I chose this particular lesson on
idioms because I feel that figurative language is an important part of our
speech today that is widely weaved into how we speak but may not be completely
understood to others as it is spoken.
This lesson also provides emphasis on how we speak and how that can be
conveyed using various texts. The lesson
itself being taught at the 3rd grade level and its ability to be
reiterated again until grade 5, shows it’s heavy importance in our early
comprehension of texts as well as readings of all kinds.
The lesson plan did have some
gaps. I feel that it did engage students
with the standards of reading and writing but more technology could have been
adapted into the lesson especially considering that some students as young as kindergarten and 1st grade are already participating in computer
literacy classes. In regards to the
specific standards of 3rd grade English, specifically writing and
reading, focuses on being able to clearly identify their rationale and
understanding in conveying ideas about a text.
This idea crosses over from texts into anything that these students might
read. By integrating more technology
besides Eye on Idioms such as KidPix4 as well as online games like Quia helps to
reinforce main ideas for the students with different methods.
The integration of sites such as
KidPix4 and Quia to the lesson plan helps in achieving the curriculum goal
because it provides students with different interactive modules toward understanding
the goals of the lesson. These
technologies apply more visual understanding to the literal language aspect of
idioms. By students gaining online
literacy and interacting with one another, they will be able to better
comprehend the ideas that the teacher is conveying to them.
Eye on Idioms is a great site! I had a lot of fun doing some of the idioms, and I never realized that some of the ones I use are actually idioms, so it was hard to find the idiom in the sentence. The first one I got was "a bed of roses" and it was really weird to realize that's an idiom since I use it so much. I wonder if students can use the idea of this website with their own metaphors or confusing metaphors in a poetry lesson.
ReplyDeleteIdioms are very interesting. Sometimes, you don't even realize you're using them. This was actually an integral part of my class on English Language Learners. My professor told us an anecdote about how, while teaching school elsewhere, she told a foreign-born peer, "It's raining cats and dogs outside." The poor man was so confused, he went to the window to look. It's both funny and challenging. When we teach, we have to keep in mind that not all students know the context to what we say -- when even we don't know the origin of some idioms. I think it's great that you taught a lesson on them so students who are unfamiliar can learn. The technologies you incorporated even made it fun. This is great, especially for an age-group as young as third graders.
ReplyDeleteI like the lesson on idioms because native speakers usually forget that they use idioms seamlessly in their everyday language. I think for ELL's this would be a GREAT lesson to help them assimilate better into our culture. I love the site because I also love the origin of the idioms and it helps give students a better understanding of the language they speak and use.
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