Being in a small school, it can be difficult to have lively discussions, lots of different view points, or diverse ideas. So when I taught the lesson and had the students break up into two groups and write down a word or phrase that described the feeling the pictures gave them, I was only getting eight words (there are only eight students in the entire grade). So I had to quickly have each student write down as many words as they could so that when they worked on their presentations of the words, they could decide which words to use. This activity would be much easier if there were 25-30 students in the classroom. The students enjoyed it, for the most part. They did struggle with thinking of words that went deeper than just naming the colors and objects in the pictures. It did help that they have been reading stories about life from the same time periods as the pictures and so some of the students were able to dig deeper into possible themes in the pictures. If this lesson were to be done more often throughout the year, I believe that the students would get better at choosing rich words, and feel better about sharing out to the rest of the class.
I agree with you! I definitely think that is a lesson that would have better, richer results the more you did it. The kids would get really good at picking richer words and coming up with more words in a smaller amount of time. Good for you for adapting the lesson plan in the midst!
I really like that you used picture that represented a time period you had already been studying. I also find it very interesting that this activity would work with more children in the classroom versus fewer, that isn't somehting we hear the world of academia very often!
Hi Anne, Woowwww, your school is seriously small! You face special obstacles. Like all good teachers, you were able to think on your feet and keep the intention of this lesson in tact. I liked your lesson plan and can see my seniors benefiting from a version similar to what you did with your students. Thank you for sharing :)
My lesson went very well with two classes, and okay with the third. I used A Modest Proposal as the text for a close-reading lesson inspired by Dr. Wilhelm. The essay was perfect. I knew from previously teaching it (and once giving it to a very poor, poor sub), that the kids take it literally, freak out, get upset, and are immediately motivated to discuss. I thought the close-reading would be very helpful for my students, and I was right. I copied as much of Wilhelm's modeling strategies as I could--I used the document camera, colors, lots of thinking aloud, and margin annotations to show the kids how my mind was processing the information. The first 2 classes loved it and laughed under their breath as what at first horrified them became genius, witty, clever, and important. The 3rd class accepted the strategy, but they had more trouble with the insight: they couldn't let go of the impressions they had from their first cold reading. Also though, it was right before lunch and I essentially destroyed their appetites (spoiler alert: Swift "proposes" eating children and using their skin for clothing). Overall, I was very happy with the lesson. It went much better this year than last, and it only cost me the print copies so they could write on their text (as opposed to the essay contained in our lit book). This is a keeper. The post-reading questions also worked well. They were specific and demanding enough that kids went in yet again to find evidence to support their answers. Thanks, Dr. Wilhelm :)
I like how you had them do a cold read with the story so that they could jump to all the wrong conclusions like that. That in itself is a great teachable moment for the students because it shows them just how important it is to stop and think about situations or issues, get both sides of the story, and use reason to determine an appropriate reaction to what they read, see, and hear. I'm glad that the lesson worked out so well for you. I wonder if I can find some text to use in my elementary classes.
I agree. I had my students cold read their scripts first before close-reading. They were surprised how much they missed and how they stamped rigid stereo-types to their characters. They seemed to find more freedom developing their characters after examining the text.
I'm glad this lesson went so well for and I love how it changed the studnets outlook of the story. I also think this is an absolute fabulous way to teach the stop and thinkg reading stratagy to older studnets! Thanks for sharing your success!
Kate, I liked your lesson and I appreciate the feedback! I haven't taught A Modest Proposal, but I have thought often about adding it to my curriculum. (I loved it when I read it in college!) Like Anne said above, the piece is perfect for letting them first jump to the wrong conclusions and then watching them see how it's developed. Also, I was wondering how a close-reading would work with older students, so I'm glad you decided to try this out.
My lesson went very well! The kids loved the book and by the third page were finishing most of the similes, since they would begin on one page and then you would turn the page and it would finish. They felt very clever :). We practiced using like and using as for similes when we were done and I was also able to read them another simile book again that day for a read aloud after recess. When it was time to write similes for our plant parts, I kept it pretty guided to ensure that I could monitor the kids mastery of the skill. This also allowed the kids to share their similes with their classmates as we went which also supported those learners who were experiencing difficulty creating similes. We would brainstorm on the board, then the kids could either pick one we listed or choose one of their own. We moved through the whole plant together and the kids came up with fantastic similes for each part that really illustrated the part's role in plant growth and survival.
