Course Profile - Curriculum Services Canada

3. Through a variety of introductory activities and the following introductory activity, students get to
know their classmates. Students listen to a list of choices. Students write down their preference from
each set of choices and write a reason for their choice. For example: Sayeda chose a sandal rather
than a running shoe because she loves warm weather. When reading the list to the class, pause for
only 10-20 seconds between each pair of words to encourage spontaneous rather than deliberate
thought.
House or car
Cloud or sun
Moon or electric light bulb
Pen or computer
Button or zipper
Ice skates or in-line skates
Wood or rock
Sand or water
Eye or finger
Taste bud or eardrum
Coin or key
Running shoe or sandal
Sugar or salt
Ladder or rope
4. Put students into groups of four. Using each other’s responses, students consider what the choices
say about the characteristics and interests of each group member and confirm their inferences with
each other. Next, each student chooses one group member to introduce to the class. For example:
Alireza chose a car, an electric light bulb, a computer, and a zipper. These choices suggest that he
enjoys technology and the conveniences of the modern world.
5. Students close their eyes and listen to a song based on the theme of choices. Play the song twice.
Individually, students list the options presented in the song and highlight the singers’ preferred
choices. Hand out lyrics to the song. With a partner, students confirm their answers and provide
reasons for the singers’ choices. Then, as a class, discuss these reasons.
6. Brainstorm the question, “What is a poem?” Explain to the class that a poem includes images,
sounds, and structures. Provide students with background knowledge of poetry. With the class,
discuss what makes the song they have just studied a poem.
7. Hand out copies of a poem based on the theme of identity. As a class, look at the structure and
compare it to prose. Students then independently complete the teacher-created vocabulary worksheet.
8. Take up and discuss the vocabulary. Assign a date for the vocabulary cloze test.
9. Assign a line of the poem to each student in the class. Students practise reading their lines out loud to
a partner. As a class, reread the poem by having each student stand and read the line. Repeat until
there is a fluency in the reading to help establish that the pace and rhythm of poetry is different from
the pace and rhythm of prose.
10. Students answer teacher-prepared comprehension questions to focus on the literal meaning of the
poem.
11. Teach/review the terms and meanings of simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, and
assonance. In pairs, students identify figurative language in the poem. Discuss and clarify the images
students have identified.
12. Students complete the vocabulary test. Collect for diagnostic assessment.
13. Independent Novel Study: Discuss the term theme using the definition that a theme is a truth about
life or about human nature that we learn/experience/infer from literature. Ask students the question:
What truths did you learn from the poetry studied? Students visit the library and choose a novel
based on these themes to read independently. Distribute and explain Appendix 1A – Book Log.
Unit 1 – Page 4
• Bridge to English – Open