English 9

English – Grade 9
Quarter 2 – Module 6: Valuing Other People and Their Various Circumstances in
Life
First Edition, 2020

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Published by the Department of Education - Schools Division of Pasig City

Development Team of the Self-Learning Module

Writer: Marliel P. Castillejos
Editor/ Reviewer (Content Language): Analyn L. De Leon
Illustrator: Edison P. Clet
Layout Artist: Name
Management Team: Ma. Evalou Concepcion A. Agustin
OIC-Schools Division Superintendent
Aurelio G. Alfonso EdD
OIC-Assistant Schools Division Superintendent
Victor M. Javeña EdD
Chief, School Governance and Operations Division and
OIC-Chief, Curriculum Implementation Division

Education Program Supervisors

Librada L. Agon EdD (EPP/TLE/TVL/TVE)

Liza A. Alvarez (Science/STEM/SSP)
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Joselito E. Calios (English/SPFL/GAS)
Norlyn D. Conde EdD (MAPEH/SPA/SPS/HOPE/A&D/Sports)
Wilma Q. Del Rosario (LRMS/ADM)
Ma. Teresita E. Herrera EdD (Filipino/GAS/Piling Larang)
Perlita M. Ignacio PhD (EsP)
Dulce O. Santos PhD (Kindergarten/MTB-MLE)
Teresita P. Tagulao EdD (Mathematics/ABM)

Printed in the Philippines by Department of Education – Schools Division of

Pasig City
 English 9
Quarter 2
Self-Learning Module 6
Valuing Other People and Their Various
Circumstances in Life

Introductory Message
 For the Facilitator:

Welcome to the English 9 Self Learning Module on Valuing Other People and
Their Various Circumstances in Life!

This Self-Learning Module was collaboratively designed, developed and

reviewed by educators from the Schools Division Office of Pasig City headed by its
Officer-in-Charge Schools Division Superintendent, Ma. Evalou Concepcion A.
Agustin, in partnership with the City Government of Pasig through its mayor,
Honorable Victor Ma. Regis N. Sotto. The writers utilized the standards set by the K
to 12 Curriculum using the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC) in
developing this instructional resource.

This learning material hopes to engage the learners in guided and

independent learning activities at their own pace and time. Further, this also aims
to help learners acquire the needed 21st century skills especially the 5 Cs, namely:
Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Character while
taking into consideration their needs and circumstances.

In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the
body of the module:

Notes to the Teacher

This contains helpful tips or strategies
that will help you in guiding the learners.

As a facilitator you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this
module. You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing them
to manage their own learning. Moreover, you are expected to encourage and assist
the learners as they do the tasks included in the module.

For the Learner:

Welcome to the English 9 Self-Learning Module on Valuing Other People and

Their Various Circumstances in Life!
 This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful
opportunities for guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You
will be enabled to process the contents of the learning material while being an
active learner.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

Expectations - This points to the set of knowledge and skills

that you will learn after completing the module.

Pretest - This measures your prior knowledge about the lesson

at hand.

Recap - This part of the module provides a review of concepts

and skills that you already know about a previous lesson.

Lesson - This section discusses the topic in the module. 

Activities - This is a set of activities that you need to perform.

Wrap-Up - This section summarizes the concepts and

application of the lesson.

Valuing - This part integrates a desirable moral value in the

lesson.

Posttest - This measures how much you have learned from the
entire module.

EXPECTATIONS

Hello and welcome to our school-at-home class in English Grade 9.

We are in the 2nd Quarter of our set of lessons. Today, we’ll study Lesson
No. 6, Valuing Other People and Their Various Circumstances in Life, through the
poem, “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.

PRETEST

Supply each blank with the most appropriate answer. Choose your
answer from these words: tacks, stair, crystal and splinters.

1. The furniture maker had a minor accident at work and ended up

having _________ on his hands.
2. Chandeliers, lamps, and accessories are some of the products that
can be made out of __________.
3. Climbing up and down the __________ can be a good alternative work-
out during the pandemic.
4. Thanks to the ___________! My father did well on repairing our broken
chairs.
tacks stair crystal splinters

RECAP

Last time, in
lesson number 5, you learned how to agree or disagree with the ideas of the
speaker. You have learned that giving opinions on certain topics is a skill
that is important in school discussions. However, "academic argument" can
be heated at times. Thus, what's important is to always be civilized and
polite even if you disagree with another student's argument.

