Wendy Christensen

Language Arts Lesson Plan Date: February 6/08

Grade 6

Lesson/Unit Topic/Theme: Sound in poetry/onomatopoeia
Lesson/Unit Length: lesson length is 60 minutes. It would be most effective as a single lesson (60 minutes), but could be broken up if necessary. If divided into two sessions, it would take additional time, possibly 80 minutes in total.
Curriculum Expectations:
Oral Communication: demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated understanding of appropriate speaking behaviour in a variety of situations, including paired sharing, dialogue, and small and large group discussions.
Reading: read a wide variety of texts from diverse cultures including literary texts, graphic texts, and informational texts.
-develop interpretations about texts using stated and implied ideas to support their interpretations.
-analyse a variety of text forms and explain how their particular characteristics help communicate meaning.
Writing: use some vivid and/or figurative language and innovative expressions to enhance interest.
Cross-Curricular Links:
This fits nicely with the social studies/language arts unit on children in conflict. One of the foci has been homes and children/families losing their homes as a result of conflict.
It would be an interesting extension activity to invite students to find out if any or all of the places named in the second and fourth stanzas are real places and where they are located in the world.
Content Area Focus
The focus of the lesson is to help students understand onomatopoeia – what it is, how it can be used, the effect of this technique on a poem, and to begin to explore how to use it in their own poetry writing.
Skills Focus:
Social Skills:
-ability to work cooperatively in a small group setting.
-ability to demonstrate initiative.
Learning Skills:
-  Reading (silently, out loud) individually and then in small groups. Large group read aloud will be given as an option during sharing circle.
-  Working cooperatively in small groups to: choose an activity to describe and create a list of descriptive words for this activity.
-  Oral communication to present words as well as to guess others’ activities. Possible read aloud during sharing circle.
-  Writing individually or in pairs to create own “sound” poem.
Focusing Questions:
Prior to reading “A Home Like a Hiccup” aloud to the class: ask students to think about an activity they like to do. Then think about sounds that are associated with that activity. (teacher example: skiing. Sound words could be swishing, slicing, speeding, skating, smashing.) What do you think these words are describing? Tell me why. How do you know? How do these words make you feel? Invite students to informally share their sound words with the class or in small groups.
Prior to writing own poems: Recall the sound words you thought of for your activity and when we read A Home Like a Hiccup. Why were some words better than others at helping you to “picture” your activity? You could also think of words other people used. With your elbow partner, explain why (or why not) you think these words work. Keep these ideas in mind as you write your own sound poem. If you aren’t sure the words work, read your poem out loud to yourself and/or ask your elbow partner to read your poem. (introduce activity now)
Prior to activity/culminating task: Poetry is an art form – it is meant to be shared. As a poet, you hope your audience will feel what you do. For that to happen, you have to be descriptive. You have done a wonderful job of thinking of descriptive words. Your poems are full of descriptions. Now we will do a task to see if your audience received your “message.” How would you know if your audience is responding how you hoped they would? (introduce activity now)
Culminating Task/Performance:
In small groups of 3-4, students will be asked to do a “Stem Poem” activity with a focus on descriptive words for senses.
Each group will work on “When I go outside…I see/smell/taste/hear. Each group chooses to consider only one sense to describe an activity that you could do outside. (When I go outside I hear… squealing, plonking, splashing, stomping, cracking, slushing, sloshing, sucking, slipping) Write down as many descriptive words as you can. These words will be “clues” about the activity you are describing.
Groups will present their words to the rest of the class who will try to guess what sense was used and what activity the words are describing. (in the case above, hearing and children playing in slushy, melting snow) There can certainly be more than one “answer.”
Assessment Tools and Strategies:
Reading: anecdotal. circulate the room. Are students reading aloud? Sounding out difficult or unfamiliar words? Discussing words with partner?
Writing: checklist. Was a “poem” produced? (may need time to finish after lesson). Does the poem show onomatopoeia? Does it show an understanding of descriptive words? Sound words?
Oral Communication: checklist. Did the student read their poem (either in small group, whole class, or 1:1 with teacher?) Did the student try something new? Had the student participated in discussions/presentations before? Did the student show increased confidence/enjoyment/participation in their presentation? Did the student participate in large/small group discussions?
Culminating Task (stem poem): Did the student participate in the activity? Contribute to the whole class “guessing” of other group’s activities?
Social skills: anecdotal notes – was the student successful at working with an elbow partner, reading buddy or in small groups? Did the student take initiative to begin/conclude/participate in activities?
Lesson/Unit Checkpoints & Feedback:
