the road runner is always trying to escape from the coyote and the coyote is always trying to catch the road runner, I was really thinking a lot about that interaction as I was reading this poem. So maybe there's a more 2020s version of that that you all are familiar with. But that's from my time. But I had a chance to look at your critical ideas. And I noticed one really important trend across the class. I'm going to read you an example of a critical idea that I saw that exemplified that trend. So here's what I saw. Dog and squirrel enjoy the game of chasing each other. but the squirrel always gets away. Does that sound like what you guys had in your critical ideas? I see some nodding heads, yeah. Now, almost everyone was able to key into that fact, this is a game between the dog and the squirrel, and that each of them finds this flirtation, the word that the author uses in the title, enjoyable. And I was really excited to see that a lot of people noticed specific lines in the text to give them that idea. So like when the dog says, this will be a fine game, or even at the ending where the squirrel says, see you tomorrow, that you guys clued into those as evidence that this is something really fun and enjoyable for both the dog and the squirrel. However, what I noticed that most of us did not attend to when reading this text is really reasoning about the significance of the different characterizations of the dog and the squirrel. And I would say more importantly, what that reveals about each of their individual or maybe even shared motivations for engaging in this interaction. And this is a common trend that you've heard me talk about that we're working on in class, making sure that we're not just noticing specific language, but that we're also reasoning about its significance. We're not just coming up with an idea, but we're really thinking about why is that idea important and what What is its significance to the author's message? So I'm going to draw our attention back to one specific stanza of this poem and really try to push our thinking even further on the topic of the dog and the squirrel as characters. So let's look at this poem together. And I want to draw our attention to this stanza right here. Can't highlight, but... The one that starts with, I can taste the silk of your tail. We're going to look at it from each, the perspective of each character separately to make sure we're clear on the author's characterization of each. And then we can start to think about why it's significant. So Aaliyah, can you read those first two lines for me? I know we've already established the non-italicized is the dog. So can you read for me as the dog? I can taste the silk of your tail. You can't possibly get away now. possibly get away now. How do those two lines highlight the predominant character traits of the dog? Obviously, there's other lines in the text that might do this, but I want us to think those two lines might help to clarify the predominant character traits of the dog. Lexi, what are you thinking? What is the author trying to say is the predominant character trait of the dog and how do you know? I think there's a suggestion that the dog is a little bit overconfident or at least very confident in their own abilities. He says you can't possibly get away now. So there's this level of assuredness that he's going to be able to get the squirrel. I noticed you put emphasis on the word possibly when you read that line. How does that word really give you the idea that he's overconfident? I guess. Because he's saying you can't possibly, so there's no chance. It's not even you just can't get away. There's literally no possible opportunity in which he can imagine that would happen. Exactly. There's no way. I can't imagine a world in which you escape from me in this instance. There are We could think of other lines in the text that give us this idea too, right? The dog goes into this activity thinking this will be a fine game. We see that earlier in the text. Like he thinks this is gonna be fun for him. He's gonna, he's in control. He's the one that's going to win. He is a little overconfident. We know that though, based on the end of the text. Okay, so we've got an idea about the dog. Let's read the second two lines. Daniel, can you read the second two lines for me? Okay. I know the precise point at which I must flee. Still those eyes. Still those eyes. Let's do the same thinking work about the squirrel that we just did about the dog. How do these lines highlight the predominant characteristics of the squirrel? Lavinia, what are you thinking? Well, this... And ties into generally the idea that we talked about earlier with the squirrel setting the rules of the game, the squirrel being in control here. He says, or she says, I know the precise point at which I must flee. And I think similar to the importance of the word possibly for the dog, precise point is a potentially illuminating word. alliteration on this squirrel's mindset, which is that she is really confident that she herself is in control of this situation with the dog. And you get the feeling that she sort of knows or perceives that the dog is less smart and less cued into what's going on in this flirtation. But similar to the dog, she also does have she feels pulled by the flirtation that they are engaging in, even though she knows the exact moment where she has to flee. She lingers here with the still those eyes and then the ellipses