LESSON

Look at these pictures. What do they have in common?

 https://bit.ly/2AhOe
gK

https://bit.ly/3eJDeYt

https://bit.ly/3i6WaT7
https://bit.ly/2VK0Q7Z

These pictures show us segregation in terms of using different public

facilities, like drinking fountain, classrooms and rest rooms. This is what we
call “racial segregation”. Apart from these places, racial segregation was
also rampant in buses, restaurants and other establishments. Between
1849 and 1950, blacks were segregated from whites by law and private
action in transportation, public accommodations, armed forces, recreational
facilities,prisons,… (http://nationalbusinesspks.com/docs/article.php?
70d48f=segregation-in-the-1950s) “Colored” refers to black people, and
“White” pertains to Americans who have fair skin. Racial segregation is one
form of “racial discrimination”. Racial Discrimination is any discrimination
against individuals on the basis of their skin color, or racial or ethnic origin.

The poem that we’ll have today is entitled, “Mother to Son”. This is
written by Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes is a Black American poet, a
social activist, a novelist, a playwright, a columnist and one of the earliest
innovators of the “jazz poetry”. In jazz poetry, the
rhythm of the poem, when spoken aloud, resembles the sounds
that jazz music makes. Jazz poetry became popular during the Harlem
Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem
neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th
Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted.
Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is
considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in
literature, music, stage performance and art
(https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance).

Hughes is especially known to have a strong sense of racial pride.

Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he
promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African
American culture, humor, and spirituality.

Let’s read the poem together.

 Mother to Son
By Langston Hughes

“Mother to Son” is an example of a dramatic monologue. A dramatic

monologue is a poem in which an imagined speaker addresses, usually not
the reader, but a silent listener.
The poem is didactic in approach. Didactic Poetry provides knowledge
on philosophy, religion, arts, Science, skills and even morals.
One noticeable attribute of “Mother to Son” is the mother’s manner of
speech. As you read through the poem, I’m sure that you’ve noticed that the
speaker’ s way of speaking is very much alike to how a female black
American speaks.
The poem articulates the heartfelt and loving advice a wise black
woman gives to her son about being black in America. She wants him to
know that nobody is going to make his path easy. Her advice shows her
character and her courage. This poem is applicable to anyone facing a hard
struggle in life.

The poem makes use of extended metaphor to create a comparison

between the stair in the poem and the struggles that the mother has to go
through in life in order to survive.

Guided Practice

Let’s see how much you’ve learned so far.

Identify the missing word to complete each statement about the poem,
“Mother to Son”.
1. The mother in the poem compares herself to a __________.
A. road B. light C. staircase D. river
2. All of the following are identified as flaws of the staircase except
_________.
A. splinters B. torn up boards C. tacks D. gaps
3. The mother advises her son _________.
A. to be a good provider C. to fall in love
B. to never give up D. to always smile
4. The mother proclaims that she is __________.
A. descending the stair C. still ascending the stair
B. sitting down on the stair D. standing on the stair
4. The poet behind the poem “Mother to Son” is __________.
A. William Langston C. Langston Williams
B. William Hughes D. Langston Hughes

1. If you answered “C”, “staircase” in number 1, you are correct!

2. If you answered “D”, “gaps” in number 2, you are correct!
3. If you answered “C”, “still ascending the stair” in number 3, you are
correct!
4. If you answered “D”, “Langston Hughes” in number 4, you are correct!

ACTIVITIES

Activity 1
The mother's manner of speaking in the poem “Mother to Son” makes
the poem more realistic. However, it doesn’t comply with the standard
English manner of speech. Choose a better statement to replace her original
words without changing her intended message.

1. Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

A. Life for me aren’t crystal stair.
B. Life for me hasn’t been a crystal stair.
C. Life for me isn’t crystal stair.
2. I’ se been a-climbin on.
A. I have been climbing.
B. I am climbing.
C. I is climbing.