I love it when everything ties together! I have noticed myself searching more for read alouds that tie into my lessons. It’s such a great way to pull everything all together. Our school also has a subscription to Brain Pop JR. which shows short clips on specific topics and I love using this for an intro tool! Sounds like you had a lot of success!
Awesome! I use similes and metaphors all the time! I find they help tie a foreign concept to reality for the kids. You did a wonderful job introducing the concept and then made sure everyone was successful. Weirdly enough, the kids will remember the lesson far into high school and college. Nice job!
I love that they get to share their work. This is something that I do all of the time in my classroom so everyone feels like they have a chance to say what they want to! Think, pair, share is one of my favorite ways to brainstorm.
It is also fun when everything ties together and students see that connection. We have worked really hard to make this happen in our grade level this year. It has made a big difference.
This was a great lesson and was extremely engaging for students. As much as it focused on parts of speech, surprisingly math ended up being tied into the lesson.
Activity: Sticky notes were randomly placed around the room. Three columns will be on the board labeled: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs Explain lesson and set expectations- Introduce objective: Identify and sort parts of speech. Have a quick class discussion to review what a noun, pronoun and verb is. Expectations-you have to use walking feet, you can only find one sticky note at a time. Read the word, then place on the board into the proper column. Walk back to your seat and record the word you stuck to the board on your paper. Hand out loose leaf paper. Students will fold into thirds and label their paper to match the board. (Folding the paper into thirds was a lesson all on it’s own.) Expectations were reviewed again, word sort began. Once words were sorted, students returned to their seats and reviewed the sticky notes whole class. If words were not in the correct category the class worked together to sort them correctly. As each word was reviewed students copied onto their own paper creating a large list for each category. They were really good at noticing when a word was in the wrong category, and very determined to make a huge list. For my student who is extremely low in language, I offend support as she was going around the room. I was ready to help decode the word and use the word in a sentence for her but she did a great job and had enough words to choose from that made her comfortable Once the words were sorted and recorded on each students’ paper we Used the words in sentences, and students were able to give perfect definitions for the different parts of speech. The students then wanted to know how many words we had in all. We counted the words in each column by 2’s. Then they wanted to add the 3 columns together (adding three numbers is something they were doing in math at the time, so they thought that was great) We had: Nouns 26, Pronouns 11, verbs 14
I wanted to give a quick update on the 8 second wait time. It literally is the magical second. I have been catching myself from time to time when there is low participation counting to 8 in my head, and it has highly increased student participation! (Especially in my reading switch) The hands fly up on 8:)
Thanks for reminding me about the 8 second wait time. I have been so focused on other things, it had waned in the back part of my awareness and I now realize I need to work on it more. Thanks!!!!
I have also been working on the 8 second wait time. It is amazing!!!!! In fifth grade students are so self conscious sometimes about raising their hand and worried about being 'wrong' but this has helped a lot!
I loved implementing my lesson. I found my students were really engaged. I started with one of my Intro classes and had them all use their scripts. They were to mark the explicit remarks made by the character and by other characters about them. Then they were to mark the implicit actions of both their character and those of the other characters. The idea was for each student to learn about his or her character. Initially I had the students work individually and then in their groups. I found they were rather confused until I encouraged them to work with their partners. My next Intro class I had them work in groups at the beginning. The second class seemed to understand the concept a little better. I was thrilled with the greater depth the students brought to their first actual scene. They seemed to understand their characters and the relationship between the characters better than I have experienced in previous years.
Congratulation on a successful lesson! I have also had great luck with pairing students for these sort of lessons. It is often just what the low-level students need in order for them to make the necessary connections.
So I decided to try the ekphrastic expression lesson in a kindergarten classroom. They didn’t have trouble responding to the picture I used to cue for them to respond to and they were all able to write some sort of sentence that was related to either the art or the emotion they through the art represented. The down side to this was their responses were very limited so the discussion of the art prior to writing was very repetitive. They did well on writing in their journals but their written responses were very shallow. Some of their drawings that accompanied their journal entry showed deeper consideration of the artwork. I really struggled with trying to get students who didn’t reference the art work in their writing to try to do so. I think all in this mini lesson went alright for doing it with kindergarteners at their journal writing center on center day. However, I think that in my own classroom I could go a little deeper or better scaffold, pre-teach, and execute this lesson, but it was fun, challenging, but fun and I would like to teach it again.
