Length of Lesson:
45 minutes
Content Objectives:
Students will be able to become familiar with the stylistic devices
metaphor
and
simile
and identify them in the text; students will be able to apply the stylistic devices
metaphor
and
simile
to their own writing.
Language Objectives:
Students will be able to recognize descriptions of the hair of Esperanza's family members in the vignette; students will be able to describe the hair of their family members in a piece of writing.
Materials Needed:
copies of the vignette "Hairs" from the book
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros; chart paper or blackboard; students' workbooks.
Sequencing of Activities
Initiation: (5 minutes) I will begin the lesson with describing my hair: "My hair is long and so glossy that when the sun shines on it, it dazzles with a soft shimmer. It is black like the night's darkness. The blackness of the night becomes even darker when I put a scarlet flower in it." Then, I will describe some student's hair in the similar manner. After that, I will put students in pairs and ask them to describe their partner's hair. Volunteers may present their oral descriptions to the whole group.
Development: (35 minutes) 1). From describing students' hair I will proceed to teaching the terms
metaphor
and
simile
. I will use the description of my hair written on chart paper to underline these stylistic devices. The definitions of
metaphor
and
simile
should also be written on poster paper and displayed for students. 2). I will distribute copies of the vignette to students. They will follow the narration of the vignette with the voice of Sandra Cisneros whose reading recorded on a cassette. I will let them listen to the vignette one or two more times. Cisneros's voice as Esperanza, the main heroine, on tape is extremely expressive, so I am sure students will enjoy listening to it. 3). Together with students we will create a chart describing the hair of all members of Esperanza's family. I will record our findings from the vignette on the blackboard or chart paper, and students will write those in their workbooks. The chart will look like this:
(table available in print form)
We will identify Cisneros's metaphors and similes in the chart. 4). Students will create a writing piece describing the hair of their family members. The chart that we have constructed together will support them in writing it. The work on this written assignment may be extended to the following lesson. Also, students may write a response to a CMT-type question (strand D1): "A simile is a comparison of unlike things using
as
or
like
. Choose a simile from the story and explain why the author used that simile."
Closure:
(5 minutes) Students will share their pieces of writing with their partners.
Methods of Assessment:
informal - monitoring comprehension; peer evaluation of writing pieces; teacher's assessment of students' writing using The Primary Scoring Guide for Voice (see Appendix B.); teacher's written comments on students' pieces of writing.
Note: I will conduct a similar lesson when students will be introduced to the other vignette, "My Name," from the same novel by Sandra Cisneros. Together with students we will create a web graphic organizer where in the center we will have "Esperanza's Name" and in the bubbles around it we will provide all words and phrases that describe her name. Some of these descriptions are metaphors and similes, so students will have an opportunity to apply their knowledge of those. As I have said above in this unit, this vignette possesses especially obvious culturally-embedded evidence. For instance, in the beginning of the vignette Esperanza tells us what her name means in English and in Spanish. And in the end she describes how it sounds in English and in Spanish. So, when students will be creating their pieces of writing telling about their names, I will encourage them to apply Cisneros's ideas and write what their names mean and how they sound in English and in Spanish.
