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Objective for the unit: How do literary elements add greater meaning to a
text?
Todays Objective: How do I recognize different literary devices in a text or
poem?
Standards:
By the end of today, students will begin to be able to:
Explain how authors use language to influence audience perceptions of events, people, and ideas (CAS: L.8.a.ii)
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting
ideas; provide an objective summary of the text. (CCSS: RI.8.2)
Poetry - Central Ideas and Theme: Lesson 4 Friday, October 28th, 2016
FA: As students explain where they see different examples of literary devices, I will be checking to
see their understanding of what we have been doing so far. I will know that students understand tone,
mood and theme if they can identify them throughout the poem that they read for homework. I will
know that students understand the definitions for simile, metaphor, personification and imagery, as
they go back to their poem for homework and begin looking for these devices. Though I do not
expect mastery, I will know that they are beginning to understand based on discussion that occurs as
they try to decide which literary devices are present.
Accommodations/Modifications: For my students on IEPs, they only need to complete one tweet per
category instead of two. They are still receiving the same content, the work load is just less rigorous.
This should help them focus on understanding the content, rather than producing larger amounts of
work.
Notes on Today:
Today was the ultimate teaching moment. I was able to use this poem to have a discussion about
suicide with the students, which I found to be meaningful and purposeful in my job as an educator. A
teacher was out sick, so it was just me in the classroom with the students all dayAshley subbed for
the teacher that was out. I felt like I connected with the students and had a break through with them
about the importance of poetry, as well as being able to show them that I care about them beyond
language arts class. Although suicide is a sensitive subject and I was a bit nervous to talk about it
with middle schoolers, I was able to make my teaching relevant. This poem was the perfect example
to use for imagery and theme, as the theme is not directly stated and the students had to do some
analyzing to come to their own conclusions. I would have also given more clear instructions on the
literary tweet sheet. I have found that, even though I write very clear instructions on the paper, if I do
not go over them aloud at least twice, the students have no idea what to do. This is something that I
need to continue working on.