After talking to a few other people who attended the ekphrastic expression workshop, I wanted to implement something like it in my classroom. Since we had a writing piece to do also, I decided to combine an author study using ekphrastic expression in with my writing piece. We have had a few stories in our textbook and novels that talk about life on the prairie. I was introduced to a story which talks about life on the prairie and did a little research on the author. His life was very interesting, so I wanted to share with my class. The lesson began with each kid having a sticky note at their desk. I then showed a video with the author talking about how he became a writer and his struggles, and some of his books. The students had to write one word to describe his character on the sticky note. No one in the same table group could have the same word, and they wanted to use the most creative words possible so no one had one just like theirs. We took the words and I read them (and clarified meanings of a few made up words) and then created a poem using the words that we sent to the author! The kids loved this part. We then talked about the words the author used to create his books and describe the prairie. We used a graphic organizer and compared the life on the prairie from the three stories, to their own lives. We have now taken those graphic organizers and turned them into paragraphs. Some of my very low IEP kids then took a turn to type their work on the computer. This was a great accommodation because the writing software helped correct their errors, along with some peer tutoring from my advanced learning students. It balanced out my writing time so all students could be engaged and working productively. I also saw a lot of our descriptive words being used in the paragraphs.
This lesson sounds like a success! I love the way the students learn through more of a process that builds toward a final product that they can be proud of. I have found that students need that sense of accomplishment, and are far more likely to absorb information if they take ownership in what they are doing. Your lesson sounds like a great way to teach the material. The connection to the actual author is also a great experience for the students that made the author more accessible and real.
The lesson on annotating was quite successful. The students took the activity seriously when presented with the possible uses for the skill of annotation. The actual activities were something new and exciting, which allowed students to become involved even before they had a chance to resist. The jigsaw method allowed more advanced students to assist the other students in the group. With peer assistance, all students were able to successfully annotate and summarize the important information from a text. The fact that every student in the classroom was involved and understood the information in the text by the end of the class period was evidence that the lesson was a success. One aspect that I would improve on for next time would be the text I use. I used a text that introduced an author, which allowed the students to find important facts. However, I feel that a text that offered more depth of meaning would prove ore effective for demonstrating the power of annotation. I would love to introduce students to annotating to help reading comprehension by using a text that is actually challenging to understand. This could, perhaps, even be a second lesson that could challenge students to take the annotation skills to the next level.
My lesson on argument writing using the "Slip or Trip" mystery went well, but I did not leave enough time to do a thorough job on everything. The Day 1 activities could really be split into a 2-day activity, which allows for more time for student questions and for modeling things effectively. I felt rushed with my schedule for that day and week, so feel like I didn't do as good of a job as I would have liked. It also took longer than I expected for students to start developing theories about the mystery. I guess I was comparing it to how we (adults) did at the conference. :)
So that's the negative thing. The positives are that the kids were very engaged in this activity. They were having fun and were developing claims and evidence and warrants pretty well, and I can see how once students use these vocabulary words more often, they'll become very familiar and comfortable with them. They actually asked if we could do another one, so that's always a good sign! I have yet to grade the final essays they did as a result of this lesson, but hopefully they're organized and semi-effective as an argument essay.
I would be interested to hear how the kids did with the argument essay! What I like about this lesson is that it can be simple so that there are only two real claims possible (Queenie's a big liar, Poor Queenie found her husband dead), but if you had a different story or scenario, you could have more open-ended claims. I hope to use this in my class, too!
As I looked through the student's work, it was obvious that some children didn't have similes completely understood. Some examples are "Leaves are leprechaun green" or "The roots suck up water like a straw". The similes don't follow the strict rules of similes and can be a strong teaching tool. A game I have played with my students is "My Favorite No". You use a student's response to a task and compliment on all they did that was right. Then you ask the class to tell you why it's your favorite no and explain what isn't quite right about their work. It is very powerful and after some training, the students are so thoughtful and intelligent about their comments. I also add in "My Favorite Yes" and have the kids do the same for why it's a strong example of the skill being performed. This would definitely fine tune their understanding of similes to get better quality similes from all students. My favorite responses from children who really got it were "Flowers smell like a new Scentsy pot" and "Leaves are like a mother feeding her children". Poignant stuff!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBeing in a small school, it can be difficult to have lively discussions, lots of different view points, or diverse ideas. So when I taught the lesson and had the students break up into two groups and write down a word or phrase that described the feeling the pictures gave them, I was only getting eight words (there are only eight students in the entire grade). So I had to quickly have each student write down as many words as they could so that when they worked on their presentations of the words, they could decide which words to use. This activity would be much easier if there were 25-30 students in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteThe students enjoyed it, for the most part. They did struggle with thinking of words that went deeper than just naming the colors and objects in the pictures. It did help that they have been reading stories about life from the same time periods as the pictures and so some of the students were able to dig deeper into possible themes in the pictures. If this lesson were to be done more often throughout the year, I believe that the students would get better at choosing rich words, and feel better about sharing out to the rest of the class.
