Writing

in Response to Literature Lesson

Name: Desiree Aviles
Date Taught: October 9, 2015
Time Needed: 30 minutes Grade: Third
Lesson Rationale
Developing higher-level thinking skills is important for students to become
effective readers and preparing students to be successful learners and critical
thinkers. One effective way to incorporate higher-level thinking is by having
students respond to higher-order questions about quality picture books orally and
through writing. One such high-quality read aloud picture book is Alexander, Who
Used To Be Rich Last Sunday. This book has many literal and nonliteral phrases,
which add meaning and humor to the story. This book also is of high-interest to
elementary students, and it leads to a rich discussion, and it is high quality
literature. In addition to these reasons, the Common Core State Standards require
students to develop an understanding of the literary use of literal and nonliteral
phrases in text. When literacy skills are explicitly taught, students will be able to use
these skills to engage in developmentally appropriate literacy practices (Winkelaar
& Martin-Kerr, 2015).

State Content Standards
1. Reading Benchmark:




3.1.4.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a
text, distinguishing literal from nonliteral language, including figurative
language such as similes.

2. Writing Benchmark:




3.6.3.3 Write narratives and other creative texts to develop real or imagined
experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear
event sequences.

Content Information (resources and research used to support lesson plan)

Peterson and Taylor have done significant amount of research on the use of
higher-order questions in reading instruction (2012). Their findings suggest that the
use of higher-order questions in response to literature promote student growth in
reading scores, as well as giving students a deeper understanding of the text.
Peterson and Taylor define higher-level questions as questions regarding a texts
theme, character interpretation, and connections to students lives.

Previous Learning
Students are aware of idioms and the books made by Tedd Arnold that talk
about nonliteral phrases. Students are familiar with the routine of how to write in
their writing workshop notebooks.




Content Objectives (Established Goals)
C1. Students will be able to identify literal and nonliteral phrases in the story
or when they are stated orally.

C2. Students will be able to write a short narrative story in response to a
prompt about their own real or imagined experiences.

Academic Language Objectives
L1. Students will narrate real or imagined experiences using complete
sentences such as, If I was given $10.00 I would ____________.

L2. Students will identify phrases using academic vocabulary such as, non
literal, literal, and idioms.

Formative Assessment (Process)
Student responses to higher-level questions will serve as the primary
assessment in this lesson. One form this will take is students oral responses in
questions asked during the read aloud. While I will not ask every student to share
their response, I will have students turn and talk to a neighbor. I will be observing
and making sure each student is participating in this activity. This will also tell me
how many students are engaged. I will then ask a few students to share, and this
sample of student responses will me a sense of whether students are responding
logically in their responses. Students writing in response to the prompt will also
provide an opportunity for formative assessment. By walking around the classroom
as students are writing, I will be able to observe how individual students are
responding to the higher-order prompt and if they are connecting the story to their
own life. Informal conversations with students about their writing during this time
will provide a further opportunity for formative assessment.

Provisions for Individual Differences
To activate prior knowledge, I will ask the students if they are familiar with
the stories about Alexander, such as the book or movie Alexander, and the Terrible,
Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Some students may not be familiar with literal and
nonliteral phrases. Before reading, I will ask the students what a nonliteral phrase is
and if they can share an example.

Resources
Alexander, Who Used To Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst

Management and Safety Issues

Students will be sitting on the floor during the read aloud. During the read
aloud, off-task behavior (talking to neighbor, not looking at story) will be redirected.

Co-Teaching Model
I will be using the one teach, one assist co-teaching model for this lesson. I
will be the primary instructor during the lesson, and my cooperating teacher will be
assisting students.
Make sure students understand the difference between literal and nonliteral
language. Often, nonliteral language creatively evokes a sensory experience. Idioms
are one type of nonliteral language, the most common type encountered at this
reading level. Idiomatic expressions have meanings that do not rely on the literal
meanings of their individual words. Idiomatic expressions are frequently
encountered in both spoken and written discourse. Some are used so often (for
example, Catch you later) that its easy to forget they are nonliteral language


Instructional Strategies and Learning Tasks to Support Learning
Time Objective Learning Activities (What and How)
Code (C1,
C2 or L1,
L2)

Purpose (Why)

4
min

C1

Orientation/Engagement/Motivation:
Good morning third graders! Today we are
going to be reading the book Alexander, Who
Used To Be Rich Last Sunday by Judith Viorst.
After we read this book we will be doing a
short writing activity about it. Has anyone
ever read any of the Alexander books
before? Maybe the book or movie Alexander,
and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad
Day? This book is another story about
Alexander.

