Design for Learning

Instructor: Miss Kelley Lesson Title: Raining Cats and Dogs Curriculum area: Vocabulary Grade level: 3rd Date: 12/10/13 Estimated time: 1 hour

Standards Connection:

3.5 Demonstrate Understanding of word relationships and nuances in meaning. a) Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context.

Learning Objective:

When given 10 sentences using idioms, students will be able to determine their meaning when given the literal and nonliteral meaning with 9 out of 10 answered correctly.

Learning Objective stated in kid-friendly language:

Today, we are going to learn about phrases that have a literal and nonliteral meaning. By the end of the lesson, you will be able to determine a phrases nonliteral meaning.

Evaluation of Learning Objective:

Students will be introduced to the concept of idioms. The teacher will describe idioms as a word or phrase, which means something different from its literal meaning. Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meaning are not real, but can be understood by their popular use. The students should be able to acknowledge the literal meaning of the phrase in context and determine that its meaning comes from the nonliteral definition. This will be evaluated by an assessment given at the end of the chapter. The assessment has 10 sentences with an idiom in each sentence. Students will have two options to choose fromthe literal and nonliteral meaning of the phrase. Students must realize the phrase does not mean exactly what it says and choose the nonliteral meaning.

Engagement

Students will be sitting quietly with their table groups. Good morning class! Today, we are going to learn about idioms. That's kind of a silly word, isn't it? Does anyone know what it means? No one knows that word yet? That's ok! By the end of this lesson we will all know what an idiom is and be able to understand their literal and nonliteral meanings! I am now going to pass out a foldable we are going to make together. The teacher will pass out the foldable that has ten 10 slots on it. The sheet will already be folded with lines directing students where to cut. They may start cutting the foldable as soon as they get it and then wait patiently for teacher instruction. Looks like were ready to start filling in our foldable! I am going to show you all a PowerPoint that has an idiom on it and I want you to write the

phrase on the first slot and draw a picture of what comes to your mind when you first hear the phrase. For example, if I had the phrase fish out of water. I would write the phrase on this section and then draw a picture of a fish that jumped out of a fishbowl. Now its your turn! (What students do not know is that these phrases are the same ones that will be on their assessment at the end of their lesson). The first idiom on the slide show is let the cat out of the bag. Students will write this phrase on the first section of their foldable and most likely draw a picture of a cat coming out of a bag. The next phrase is under the weather. They will write this phrase and then most likely draw a picture of some type of weather. The next phrase is on pins and needs and students will most likely draw pins and needles. For the idiom "a piece of cake, students will probably draw a slice of cake. They will continue going through the other phrases ( toot my own horn, in hot water, once in a blue moon, raining cats and dogs, hit the books, had a blast) drawing pictures for each phrases literal meaning. Wow, these look awesome friends! Now share your foldable with your table group. What things are similar and what things are different? Great pictures and discussion class!

Learning Design:

I. Teaching:

Who noticed that a lot of the pictures looked similar? A lot of our pictures look similar because when we first heard the phrase we thought of its literal meaning. The literal meaning of something is when we follow what the words of the phrase say very closely and exactly. We do not have to use our imaginations for this; we just drew exactly what the words say. But this

is not always what the phrase is supposed to mean. Words that mean something that is not their literal meaning is called that funny little word I mentioned at the beginning of the lesson... Can anyone remember what that word was? Idiom! Very good! For idioms we have to use their nonliteral definitions to understand their meaning. Nonliteral is when the phrase means something other than the exact words in it. People sometimes use nonliteral meanings in their writing as a way to make a comparison or an exaggerated statement about something. Going back to my example from the foldable- a fish out of water. I drew my picture based on its literal meaning, that the fish was no longer in its water. Its nonliteral meaning is someone who is uncomfortable in a particular situation. Everyone take a few seconds to think about how those two meanings relate. The teacher will remain quiet for a minimum of 10 seconds to provide children with an opportunity to think about how the two definitions relate to each other. Can anyone raise their hand and tell me how they think they relate? Call on a few students to see what they think. When a student talks about how a fish does not belong out of water and so when someone uses that phrase it shows that they do not belong at that place either, ask students to give thumbs up if they agree. That is correct! Way to go! Fish belong in water, not out of it. If we were talking about a person who lives in the country and is use to a very simple life, we could refer to them as a fish out of water. When they go into the country, it is a situation and environment that they are not comfortable with.

Time to pull your foldables back out! We are going to look back at our literal meaning of the phrases and determine its nonliteral meaning. We already determined that a fish out of water means someone who is uncomfortable in a particular situation. So I would lift up the

picture of phrase and on the inside write someone who is uncomfortable in a particular situation. Now we are going to fill in the nonliteral meaning for all of your idioms. The first idiom on your foldable is "let the cat out of the bag." Most of us drew a cat coming out of a bag; does anyone have a guess to what this idiom actually means? Let students guess until someone gets it right or until multiple students have gone. That's right! Letting the cat out of the bag means to tell a secret. Some people believe this came from an old trick that used to be done when buying animals. Someone would come in wanting to buy a pig and they would bag "the pig" up and give it to the person making the purchase. He would open the bag when he got home only to let a cat out of the bag, the secret was out. Now that is just a theory. A theory is something that is just an idea, it is not proven to be completely true. So class, tell me what the nonliteral meaning of "let the cat out of the bag" means? Choral response: told the secret! Great! So fill that in the first spot in the inside of your foldable. The next idiom is "under the weather." Some of you seemed to draw things about weather, but it actually isn't about weather at all! It means sick. So are any of you guys feeling under the weather? Oh good, no hands. We must have a healthy class! So what does "under the weather mean?" Choral response: sick. Who can tell me the next phrase? Yes, pins and needles. I'm going to guess that quite a few of you drew a pin or needle for your drawing, is that correct? Yes! That is because you thought of the literal meaning. It actually means to be nervous. Have you ever been nervous for anything? Turn and tell a neighbor something you have been nervous about and how it made you feel. Students will make a connection to a past event in their life to the feeling of being nervous. It sounds like for the most part, you felt uncomfortable when you were nervous. Well, if you were to sit on pins and needles, do you think you would feel uncomfortable? Yes? Me too! So we can make a connection to being nervous to being on pins