I agree with you! I definitely think that is a lesson that would have better, richer results the more you did it. The kids would get really good at picking richer words and coming up with more words in a smaller amount of time. Good for you for adapting the lesson plan in the midst!
DeleteI really like that you used picture that represented a time period you had already been studying. I also find it very interesting that this activity would work with more children in the classroom versus fewer, that isn't somehting we hear the world of academia very often!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Anne,
ReplyDeleteWoowwww, your school is seriously small! You face special obstacles. Like all good teachers, you were able to think on your feet and keep the intention of this lesson in tact. I liked your lesson plan and can see my seniors benefiting from a version similar to what you did with your students. Thank you for sharing :)
My lesson went very well with two classes, and okay with the third. I used A Modest Proposal as the text for a close-reading lesson inspired by Dr. Wilhelm. The essay was perfect. I knew from previously teaching it (and once giving it to a very poor, poor sub), that the kids take it literally, freak out, get upset, and are immediately motivated to discuss.
ReplyDeleteI thought the close-reading would be very helpful for my students, and I was right. I copied as much of Wilhelm's modeling strategies as I could--I used the document camera, colors, lots of thinking aloud, and margin annotations to show the kids how my mind was processing the information.
The first 2 classes loved it and laughed under their breath as what at first horrified them became genius, witty, clever, and important.
The 3rd class accepted the strategy, but they had more trouble with the insight: they couldn't let go of the impressions they had from their first cold reading. Also though, it was right before lunch and I essentially destroyed their appetites (spoiler alert: Swift "proposes" eating children and using their skin for clothing).
Overall, I was very happy with the lesson. It went much better this year than last, and it only cost me the print copies so they could write on their text (as opposed to the essay contained in our lit book). This is a keeper.
The post-reading questions also worked well. They were specific and demanding enough that kids went in yet again to find evidence to support their answers.
Thanks, Dr. Wilhelm :)
I like how you had them do a cold read with the story so that they could jump to all the wrong conclusions like that. That in itself is a great teachable moment for the students because it shows them just how important it is to stop and think about situations or issues, get both sides of the story, and use reason to determine an appropriate reaction to what they read, see, and hear. I'm glad that the lesson worked out so well for you. I wonder if I can find some text to use in my elementary classes.
DeleteI agree. I had my students cold read their scripts first before close-reading. They were surprised how much they missed and how they stamped rigid stereo-types to their characters. They seemed to find more freedom developing their characters after examining the text.
DeleteI'm glad this lesson went so well for and I love how it changed the studnets outlook of the story. I also think this is an absolute fabulous way to teach the stop and thinkg reading stratagy to older studnets! Thanks for sharing your success!
DeleteKate, I liked your lesson and I appreciate the feedback! I haven't taught A Modest Proposal, but I have thought often about adding it to my curriculum. (I loved it when I read it in college!) Like Anne said above, the piece is perfect for letting them first jump to the wrong conclusions and then watching them see how it's developed. Also, I was wondering how a close-reading would work with older students, so I'm glad you decided to try this out.
DeleteMy lesson went very well! The kids loved the book and by the third page were finishing most of the similes, since they would begin on one page and then you would turn the page and it would finish. They felt very clever :). We practiced using like and using as for similes when we were done and I was also able to read them another simile book again that day for a read aloud after recess. When it was time to write similes for our plant parts, I kept it pretty guided to ensure that I could monitor the kids mastery of the skill. This also allowed the kids to share their similes with their classmates as we went which also supported those learners who were experiencing difficulty creating similes. We would brainstorm on the board, then the kids could either pick one we listed or choose one of their own. We moved through the whole plant together and the kids came up with fantastic similes for each part that really illustrated the part's role in plant growth and survival.
ReplyDeleteI love it when everything ties together! I have noticed myself searching more for read alouds that tie into my lessons. It’s such a great way to pull everything all together. Our school also has a subscription to Brain Pop JR. which shows short clips on specific topics and I love using this for an intro tool! Sounds like you had a lot of success!
