In "The Boy and His Ball," a speaker describes the athletic artistry and tireless joy of a young boy with a soccer ball at his feet.
Pair “How You See Yourself” with “The Boy and His Ball” and ask students to discuss the role of self-image in our lives from childhood to our development into adults. Using the exercise from paragraph 4, identify 10 thoughtful adjectives to describe yourself. Do you think your friends and family would choose similar adjectives to describe you? Why or why not? Identify four to five adjectives that the boy in “The Boy and His Ball” might use to describe himself. Support your choices with details from the poem. According to “How You See Yourself,” why is it important to develop a stable and positive self-image? What are some examples of life experiences that could cause the boy in the poem or a real-life person to alter their self-image over time?