Central Focus: Students need

to justify what the nonliteral

Subject: 3rd Grade Literacy
phrases mean using context
clues.
Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:CCSS.ELA-
LITERACY.L.3.5
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word
relationships and nuances in word meanings.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.3.5.A Date submitted:
Distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and Date taught: 3/20/17
phrases in context (e.g., take steps).

*specifically, nonliteral phrases

Daily Lesson Objective: The student will be able to individually read a passage and identify the
meaning of nonliteral phrases, answering 4/5 questions correctly to show mastery.
Performance- The student will be able to correctly identify the meaning of nonliteral phrases by
using context clues.
Conditions- Individually
Criteria- The student will need to answer 4/5 questions correctly to show mastery

21st Century Skills: Academic Language Demand

Life and Career Skills, Initiative and self- (Language Function and
direction, Work independently monitor, define, prioritize and Vocabulary):
complete tasks without direction oversight. Students will work
independently to answer questions
Justify- students will need to
Communication and Collaboration, Communicate clearly, listen read the passage and use
effectively to decipher meaning, including, knowledge, values, context clues to justify what
attitudes and intentions. Students will need to do this while they the nonliteral phrases mean.
are listening to the teacher read the passage
Vocabulary words found
within the passage: permission,
convince, horrified, haul,
compliment, enormous,
enforcing, conquer

Prior Knowledge: Students should be able to read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to
support comprehension. Students need to know the definition of nonliteral language and be
familiar with reading passages and picking out nonliteral phrases.

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

 Today we are going to be reading the passage New Frontiers, as 3
we read this we are going to come across some nonliteral minutes
1. Focus and
phrases, who can tell me what a nonliteral phrase is? (a phrase
Review
used to describe something, an idiom) Who can give me an
example of an idiom?
Today you are going to listen and follow along as the 2
passage New Frontiers is read to you. Then we will read the minutes
2. Statement of passage a second time stopping at words we dont know and
Objective writing in definitions and underlining nonliteral phrases and
for Student using the context clues to understand what they mean. Then you
will individually answer the 5 questions that follow on the back
of the worksheet.
Teacher will read the passage through one time so the students 20
will get a gist of the story. Then the teacher will read the minutes
passage a second time stopping when she gets to words that are
unknown (from the vocabulary section above) and stop at all the
nonliteral phrases. (uphill battle, the tide had turned, end of the
line, a deals a deal, change their tune, that sealed it, stopped in
its tracks, golden opportunity, have a cow, eyes were twinkling)
When the teacher comes to a word/phrase that is unknown she
will model using the context clues to figure out the word/phase.
For example, when the phrase uphill battle appears:
Teacher reads It has been an uphill battle for Angela to get
permission to play and convince the boys on the Hawks that she
3. Teacher Input could play.
Think aloud: hmm Im not sure what uphill battle means, is
the author trying to say that is a battle on a hill? Let me read the
paragraph to look for clues.
Teacher reads the entire paragraph and realizes that uphill battle
means that it was a struggle/difficult task to get permission to
play.

The teacher will continue to read the passage stopping like this
at the phrases/words that are unknown until she gets to the
8th paragraph, then the students will start helping the teacher
finish the passage.

The students will now help the teacher with the rest of the 20
passage, when the teacher reads and comes across the minutes
phrases/words unknown she will ask the students to turn and
talk with a partner and use the context to understand what the
4. Guided Practice
word/phrase means. Then one group will share out their answer
and everyone will continue to read until the end of the passage.

5. Independent Students will work individually to reread the passage and 15

 answer the five questions about nonliteral phrases. minutes
Practice
6. Assessment To assess the students the teacher will look at their 5 questions following
Methods of the passage, they should get 4/5 correct to show that they understand the
all nonliteral phrases and how to use the context to figure out what the phrase
objectives/skills: means.
Today we read a passage and used the context clues to help us 5
understand the nonliteral phrases that the author was using. minutes
When reading anything if you come across a word or phrase
you dont understand the first thing you can do is look at the
paragraph surrounding the word/phrase you dont understand.
7. Closure Authors will use nonliteral phrases to add description, and
usually what they are talking about can be found within the
reading. Just like our passage today when we read uphill battle
that wasnt describing a battle going uphill, it was talking about
the struggle Angela had to get permission to play with the boys.

8. Assessment Students understood the passage and answered the questions throughout
Results of the lesson well. 15 students showed mastery by getting at least a 4/5 on
all their questions, 5 received less than a 4 on their questions.
objectives/skills:
Targeted Students Student/Small
Modifications/Accommodations Group Modifications/Accommodations
When looking at the answers to the If this lesson needs to be taught again there can be
questions if students scored 3/5 or less they different stations that students will rotate through,
can be pulled into a group to talk about having different passages with nonliteral phrases
nonliteral phrases. The teacher can provide 3 for students to read in groups of 4 and they will
paragraphs with a nonliteral phrase in each have to discuss what each nonliteral phrase is. This
one with a lot of context clues to support will allow students who understand how to use
what that phrase means and then the context clues to demonstrate for their classmates
students can use the clues to find the that are struggling. 2 of the stations can have 4
answers. nonliteral phases listed and the students will have
to create their own paragraph giving clues about
what the phrase means. This will allow the teacher
to see if the students understand the phrase enough
to apply their own thoughts to it.

Materials/Technology: Every student will need a copy of New Frontiers

pencils
Reflection on lesson: The planning of this lesson was easy because my cooperating teacher gave
me explicit instructions about what to teach. I read the passage myself and underlined words I
thought the students would have trouble with, as well as the idioms within the passage.
During the second read of the passage I think a strength of the lesson was when I was
underlining the words/phrases and explaining with the students what the passage was trying to
convey to them. The students were involved and answering questions I asked them, and they
were using context to understand the idioms.
I found a weakness was having the students turn and talk and then share out what the phrases
mean was causing the students to get off topic and it was taking a lot of time. I did it a few times
and then stopped. Instead when we came across an idiom or term, I had them raise their hands
and I would call on a few students instead of turn and talk. This kept the students on track and
still allowed a couple different suggestions to be talked about.
After the lesson was over and I looked at the feedback from my teacher I learned a lot about
teaching and student learning. I need to read slower and look up multiple times while reading to
make sure students are focused and on task. Throughout my teaching in this clinical experience I
realized that students need a lot of repetition while they are learning concepts and I could have
applied that to this lesson as well.
Overall, the lesson went well the students do Read to Achieve multiple times in a week so they
knew what to expect for the lesson. Some of the students were very excited and others were
uninterested in the passage. I didnt get to choose the passage and because they are practicing for
EOGs I think it is okay if the passages dont appeal to them because on the tests the passages
arent always the most exciting.