LESSON TWO: The Language of Our World
LESSON DESCRIPTION
Students view and read several representations of characters; and through various reading strategies, such as inference arrive at a variety of meanings for that representation.
GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
R1G During reading utilize strategies to self-question and correct, infer, visualize, predict and check using cueing systems including meaning, structure, and visualizing.
LESSON MATERIALS
§ Source of Literature
o A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes or similar poem that contains conflict
o Passage from a text that contains dialogue (Huckleberry Finn and/or Tom Sawyer recommended)
o A poem that contains two or more characters interacting (Death of a Hired Man by Robert Frost recommended)
o Poem from Edgar Lee Masters’ poem Spoon River Anthology
§ Supplies
o Overhead Projector
§ Handouts provided
o Formative assessment for Lesson Two
§ Words to know
o cueing system
o infer
o predict
o visualize
Choose a poem to present that contains a conflict of some kind. (We recommend A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes). Without knowing the poet’s background, students explain what they infer about him and/or his views based on the context of the poem. Use details and/or examples from the poem as support. Scoring guide provided.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Show Edvard Munch’s The Scream on an overhead or as a large print. Students study it silently for a few minutes and free write for five minutes about what they see.
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Questions for Students |
What can you infer from the title before seeing the picture? What are the reactions to the painting? Using these observations, what might have prompted the artist to create the painting? |
Explain to students as readers and viewers, we arrive at meaning through a variety of strategies.
2. Students read one character’s poem from Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology, such as Lucinda Matlock and write down three things they can infer about the character based on what they read in the poem.
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Question for Students |
What lines or phrases from the poem determine your answer? |
3. Students read a passage of dialogue from a work (such as Huck and Tom discussing escape plans in Huckleberry Finn). Students identify through self-questioning what they infer, predict, and/or visualize about a character’s personality.
4. Students read Frost’s Death of a Hired Man.
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Questions for Students |
What can you infer about the characters of Mary, Warren, and Silas? What are the conflicted feelings toward Silas by Mary and Warren? |
Students explain how specific details support their inferences.