Before we start reading, though, I want to
make sure that we all know what a literal
and nonliteral phrase means. Does anyone
know what literal means? Raise your hand if
you know.
Literal means that the text means exactly
what it says. Now look at the word
nonliteral. Lets look at the pre-fix non. If

Making sure
your students
know the
difference
between
nonliteral and
literal,
especially for
ELL students
who may not
understand
















5
min

C1






















C1

literal means this, what do you think

nonliteral means? Nonliteral means the text
does not mean exactly what it says.
(Give students clues if they are stuck.
Emphasizing when people say the term,
Literally or pointing out the prefix, Non)
Now these are pretty hard definitions to
remember so I am going to demonstrate
some phrases people say.

Have a student come up to the front of the
classroom and say the phrase out loud.

All eyes on me
Literal- Put your eyeballs on me physically
Nonliteral- Look at me or pay attention

Lend me a hand
Literal- Take your hand and give it to me
Nonliteral- Help me

________s has a heart of gold
Literal- Their heart is made out of gold
Nonliteral- They are very kind and giving.

Explain to the students the different
meanings of the phrases.

Turn and talk to your partner and try to
think of another nonliteral phrase. (Give
students 1 minute, then call on a few to
share.) Ring the bell to show students you are
ready. Now that we have an idea of what
literal and nonliteral phrases are, we can
begin reading the story.

Presentation/Explicit Instruction:
Read the story to the class.
Now class, as I read the story I want you to
keep an ear out for literal and nonliteral
phrases. Now do I mean to actually hold
your ear out? No, I am talking about the
nonliteral phrase that means listen closely
for phrases in the story. When you do hear

idiom phrases.

When students
turn and talk
with their
partners it
allows them to
formulate ideas
and share their
thinking with
another student.
Especially helps
those who may
be too nervous
to share in front
of the class.

Having students
keep their
discoveries in
their head until
the end of the
story so it
doesnt
interrupt the
flow of the story
or distract
others from the
story.

Emphasizing
what bus tokens
mean to
students
because
Alexander uses
it throughout
the story. The
term is outdated
and many
students may be
confused by
what Alexander
means.





6
min






















4
min

C1





















C1

some nonliteral phrases I want you to keep

it in your head and we can share what we
discovered at the end of the story.

Bus tokens: Explain to students what
Alexander means by having bus tokens.
Has anyone ever ridden the city bus before?
Bus tokens are coins that let you ride the
bus. Its not for school buses but more for
the city bus. We dont usually use bus tokens
now because some people just have a card
that lets them ride the bus or people just use
regular change.

Structured Practice/Exploration:
Ask students what they noticed about the
story and what the story was about.
Could Alexander save his money?"
"What did Alexander want to buy?"

Ask students if they noticed any phrases that
were nonliteral and why they think so.

If students cannot share any, talk over some
of these phrases in the book or any that the
students missed. What is the non-literal
meaning of this phrase?"
"What is the literal meaning?

Go over a few phrases in the book depending
on time.

Buy a new face
Nonliteral- In the story, he was trying to be
mean to his brother and told him to buy a
new face at the store because he didnt like
his face or called him ugly.
Literal- To actually buy a new face at a store
and plop it on. Can you actually do that?

Anthony stinks
Nonliteral- Anthony is not very nice.
this movie stinks - the movie isnt very
good.

Providing
examples
throughout the
story of
nonliteral and
literal terms
allows the
students to
understand how
the author used
it throughout
the book. It also
exposes
students on
how they can
use these
phrases on their
own.