afterwards, which make us think that maybe she does wish she could linger for a little moment more. So I'm going to state back, I heard you say two different things here, right? One is that the squirrel is very much, I would say, equally confident, maybe with a little bit more reason to be confident than the dog. She knows the precise point at which she must escape, must flee from the dog. I love the way we've, in both instances, we've really zoomed in on maybe even just one specific word that has been particularly illuminating. in giving us these ideas. You can't possibly get away now. I know the precise point. So the squirrel is also confident, but the squirrel is more in control. She is being more strategic and thinking about exactly what her plan is to escape. And I like the way that you also connected this to other lines that we saw from the text that we had discussed earlier in the text that the squirrel is setting the rules. She really knows that she is confidently in control of the situation. The other thing that you started to talk about is not just each of their individual characteristics different from each other, but something that they actually share. The squirrel is kind of dreamily talking about the eyes of the dog. You can imagine her kind of like staring into his eyes. And the dog, which we didn't even talk about yet, is thinking about tasting the silk of the squirrel's tail. So there is some kind of a mutual shared feeling. admiration or affection that's happening there. So we've already started to do some of the work that I was hoping we would do next, which is we've established the predominant characterizations of each of these characters, the dog and the squirrel. The dog is overly confident and believes that there is no way the squirrel can escape his grasp. The squirrel is confident as well, though confidently in control. because she knows that she makes the rules to this game, and she will always escape his grasp. But I'm curious for us to explore this further and think about what do those characterizations reveal about their motivations for participating in this game? There's a reason the author made the squirrel confidently in control through their use of language and other stylistic choices, and a reason the author has made the dog always overly confident through his language and stylistic choices. I want us to think about what that reason is. Why do the dog and squirrel each engage in this daily flirtation? And how do those characterizations impact that? Let's think about that. Why do the dog and squirrel each engage in this daily flirtation? Let's start with the dog. Nicole, can you talk to me about why does the dog engage in this daily interaction and And how does the character traits we discussed impact that motivation? I think Nicole had to go. Oh, never mind. I can answer. Molly, can you answer the question? I think the dog is engaging in this flirtation because he thinks that this might be the day. I can jump in. Great. I think that the dog, I think it's really important that this dog has this bravado, this overconfidence. Because if he didn't, if the dog was more of a realist who was like, listen, I've done this. The squirrel gets away. Squirrel seems a lot faster, a lot more nimble, a lot more quick-witted maybe. Like, I don't know. Fool me once, but you're not going to fool me twice, squirrel. I'm not going to do this. And therefore, if the dog was more of a realist or more in touch with reality, then the dog wouldn't come back each day to engage in this flirtation with the squirrel. But he's not. He is maybe delusional might be too strong of a word, but he is ever confident. confident that today is going to be his day despite his history of failure. And so that characteristic about him is what allows him to continually come and engage in this flirtation. If he wasn't overly confident that today is the day that he could finally catch the squirrel, he would never engage. To your point, he would give up or maybe never engage in this in the first place. What's the point? Remember the specific line from the text, where the squirrel says, oh, large, clumsy one, have you any idea how fast I can run? If he did have any idea how fast he can run, he would just go play catch with his owner, stay home, eat bones, something like that. But instead, he chooses to continue to return, which we again, we said we know that this is a daily activity. When the squirrel says, see you tomorrow, kind of flirtingly at the end, They come back to this day after day. Without that confidence that he could do it, he wouldn't come back day after day. But now I'm curious, like, so he's really driven by this belief. You can kind of imagine, though, that also it's because the squirrel lets him get close enough that he thinks it is possible. Can you speak to the specific lines from the text that gave you that idea? Yeah. Well, he says, I can taste the silk of your stale. Well, sorry, this scans it before I draw closer. The space between us is nothing. So they must be very, very close. And he can says he can even taste the silk of your tail. Like it's seemingly, you know, just inches almost away. But she says, I know the precise point at which I must flee. So she's still in control. But there's because she's letting the space between them become close to nothing. He thinks he can. So it's not just that he thinks today is his day. The squirrel is behaving in a way that makes him think it is his