3. And sometimes goin’ in the dark where there ain’t been no light
A. And sometimes going in the dark where there aren’t any light
 B. And sometimes going in the dark where there are no light
C. And sometimes going in the dark where there isn’t any light
4. For I’se still goin’, honey.
A. For I’m still going, honey.
B. For I are still going, honey.
C. For I was still going, honey.
5. I’ se still climbin’.
A. I’m still climb. B. I’m still climbing. C. I still
climbs.

Activity 2
Create your own “Staircase of Success” by filling in each step with
1
your answers.

My Staircase of Success
2
3
4
5

1 : My Goal in Life
2 : My Lifeline or the Person who Will Help me Achieve My Goal
3 : Attitude/s I Need to Reach My Goal
4 – 5 : Three Greatest Hindrances to My Success

Rubric for Activity 2

Completeness (each “step” has been filled-up with an appropriate answer) 10 pts.

Clarity of Thoughts (each answer can be easily understood and justified) 10 pts.
________
20 pts.
 WRAP-UP

To wrap everything up that we have talked about in this lesson, let us

always remember that:

The poem, “Mother to Son” is an example of extended metaphor.

Extended metaphor is a figure of speech that creates a comparison between
two unlike things. The comparison carries throughout the entire poem.
Thus, the name “extended metaphor. In the poem that we have just
discussed, the life of the mother is being compared to a stair that is far from
a “crystal” or smooth stair. Her description of the stair, i.e. “with tacks and
splinters, with boards torn up and bare” gives us an idea on the hardships
that she had to go through in life. Nonetheless, the mother in the poem
advises her son to keep on climbing and not to give up and to never turn
back just because the going gets tough. She instructs her son to just keep
going in life, no matter how hard it gets.

VALUING

Let’s read this quotation from Martin Luther King, Jr.

“ If you can't fly, then run,

If you can't run, then walk,
If you can't walk, then crawl,
but whatever you do,
you have to keep moving forward.”

This quotation hints that every problem has a solution. Thus, each of
us has to consistently move forward despite the obstacles thrown our way.
 POSTTEST

Choose the letter of the correct answer.

_____1. Who is the speaker in the poem?

A. father B. mother C. teacher
_____2. To what does the speaker compared his/ her life to?
A. tree B. sea C. stair
_____3. What isn’t a theme of the poem Mother to Son?
A. celebration B. hardship C. determination
_____4. What advice does the speaker give to the boy?
A. to keep going B. to hurry up C. to stop and think
_____5. What does the crystal staircase symbolize?
A. hard life B. exciting life C. comfortable life

KEY TO CORRECTION

Key to Correction

PRE TEST Activity 1 POST TEST

1. splinters 1. B 1. B
2. crystal 2. A 2. C
3. stair 3. C 3. A
4. tacks 4. A 4. A
5. B 5. C

R e f e r e n ce s
Hughes, L., 2020. Mother To Son By Langston Hughes | Poetry Foundation. [online] Poetry Foundation.
Available at: <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47559/mother-to-son> [Accessed 30 June
2020].
2015. Racial Segregation. [image] Available at: <https://bit.ly/3i6WaT7> [Accessed 30 June 2020].
n.d. Racial Segregation For The Use Of Drinking Fountain. [image] Available at: <
https://bit.ly/2AhOegK> [Accessed 30 June 2020].
n.d. Racial Segregation In Classrooms. [image] Available at: < https://bit.ly/3eJDeYt> [Accessed 30
June 2020].
2014. Racial Segregation In Rest Rooms. [image] Available at:
<https://elises2014nhdproject.weebly.com/uploads/2/6/6/4/26647464/723403632_orig.jpg>
[Accessed 30 June 2020].
History.com. 2020. Harlem Renaissance. [online] Available at:
<https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/harlem-renaissance> [Accessed 30 June 2020].
Nationalbusinesspks.com. 2020. Segregation In The 1950S. [online] Available at:
<http://nationalbusinesspks.com/docs/article.php?70d48f=segregation-in-the-1950s> [Accessed 30
June 2020].