DeleteAwesome! I use similes and metaphors all the time! I find they help tie a foreign concept to reality for the kids. You did a wonderful job introducing the concept and then made sure everyone was successful. Weirdly enough, the kids will remember the lesson far into high school and college. Nice job!
DeleteI love that they get to share their work. This is something that I do all of the time in my classroom so everyone feels like they have a chance to say what they want to! Think, pair, share is one of my favorite ways to brainstorm.
DeleteIt is also fun when everything ties together and students see that connection. We have worked really hard to make this happen in our grade level this year. It has made a big difference.
That sounds like areally fun and engaging way to teach science!!!! Thanks for sharing!
DeleteThis was a great lesson and was extremely engaging for students. As much as it focused on parts of speech, surprisingly math ended up being tied into the lesson.
ReplyDeleteActivity:
Sticky notes were randomly placed around the room. Three columns will be on the board labeled: Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs
Explain lesson and set expectations- Introduce objective: Identify and sort parts of speech. Have a quick class discussion to review what a noun, pronoun and verb is. Expectations-you have to use walking feet, you can only find one sticky note at a time. Read the word, then place on the board into the proper column. Walk back to your seat and record the word you stuck to the board on your paper.
Hand out loose leaf paper. Students will fold into thirds and label their paper to match the board. (Folding the paper into thirds was a lesson all on it’s own.)
Expectations were reviewed again, word sort began.
Once words were sorted, students returned to their seats and reviewed the sticky notes whole class. If words were not in the correct category the class worked together to sort them correctly. As each word was reviewed students copied onto their own paper creating a large list for each category. They were really good at noticing when a word was in the wrong category, and very determined to make a huge list.
For my student who is extremely low in language, I offend support as she was going around the room. I was ready to help decode the word and use the word in a sentence for her but she did a great job and had enough words to choose from that made her comfortable
Once the words were sorted and recorded on each students’ paper we Used the words in sentences, and students were able to give perfect definitions for the different parts of speech. The students then wanted to know how many words we had in all. We counted the words in each column by 2’s. Then they wanted to add the 3 columns together (adding three numbers is something they were doing in math at the time, so they thought that was great) We had: Nouns 26, Pronouns 11, verbs 14
I wanted to give a quick update on the 8 second wait time. It literally is the magical second. I have been catching myself from time to time when there is low participation counting to 8 in my head, and it has highly increased student participation! (Especially in my reading switch) The hands fly up on 8:)
DeleteThanks for reminding me about the 8 second wait time. I have been so focused on other things, it had waned in the back part of my awareness and I now realize I need to work on it more. Thanks!!!!
DeleteI have also been working on the 8 second wait time. It is amazing!!!!! In fifth grade students are so self conscious sometimes about raising their hand and worried about being 'wrong' but this has helped a lot!
DeleteThe 8 second wait time! Such a good reminder! I will have to remember to practice this better. Thank you!
DeleteI loved implementing my lesson. I found my students were really engaged. I started with one of my Intro classes and had them all use their scripts. They were to mark the explicit remarks made by the character and by other characters about them. Then they were to mark the implicit actions of both their character and those of the other characters. The idea was for each student to learn about his or her character. Initially I had the students work individually and then in their groups. I found they were rather confused until I encouraged them to work with their partners. My next Intro class I had them work in groups at the beginning. The second class seemed to understand the concept a little better. I was thrilled with the greater depth the students brought to their first actual scene. They seemed to understand their characters and the relationship between the characters better than I have experienced in previous years.
ReplyDeleteCongratulation on a successful lesson! I have also had great luck with pairing students for these sort of lessons. It is often just what the low-level students need in order for them to make the necessary connections.
DeleteSo I decided to try the ekphrastic expression lesson in a kindergarten classroom. They didn’t have trouble responding to the picture I used to cue for them to respond to and they were all able to write some sort of sentence that was related to either the art or the emotion they through the art represented. The down side to this was their responses were very limited so the discussion of the art prior to writing was very repetitive. They did well on writing in their journals but their written responses were very shallow. Some of their drawings that accompanied their journal entry showed deeper consideration of the artwork. I really struggled with trying to get students who didn’t reference the art work in their writing to try to do so. I think all in this mini lesson went alright for doing it with kindergarteners at their journal writing center on center day. However, I think that in my own classroom I could go a little deeper or better scaffold, pre-teach, and execute this lesson, but it was fun, challenging, but fun and I would like to teach it again.