C1







C2

















C2

Literal- Anthony has an awful smell or odor.

Take the dollar and bury it in the garden
and in a week a dollar tree would grow
Nonliteral- Grow a money tree by planting a
dollar and become rich.
Literal- Can you actually plant a dollar and
it grows a money tree? Alexander knew it
was not true because he said ha ha ha



When Im 99 I still wont have a walkie
talkie
Nonliteral- He will be so old and still not
have money for a walkie talkie.
Literal- By the time he is 99 years old he
will probably have enough money to buy a
walkie talkie but he means that right now he
has trouble saving his money.
Good-bye 8 cents, and the butter knife, and
the scissors.
Nonliteral- Saying good bye to 8 cents, the
butter knife and scissors. (Waves bye)
Literal- He dropped the money, the knife,
and the scissors down the crack and couldnt
grab it anymore.

I rescued it by being melted or smushed.
Nonliteral- He rescued the chocolate bars
life.
Literal- He ate the chocolate bar.

Friendlys market wasnt really friendly.
Nonliteral- The name of the market was
Friendlys and the market wasnt friendly.
-Was the actual market/building not
friendly to him?
Literal- The workers in the market werent
nice to him.
Say Wal-mart wasnt friendly. Was the
actual Wal-Mart building not friendly to you
or was it the people inside the Wal-Mart?

Transition onto
another topic
but start with
another
example of a
nonliteral
phrase to keep
the connection.





In their shoes
is a common
idiom used, so

















10
min

Guided Practice/Feedback:
Ask students to put themselves in
Alexanders shoes.
Literal- Do I mean to actually wear
Alexanders shoes.
nonliteral- No, I mean to look at
Alexanders point of view as if you were
Alexander.

Turn and talk to your partner. Do you think
Alexander made a good decision to spend
his money? Did Alexander really need all of
those things? Give students 1 minute to
talk.

Show me 5. What did you talk about with
your partner? Raise your hand if you would
like to share. Call on a few students to
share.

Independent Practice/Application:
Now I want you to stay in Alexanders shoes
because we are going to write a response in
our notebooks.

Writing Prompt: I want you to imagine you
are in Alexanders shoes, but this time you
are given $10.00. What would you do with
the money and why?

Sentence starters
If I was given $10.00 I would buy a
_______________ because
If I was given $10.00 I would save it because
______________
If I was given $10.00 I would give it to
_______________ because

Maybe you want to save half of it and spend
half of it? Maybe you want to spend it all.
Maybe you want to give it to a friend for
their birthday. You can do anything with it
because you are in charge of the money.

introducing the
expression
allows students
to become
familiar with
this nonliteral
phrase.



Sentence
starters help
students with
their written
and oral
language skills
and helps them
get started on
how to clarify
their thinking.
This type of
scaffolding
technique is
also very helpful
to ELL students
so they are able
formulate the
right words.











1
min

Now, when I say go, I want you all to quietly
go back to your desk and take out your
writing workshop notebook. You will open it
up to a page where there is room to write
and write the date and title. I will have the
question and the sentence starters that can
help you on the board. Ready, set, go.

Walk around the room and help students who
need help.

Closure
Ring bell to grab students attention and
signal them to stop writing.
Thank you third graders for being such
hard workers for me. I was happy to read
some of your ideas of what you would do if
you were in Alexanders shoes. I hope you
learned more about idioms too and
hopefully we can use them more.

Reflection

Overall, I was happy with how the lesson turned out. I felt that I was
prepared but also felt like I was comfortable. The students were very cooperative
with me, and were very interested in the topic.

When first starting out the lesson, I wrote it with another friend in the class.

We bounced off great ideas and I think working with someone when writing a
lesson is good because you get to explore more than what you had in mind. Our
initial question for the writing prompt was along the lines of, If you could save up
your money for something what would it be? After writing the lesson plan I thought
about my class and the social economic status of my class. My class is split between

students who are well off, and students who are very poor. I rethought the initial
writing prompt and thought that the question may not be good for my students who
do not have any money to save. I then brought it up to my cooperating teacher who
agreed and stated that the students who are struggling to make ends meet may not
be able to answer the question. I ended up changing my writing prompt just a
couple days before I was going to teach it. I then thought of the question, If you
were in Alexanders shoes, but this time you were given $10.00 what would you do
with it and why? This way the students have the money already, and they could
write about what they would do with this imaginary money.