day. She's allowing him to get so close. This is an interesting connection that I hadn't really thought about. I thought about how each of their individual characteristics dictated their own personal motivations, but not how their characteristics might impact the other's motivation, right? The fact that the squirrel is so... confidently in control allows her to allow the dog to get that close, to become confident that he could potentially catch the squirrel. Their characteristics impact each other's motivations as much as they impact their own. Can almost imagine, I'm just like imagining a little squirrel with her tail up in the air. She's kind of like glancing over her shoulder, right? As the dog inches forward, like he's thinking he's going to pounce on her, but she, to your point, She's letting all of that happen. She could easily flee at any moment. She chooses to let him get closer and closer. So that's a really nice transition to thinking about how the squirrels, the squirrel and her character, predominant character traits that we identified, her confidence and control impact her motivation. Why is the squirrel choosing to engage in this daily activity, in this daily flirtation? I'll go to Nicole again because I tried you once before, but you were in the bathroom. I think the squirrel enjoys the fact that she can control the situation and almost enjoys, like Molly was saying, enjoys that she can manipulate another creature to her. You know what I mean? She keeps coming back to this every single day because she knows that she is the one in charge. And what can you take us to some lines in the text that give you this idea? That she is enjoying this thrill. Because personally, I'm like the type of person that's afraid of roller coasters. I'm afraid of heights. Like near-death experiences are not particularly enjoyable. So I'm a little confused here. What in the text made you think that the squirrel enjoys this interaction despite the risks? I think the... last line of the poem says a lot. It says, my heart pounds, exclamation point, see you tomorrow. Like, yes, your heart could pound because you're in a nerve wracking situation. But I think that the squirrel's heart pounds is because she finds it exciting and then asks, see you again tomorrow, which means that she's expecting this to happen again. And it's become this routine of theirs that she is letting go. happen every single day. She knows she's going to get away every time, but she enjoys the fact that they get to do this every day. I also thought though, when we read like my heart pounds, it also makes you think of like when you're in love, like your heart beats wildly. And there are lines in the text where she's like, oh, large, clumsy one, those eyes. Like she has some affection and and maybe her initial motivation was this like near death, like this near escape that she gets every But maybe over time, she's begun to develop feelings for this dog. And there's some affection there for this dog. So I thought that last line is interesting because her heart could be pounding for different reasons. She could be experiencing multiple feelings there at the end. Yes, great reasoning. And that actually brings us back to the point that Lavinia had brought up earlier when we were studying closely this one specific stanza. We've now established that both of these characters could have very clear feelings. differing motivations. The dog believes that he is, today's his day. He's finally going to catch the squirrel and that's why he chooses to engage in this daily interaction. Squirrel, on the other hand, maybe enjoys this thrill or the riskiness of it and allowing the dog to get so close that she's nearly caught, but knowing that she'll always escape. But what Aaliyah is alluding to, and that Lavinia had talked about earlier, is there's possibly a shared motivation for engaging in this daily interaction as well. Lexi, can you tell us more about what you think the shared motivation might be based on what's come up in our conversation so far? I think they both enjoy each other to some degree and are enamored of each other. To Aaliyah's point, another line that stands out to me is when the squirrel says, odd how the sunlight kindles your dark fur. And I think that's really interesting, not only because There's this sort of level where the dog's fur is made to seem beautiful, but there's this contrast between the sunlight light and then his fur is dark. So there's something kind of beautiful in the danger, I guess, for both of them. Even in the stanza that we had just looked at very closely, we said there was each of the characters was kind of affectionately talking about the other, despite the fact that the interaction could be quite dangerous, but still the way they say, I can taste the silk of your tail. It's an interesting choice of words there to describe it. And the way that the squirrel says, still those eyes that Olivia had pointed out with an ellipses that kind of makes it this dreaminess to it, like staring into your eyes with love and affection, which again, are not really emotions that you would naturally attribute to a dog and a squirrel that are chasing each other in a park. But that motivation does seem to be shared between the two of them, this mutual affection or admiration for each other. It's pulling them back together day after day. OK, I want to zoom out now. We've done a really close reading of this particular stanza. We've pulled in