Reading+Minilesson



= = =Lesson﻿ Plan: Reading Mini-lesson =


 * Grade:** 5 **Time:** 15 minutes

13. Recognize figurative language in text (e.g. simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration).
 * Standards:** 3.1.5 G. Comprehension Skills and Response to Text


 * Objective:** Students will learn how similes are used to effectively communicate description in writing. Students will demonstrate understanding by identifying two similes in their independent reading and writing them on an index card along with an explanation of how the author’s choice of simile created a vivid picture in the reader’s mind.

§ //Come On Rain!// by Karen Hesse § Smartboard § Independent reading books § Index cards
 * Materials:**

§ Anticipatory Set (Engagement)- o “Boys and girls, do you remember when I read the book //Come On Rain//! by Karen Hesse the other day? I want two people to tell me something you remember about //Come On, Rain!//. [student response] Someone tell me one other thing you remember. [student response] I love how Karen Hesse used descriptive language to help paint a vivid picture about Tessie’s experience, don’t you? Didn’t you feel like you could picture the heat and the anticipation for the rain that all the characters felt and then the pleasure of dancing in the rain? Authors, like Karen Hesse, use similes to quickly paint a vivid description with their writing. This is important because the better the author’s description, the better our understanding of the story as we read.”
 * Lesson Sequence:**

§ State Objective and Purpose- o “Today you are going to learn the importance of similes and how they are used to effectively communicate descriptions in writing. This will help aid your comprehension when you read independently.”

§ Teach and Model- o “A comparison that says one thing is **like** another is called a simile. We can recognize a simile because the terms “like” or “as” or “than” are used when making the comparison. o Let’s look at a comparison that Karen Hesse used in //Come On, Rain!”// [Smartboard: Read sentence from book]. § __ I __ am **sizzling** //like// a __baked potato__.

o “Karen Hesse could have said: I am hot or I am really hot. Would we know what she meant? Yes, we would know Tessie was hot but would we know //how// hot she was? No…and we might all be imagining a different level of hot. So to help us quickly create a picture in our head, Karen Hesse used a simile. Which word did she use that gave us a clue that this is a simile—like, as, or than? [student response] Yes, she used the word //like//. But what if she said: I am like a baked potato? Would we know what she meant? Not really, right? She’s comparing Tessie to a baked potato, but we don’t know why. So it’s not simply using the word “like,” is it? A simile is comparing two things [underline //I// and //baked potato//] but we need to know what they both have in common. In this case it’s that they are both **sizzling [circle]**. This tells us //how hot// Tessie is—she is **sizzling** __like a baked potato__. Karen Hesse purposely uses this simile so that she can help us all make a quick connection between her words and the mental picture she is trying to paint for us. She does this to help us comprehend her story better.

o Let’s look at another simile from the book [reveal next sentence]: § While the __music__ from Miz Glick’s phonograph **shimmies and sparkles and streaks** //like// __night lightening__.

Karen Hesse used the word //like// again in this sentence for her comparison. She wants us to have the same vivid picture of the music coming from Miz Glick’s phonograph so she compares the music [underline] to lightening [underline] but we still need more information….how is it //like// lightening? It //shimmies//, //sparkles// and //streaks// [circle each word]. Again, Karen Hesse chooses these words purposely in order to create a quick, vivid mental image.

§ Guided Practice- o “Let’s look at two more examples from the text.” § Her __long legs__, //like// two brown __string beans__…

Raise your hand if you know what is being compared here? [Student response] Yes. Now Karen Hesse could have said that her legs were long and skinny but using a simile that compares her long legs [underline] to two brown string beans [underline] quickly creates a vivid image in our heads. Her legs are as skinny as string beans. Does Karen Hesse need to give us any more information here? Do we all know what a string bean looks like? Yes, so in this case simply saying her long legs are like two brown string beans is a great comparison.

§ …and we head home purely soothes, __fresh__ //as// __dew__.

Let’s look at this sentence. Remember in the beginning I said that an author will use the words “like” or “than” or “as” when making a comparison. Raise your hand if you see one of these comparison words in the sentence? [Call on student] Karen Hesse uses the word “as.” Raise your hand if you can tell me what she is comparing in this sentence? [Call on student]. Yes. She wants us to have a very clear picture of how soothed and fresh they now feel after the rain. She said they were “purely soothed [circle], fresh [underline] as dew [underline].”

§ Independent Practice/Assessment- o “Boys and girls, while you read independently now, I want you to look for two similes and write them on an index card along with the page number where you found them. Underline the two things being compared. I’d also like you to include a brief explanation of how the author’s choice of words helped create a more vivid mental picture. Bring your index card to me before you leave today.”

§ Closure- o “Who can tell me what a simile is? That’s right. It’s a comparison saying that one thing is like another.” o “Who can tell me why a writer uses similes? Yes. To help create a quick, vivid imagine in the readers mind.” o “Now who can tell me what you are going to do with the index card?” o “Great! Return quickly and quietly to your seats and begin reading.”

§ Assessment- o To determine that the lesson was successful, I will collect and review index cards to see that students can identify similes in their text and understand the effectiveness of the author’s choice of words in creating a quick, vivid mental image.