As I practiced my lesson to get the timing right, I had troubles trying to

explain literal and nonliteral phrases. I was not sure if my students would
understand the concept and half of my class are ELL students. Nonliteral phrases
such as idioms or similes are very confusing for ELL students so I wanted to explain
it very well. As I was thinking of ways to make it more concrete and appealing to my
class I thought about making it more visual. I am a very visual learner and I know a
lot of my students are too. My cooperating teacher suggested putting eyes on a
student when talking about the phrase, all eyes on me like in the idiom book she
showed the class. I then thought of making a hand to give to someone when talking
about lend me a hand.I also painted an x-ray with a gold heart to represent ______
has a heart of gold. I thought that having these examples and having the students
act them out would really show the difference between literal and nonliteral
phrases. This part of my lesson was not initially in the plan until the night before. I
went out the night before the lesson to buy some supplies. I realize that being a

teacher, even when I have the lesson plan done 1 week before I was going to teach it,
I would have a billion ideas in my head seconds before I teach it. I think it was a nice
touch to the lesson and students understood the content more.

As I started the lesson the smart board would not work. I was very nervous

and I at first was not sure what to do. When I would try to write on the board, the
board went all over the place and I could not write on it at all. I then just went on the
computer and typed up what I was going to write. I realize as a teacher, there are
things that are not going to work out. So even though this threw me off a bit, it is
certainly a reality of being a teacher. The board will not cooperate and I just had to
think of ways to do other things. Other than the board not writing, the lesson went
well. The students enjoyed the examples of acting out the phrases. The students
were eager to volunteer and enjoyed the humor in the lesson.

Looking back at my lesson, as I was explaining literal and nonliteral phrases I

caught myself being very nervous and saying sentences that Im not sure were
grammatically correct. Sort of like a word jumble coming out of my mouth. I think
that I felt as if I had to talk right away to explain something, when really I should've
just given 1 or 2 seconds to myself to formulate the words I wanted to say. Another
problem I encountered was trying to not always pick students who raised their
hands. I think it is important to pick other students but sometimes you are just
tempted to choose a student who has their hand raised. At one point, I asked to hear
from people I have not heard from yet and called on someone who did not have
their hand raised.

After I read the book, I then showed the students the writing prompt and

talked to them about it. I listed some examples of what I would write if I were to
write a response. I am glad I gave these sentence starters because it helped a lot of
students begin their writing. They did not have to use the sentence starters but a lot
of them did and it allowed them to start their responses more quickly.

As I was walking around looking at students responses I noticed a lot of

students ending their response after two or three sentences. They would say what
they would do with the money and state a brief explanation on why. I found myself
repeatedly saying, Well why do you want that? They would then explain more to
me and I would tell them that they should write what they just explained to me. One
student wrote they wanted to give some to charity. I then prompted her and asked
her which charity, and why do you want to give to this specific charity. I think that
with this age group it is hard to continue writing. They answer the question but do
not put any detail into it. A lot of students finished their writing and asked what to
do after. I prompted that they write more. They were able to do so and most
children wrote at least half of a page.

Overall I think the lesson went well and it engaged a lot of my students. I

think that it prepared me to understand my students more and taught me what kind
of lessons appeal to them. It allowed me to get rid of my nerves and now I feel more
comfortable teaching in front of them. A lot of my students told me afterwards that
they enjoyed my lesson and that I taught it well. I feel as if I have a great community
of children in my classroom and I cannot wait to continue teaching them throughout
this year.



Some props used in the lesson.

How they were used in the lesson

Pretended to take an x-ray of a child and showed that she had a heart of gold (literal
phrase)

Placed fake eyes on a student to represent All eyes on me (Literal phrase)