and needles. So what does the idiom "on pins and needles" actually mean? Choral response: nervous. Moving right along to the next phrase- a piece of cake. Has anyone heard a sentence that went something like, "You can do that easily, it will be a piece of cake!" Lots of hands raised on this one! Good! So did you get a piece of cake when you did what they were talking about? No, I wish though! But it simply means that it will be easy. Give a thumbs up if that makes sense. Good, right the definition on your foldable. "Toot your own horn" is the next idiom. Have you ever been in a car and heard someone honk their horn? That person is expressing something about themselves, normally that they do not like the way someone is driving. So if someone is "tooting their own horn" it is normally that the person speaking expressed something about themself, normally a compliment- so they would be bragging. But the literal translation is someone honking their horn, everyone make their own honking noise! HONK! Wow! What a great literal translation you all just did, but what does the nonliteral translation mean again? Choral response: to brag. Add that definition too. Now, if you don't turn in your homework, what would happen? Students will answer that they would get in trouble. Haha you sure would- you would be "in hot water." You wouldn't want to literally be in really hot water, it would burn! You also don't want to be in trouble. So add trouble as the definition for that idiom. Who drew a blue moon for the idiom "once in a blue moon"? Well, the literal translation of a blue moon is the second full moon in a month, only one time a month. That doesn't happen very often, does it? Even though the literal translation is a month long, the nonliteral meaning is once in a while. Is everyone following? Does once in a blue moon mean once a month or once in a while? Choral response: once in a while and will add definition to the book. Here is a more common idiom, and one of my favorites, raining cats and dogs. Has anyone heard this one before? Quite a few people! It was just raining cats and

dogs yesterday! Now, did cats and dogs actually fall from the sky? No, that would be silly! What did it do outside? Choral response: it rained very hard. Thumbs up if you think that is the nonliteral translation of this idiom. You all are correct! Add this one to your book too! Now, (calls on a student), I need you to hit the books! Student will start to walk over and will be about to literally hit the books. No, no. Not the literal translation, the nonliteral one. What do you think that could mean if I put it in a better sentence? You need to hit the books so you can be ready for your test. He or she will answer that they need to study. Correct! Way to go! Now for our last idiom- had a blast. If we had a blast doing something, do you think something would explode? No, it means had fun! Add this last idiom to your book and your foldable will be complete for you to go back and review. So raise your hand if you had a blast learning about idioms? Yay! We all did! Good thing nothing exploded, we just had a fun time! :)

II. Opportunity for Practice: Now lets do some practice with idioms! Who wants to play BINGO?! Once we all sit quietly in our seat, I will pass out the BINGO sheet. Look on the slide I put on the board, it has idioms we have reviewed and some we have not. Write one idiom phrase in each square. I will read its nonliteral definition and you must find the idiom that matches up to it. If you find your match, place a game marker on your board. First one to get 5 in a row calls out BINGO! We will keep playing until everyone gets a chance to get their 5 in a row. This can be tricky because there are some new idioms. So listen carefully and try to figure out which nonliteral meaning goes with the idiom, make connections to the words like we did earlier. Thumbs up if youre ready to play some idiom BINGO! Alright, good luck friends! Students will listen for the nonliteral

meaning of a phrase and look for the idiom that matches up to it. Once they connect 5 in a row, it is BINGO. Keep playing until everyone has a BINGO.

III. Assessment We 'had a blast' doing that activity! Oh look, there is another idiom- had a blast. Idioms are everywhere! Thumbs up if you feel like you know examples of idioms and their nonliteral meaning? Wow! Everyone has a thumbs up. Now we are going to do a short little assessment to make sure we all know the meanings of some idioms we have used today. Remember to think about the nonliteral meaning, not the literal meaning which might seem to pop into your head when you first read it. Don't worry class; it will be 'a piece of cake!' Please turn it into the tray when you're done and sit down quietly until the rest of our friends are finished. Teacher will pass out the assessment and student will answer 5 questions. Each question has a sentence using an idiom and they have to determine the nonliteral meaning of how it is used in real life context. The phrases are the same idioms used in engagement and review in teaching.

IV. Closure 'Hold your horses', we are not through with idioms yet! Lets watch this video on idioms. Its really fun song and is a review over the words we have learned and also shows us some new ones. Plays video. That was such a fun video! Turn and tell a neighbor your favorite idiom you

learned today. Allow time for discussion. We are professionals when it comes to idioms! We can distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of idioms in context! Im so proud of each and every one of you.

Materials and Resources

Power Point (Projector) Scissors Foldables Markers/crayons/colored pencils Bingo sheet Game markers Assessment YouTube video (Projector)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPngxOnjKP0

Differentiation Strategies (including plans for individual learners):

HL- Instead of the teacher going through and teaching each individual idiom, have students predict the meaning of the phrase. They would have to use the literal meaning and context to determine what the phrase's actually means.

L- There is a book called "In a Pickle" by Marvin Terban. This is a great book that would work well with those struggling with the concept of idioms. The book starts with the idiom phrase, then what what it really means, and then i provides a picture of the literal meaning and a short story of how it happened. A fun way to specifically and intentionally walk through examples of idioms.

Data Analysis:

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Reflection:

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