ReplyDeleteAfter talking to a few other people who attended the ekphrastic expression workshop, I wanted to implement something like it in my classroom. Since we had a writing piece to do also, I decided to combine an author study using ekphrastic expression in with my writing piece.
ReplyDeleteWe have had a few stories in our textbook and novels that talk about life on the prairie. I was introduced to a story which talks about life on the prairie and did a little research on the author. His life was very interesting, so I wanted to share with my class. The lesson began with each kid having a sticky note at their desk. I then showed a video with the author talking about how he became a writer and his struggles, and some of his books. The students had to write one word to describe his character on the sticky note. No one in the same table group could have the same word, and they wanted to use the most creative words possible so no one had one just like theirs. We took the words and I read them (and clarified meanings of a few made up words) and then created a poem using the words that we sent to the author! The kids loved this part.
We then talked about the words the author used to create his books and describe the prairie. We used a graphic organizer and compared the life on the prairie from the three stories, to their own lives. We have now taken those graphic organizers and turned them into paragraphs.
Some of my very low IEP kids then took a turn to type their work on the computer. This was a great accommodation because the writing software helped correct their errors, along with some peer tutoring from my advanced learning students. It balanced out my writing time so all students could be engaged and working productively. I also saw a lot of our descriptive words being used in the paragraphs.
This lesson sounds like a success! I love the way the students learn through more of a process that builds toward a final product that they can be proud of. I have found that students need that sense of accomplishment, and are far more likely to absorb information if they take ownership in what they are doing. Your lesson sounds like a great way to teach the material. The connection to the actual author is also a great experience for the students that made the author more accessible and real.
DeleteThe lesson on annotating was quite successful. The students took the activity seriously when presented with the possible uses for the skill of annotation. The actual activities were something new and exciting, which allowed students to become involved even before they had a chance to resist.
ReplyDeleteThe jigsaw method allowed more advanced students to assist the other students in the group. With peer assistance, all students were able to successfully annotate and summarize the important information from a text. The fact that every student in the classroom was involved and understood the information in the text by the end of the class period was evidence that the lesson was a success.
One aspect that I would improve on for next time would be the text I use. I used a text that introduced an author, which allowed the students to find important facts. However, I feel that a text that offered more depth of meaning would prove ore effective for demonstrating the power of annotation. I would love to introduce students to annotating to help reading comprehension by using a text that is actually challenging to understand. This could, perhaps, even be a second lesson that could challenge students to take the annotation skills to the next level.
My lesson on argument writing using the "Slip or Trip" mystery went well, but I did not leave enough time to do a thorough job on everything. The Day 1 activities could really be split into a 2-day activity, which allows for more time for student questions and for modeling things effectively. I felt rushed with my schedule for that day and week, so feel like I didn't do as good of a job as I would have liked. It also took longer than I expected for students to start developing theories about the mystery. I guess I was comparing it to how we (adults) did at the conference. :)
ReplyDeleteSo that's the negative thing. The positives are that the kids were very engaged in this activity. They were having fun and were developing claims and evidence and warrants pretty well, and I can see how once students use these vocabulary words more often, they'll become very familiar and comfortable with them. They actually asked if we could do another one, so that's always a good sign! I have yet to grade the final essays they did as a result of this lesson, but hopefully they're organized and semi-effective as an argument essay.
I would be interested to hear how the kids did with the argument essay! What I like about this lesson is that it can be simple so that there are only two real claims possible (Queenie's a big liar, Poor Queenie found her husband dead), but if you had a different story or scenario, you could have more open-ended claims. I hope to use this in my class, too!
DeleteAs I looked through the student's work, it was obvious that some children didn't have similes completely understood. Some examples are "Leaves are leprechaun green" or "The roots suck up water like a straw". The similes don't follow the strict rules of similes and can be a strong teaching tool. A game I have played with my students is "My Favorite No". You use a student's response to a task and compliment on all they did that was right. Then you ask the class to tell you why it's your favorite no and explain what isn't quite right about their work. It is very powerful and after some training, the students are so thoughtful and intelligent about their comments. I also add in "My Favorite Yes" and have the kids do the same for why it's a strong example of the skill being performed. This would definitely fine tune their understanding of similes to get better quality similes from all students. My favorite responses from children who really got it were "Flowers smell like a new Scentsy pot" and "Leaves are like a mother feeding her children". Poignant stuff!
ReplyDelete