-during activities, note if all students are participating. Ask self – are they reading aloud? Sharing words with each other? Contributing in group? If I notice they are not, engage student and find out why not. Difficulty understanding task? Not being included in group? No creativity today? Ask how I can help, offer suggestions to re-engage.
Key Concepts & Skills
Reading
Instructional Approaches:
Invite all students to read the poem silently to themselves, then ask them to read it aloud to themselves.
Teacher: did you notice anything about the language in the poem? When you read it aloud, did it sound the way you thought it would when you read it silently?
Invite volunteers to read the poem aloud to the class.
Teacher will again read the poem, A Home Like a Hiccup by Dennis Lee.
Ask students
-what did they notice about the poem? (invite and encourage all answers.
-have you ever seen anything like this in any other poetry? Prose?
(could offer other examples by Dennis Lee, other poets – Dr. Seuss? Look for what may be familiar to students)
Critical Literacy/Thinking Skills:
These are the areas I want students to consider: What kind of words work? Why? As a poet, how can you make you audience understand your sound poem? What do you need to do so that your audience interprets your art in the way you had hoped?
Accommodations/Modifications:
Struggling readers: pair with stronger reader. Can share read aloud or do read aloud together (same time). To encourage struggling readers, make whole class announcement that there are some tricky words and stanzas in the poem – use your group or partner for “lifelines” if you get stuck.
Throughout the lesson, most activities are in small groups or offer the opportunity to work with an elbow partner. This is to encourage all to participate in a safe, supportive environment. This is particularly helpful for students who may need extra support.
Enrichment extension:
The reading portion of this lesson is brief and while done individually and in small groups, students cannot work ahead or on additional programs during the reading portion of the lesson. Extension activities will be available for writing and oral communication portions of the lesson.
Writing
Instructional Approaches:
While not the culminating task/activity, writing is done after the group creates stem poems. The activity is meant to increase confidence and knowledge of sound words and how they work; writing allows the student to try to apply this skill independently or in small groups (adapt to class/child).
You have already done all the hard work needed to write a sound poem – finding descriptive sound words. Now I want you to write your own poem. You may use the sound words/activity you described earlier or something completely new.
(Students may ask for length; encourage do write what they believe is needed to convey message to audience. If pushed, aim for 4 stanzas.)
Critical Literacy/Thinking Skills:
As you write, ask yourself: are these the best words? Will my audience know what I’m writing/speaking about?
Accommodations/Modifications:
Struggling writers:
Group these students together with a stronger, helpful partner. Encourage partners to work together and ask each other questions such as, “does this line work? Do you understand what I’m describing?”
Teacher can focus these students on the idea that the hard work is done for this poem. You can almost run these words together and you will have a poem. All you need to add is a few more words. Make the task seem simple to encourage participation. Give lots of encouragement.
Enrichment extension: To be done after own poem is complete. Write an extra stanza or two after stanza four of Dennis Lee’s poem. What can you add? Why does it fit? Are these real places? Could you make them all Canadian cities/towns/villages? If the children in conflict (social studies) unit is focusing on Afghanistan, can you choose places from this area and write a stanza? Can you perform it? (small group or whole class if comfortable)
For all students, find a forum to share the poems. Can we e-publish? (lots of sites available for students). Can we write poems and post around school? Can we create a class publication?
Language and Word Study
Instructional Approaches:
Critical Literacy/Thinking Skills:
Accommodations/Modifications:
Oral Communication
Instructional Approaches:
Poetry is a performance art and while it is written down, how it sounds can be critical to understanding and enjoying the poem. While we are reading and writing poetry, we need to listen to sounds. Today’s lesson is about how we hear things, so we need to know there will be a buzz of speaking when we are looking for sound words during activities and writing, and respectful listening when we are the audience.
We will also present ideas, words, and at the end poems. This is the performance part of poetry. Encourage all students to participate in performance; add extra time if needed in order to accommodate all students. Teacher to present own poem as well.
Critical Literacy/Thinking Skills:
Encourage students to ask: does this word, image, line, stanza work? Why or why not? Can you suggest a better word (especially if helping a partner, group).
Accommodations/Modifications:
Struggling: these students may require extra encouragement in order to share their poems. During activities, look for ways to encourage that student to bring their work forward for all the class to enjoy. If not ready to read aloud themselves, ask if teacher can read to class (this can build confidence for next opportunity). Can also ask student to share work privately with teacher or record (audio) reading and share with class later.
Extension: This is for confident listeners and speakers. Student may want to create an electronic presentation. This could be an audio tape – add music, sounds- or a digital presentation (movie maker, etc.). Poem could then be presented to class or school during leadership events.