Song of the Vagabond Tomato

Song of the Vagabond Tomato

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about making inferences from a poem.
Read the poem Song of the Vagabond Tomato by Fiona Farrell (School Journal, Part 2, No. 4, 1993) and look at the illustration. Then answer the questions below. 

Question

a)  What is the meaning of the word "vagabond" from the title of the poem and line 20?

    • A brand of tomatoes

    • A careless character

    • A wandering rascal

    • A scruffy character

Question 2Change answer

b)  What does the tomato mean when he says, "I feel no remorse?" [line 6]

Question 2Change answer

c)  Why do the tomatoes talked about in this poem end up costing only "fifty cents a kilogram"? [line 12]

Question 2Change answer

d)  When the tomato says, "No, no!" what is he talking about? [line 13]

Question 2Change answer

e)  What word is "'neath" short for? [line 16]  

Question 2Change answer

f)  What do the dots at the end of line 20 show?
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with some auto-marking).
Copyright: 
Song of the Vagabond Tomato - Text and images were first published by Learning Media Limited for the Ministry of Education.© Fiona Farrell, 1993. Illustration Copyright © Crown. Reproduced with permission.
 
Source: School Journal, Part 2, No. 4, Learning Media, 1993.
 
Level:
3
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Thinking, Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
poem, poetry, comprehension, ellipsis, inference, School Journal, SJ-2-4-1993
Description of task: 
Students make inferences from a poem. SJ-2-4-1993. Text provided.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:

  • use comprehension strategies
  • infer ideas and information that are not directly stated in the text

as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.

Answers/responses: 
 

Y6 (09/1999)
a) A wandering rascal  difficult
b) He doesn't feel sorry/guilty/care (about the other tomatoes).  difficult
c) They are going to get mouldy/rotten/soft.  difficult
d) He is not going to stay in the shop and have the fate of the other tomatoes. [Accept specific examples e.g., "He is not going to wait to be blended into sauce."]  difficult
e) Any 1 of:

  • beneath
  • underneath
  moderate
f) Any 1 of:

  • The tomato has suddenly stopped talking.
  • The tomato has been squashed by the truck/falled down the drain.
  difficult