|
|
|
|
| Overview |
 Students select what they believe to be the most important word in a text that
they have read. They justify their choice and state the reasons that they think
this particular word is the most important by using examples from the text.
This activity can be done with a text of any length or genre:
poetry, picture books, short stories, plays, and novels. This lesson plan uses
a Shel Silverstein poem “Sick” as an example.
|
| From Theory to Practice |
Kylene Beers describes the strategy of asking students to choose a significant word from a text in her When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do. Beers explains:
To encourage what often becomes a lively debate (yes, even with struggling readers!), ask students to choose what they consider to be the most important word from the text they’ve just read. This strategy, first proposed by David Bleich (1975), forces student back into the text to consider what was the most important aspect of that text. (173–174)
As Bleich explains, this technique encourages readers to recognize that intellectual and emotional reactions to a text are interrelated and ultimately cannot be separated. Deciding on literary importance, then, is always an act of reader response. To choose the most important word in a text, students tap their comprehension of the text in ways that are individual, guided by their own response to the reading.
Further Reading
Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.
Bleich, David. Readings and Feelings: An Introduction to Subjective Criticism. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1975.
|
| Student Objectives |
Students will
- read and discuss a selected text.
- choose a word they think is the most important.
- justify their selection to the class.
- work independently and in groups.
|
| Instructional Plan |
Resources
Preparation
- Make copies of the text that the students will be using in this activity.
This lesson plan uses the poem “Sick” by
Shel Silverstein as one example.
- Compile additional poetry resources from the booklist or from one of the children's poetry Web sites listed below in the Web Resources.
- Test the Line Break Explorer on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.
Instruction and Activities
Session One
- Read the poem “Sick” by
Shel Silverstein to the students.
- Invite students to tell you what the poem is about, using their own words.
Record their responses on chart paper or the board.
- Explain to students that they have just summarized the poem.
- Talk a bit
about what they word summary means.
- Ask the students to brainstorm
when they may need to summarize material. Stretch their examples to cover
all of the content areas.
- Reread the students’ summaries of the poem “Sick” by
Shel Silverstein.
- As a class, count the number of words in the summary.
Record that on the board or chart paper.
- Now, tell the students that they will also be summarizing poems; but their
summaries can only be one word. Allow time for students to share their reactions
to this assignment.
- Read the poem “Sick” by Shel Silverstein to the class another time.
- Again, ask students to summarize the poem, choosing the one word that captures
the meaning of the entire poem.
- Record students’ selections on the board or chart paper. When students
give an answer, ask them to explain why they have selected the particular words
that they did.
- Once students have contributed their words, review the list of words, and
ask the class to choose the one word that best represents what is happening
in the poem.
- Ask students to explain and justify their choices.
- When the discussion is complete, have the class vote on the one word that
sums up the entire poem.
- Tell the students that they will be working on this
activity in groups during the next session.
- To end this session, students can read and explore different types of poetry;
or they can further practice this skill by using the Line
Break Explorer. Here two poems are presented. Students can select and drag
away the one word they think represents that poem the best. Students can print
when they are finished to show which word they selected.
Session Two
- Begin this session by having students describe the activity from yesterday:
after reading a text, students chose one word they thought best described the
text.
- Invite students to choose a poem from the classroom collection of poetry or from one of the children's poetry Web sites listed below in the Web Resources.
- Individually, in pairs, or small groups, ask students to read their poems.
Suggest that they read the poem several times.
- After multiple readings, ask students to choose one word that
captures the poem.
- When all of the students have completed the activity, ask them to share with
the class by reading their selected poem to the class and explaining the
word they selected and the reason that they selected it.
- As the students are presenting, the teacher should be observing and taking notes as an assessment.
Extensions
- This comprehension activity can also be completed using picture books, short stories, novels, and other types of texts.
- Using the Fridge
Magnets, students can create their own poems. Then, they can
invite their friends to select the one word that best captures that poem.
- This activity asks students to select one word to represent a poem. Ask students to do the opposite and write a poem after being given only one word. To focus on the specific word, try using the Acrostic Poem Interactive.
Web Resources
- Poetry Sources for Children
- Multicultural Poetry for Children
The Poetry Gallery
Poetry4Kids
Judy Freeman’s 40 Favorite Poetry Books for Children
- ReadWriteThink Calendar Entry celebrating Shel Silverstein’s Birthday
http://www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=298
- This entry provides biographical information about Shel Silverstein, as well as text lists and additional lesson plan ideas.
- Shel Silverstein Entry from poets.org
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/104
- This entry from the Academy of American Poets includes a biography, bibliography, and samples of Silverstein’s poetry.
|
| Student Assessment/Reflections |
Anecdotal records documenting student responses in both whole class and individual settings can help assess students’ understanding of the text they have been asked to summarize.
|
1 - Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
3 - Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
4 - Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
5 - Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
11 - Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
12 - Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
|
|
|
