Lesson Plan Template
Grade/Content
Area
Lesson Title
State Standards:
GLEs/GSEs
National Content
Standards:
9th Grade English
“Figuratively Speaking…”
GLE/GSE Writing Standards
W–10–11.2 Sharing thoughts, observations, or impressions
(Local)
W–10–1.4 Applying a format and text structure appropriate to
purpose, audience, and context (State)
W–10–2.3 Connecting what has been read
(plot/ideas/concepts) to prior knowledge, other texts, or the
broader world of ideas, by referring to and explaining relevant
ideas or themes (State)
GLE/GSE Reading Standards
R–10–6.1 Demonstrating knowledge of author’s style or use
of literary elements and devices (i.e., imagery, repetition,
flashback, foreshadowing, personification, hyperbole,
symbolism, analogy, allusion, diction, syntax, or use of
punctuation) to analyze literary works (State)
R–10–16.1 Comparing stories or other texts to related
personal experience, prior knowledge, or to other books
(Local)
Context of the
Lesson
This lesson comes around the middle of a month long
study
of Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen. This particular
Where does this lesson
fit in the curriculum and lesson will occur in a 50-minute block—the class consisting
instructional context? Is of an equal spread of students either below, at, or above grade
level, most of whom are white.
it the opening of a unit
or a series of lessons?
“Word of the week” this week is metaphor.”
Pat Padillia
Page 1 of 4
Opportunities to
Learn
Definition: Materials,
Learners and
Environments
Plans to differentiate instruction: I will use images to help
visual learners understand the concept of figurative language.
I will ask students to use music, or to draw pictures in a
subsequent assignment.
Students will work in small groups.
Accommodations: Students are allowed to choose between
music or image in their assignment.
Environment: Desks will be arranged in groups of four—
students will be assigned seats so that they are already seated
in the groups I have formed for collaborative work.
Materials: Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen, music cd,
drawings, writing utensils and paper.
Objectives
At the result of this lesson, students will be able to identify
figurative language in a text.
Students will write their own metaphors or similes.
Sub-Objective: Students will explore who they are as
individuals, through writing in combination with music or
art.
Instructional
Procedures
Opening: When students walk into the classroom, there is
already a quote on the board, from the chapter they were
assigned to read the previous night.
“It’s her day too, she resolves, looking across a dining hall
filled with effusive, chatty parents and freshmen, though her
song is flat and elemental—an old, familiar harmony, really,
about sacrifice and denial and a child venturing where the
parent never could.” (164).
Under this quote is the question: “What does Ron Suskind
mean when he writes Barbara’s ’song?’”
Students will write in their journals for a few minutes, then I
will ask a few students to share their thoughts.
Pat Padillia
Page 2 of 4
I’ll then let them know that Suskind is using figurative
language here.
Engagement: Next I’ll define figurative language as stylized
writing, which usually describes something by comparing it to
something else. I’ll explain that we will be looking at two
figures of speech today: the simile and the metaphor.
First I’ll define the Simile: “A comparison using "like" or "as"
(She sings like an angel.)”
Students will copy this definition into their class notes.
I’ll put up a slide with a quote from A Hope in the Unseen,
asking the students to describe the two things being described.
“It takes a moment for the heavy oak door to swing on its
hinge, and when it slams, it’s like a thunder clap, leaving her
alone with the smell of fresh paint,” (166).
I’ll then put up an image of a door closing with lightning bolts
coming from its edges, to help visual learners.
After this I’ll define the metaphor: “A comparison of two
unlike things that suggests a similarity between the two items.
(Love is a rose.)”
Students will copy this definition into their class notes.
Again I’ll use a quote from the novel, asking the students the
two things being described.
“And around they go, working the wound until Barbara makes
a move to cauterize it: “Either way, I’m coming for parent’s
weekend in October.” (p. 161).
I’ll show the students an image of Barbara pressing an iron to
her heart and holding Cedric’s hand.
After this students will work in groups to identify 3-5 other
similes or metaphors in the same or previous chapter—writing
the two things being compared.
Students will then return to a whole group discussion of the
figurative language they’ve found.
Pat Padillia
Page 3 of 4
Closure: Finally, I’ll return to the slide of the initial quote:
“It’s her day too, she resolves, looking across a dining hall
filled with effusive, chatty parents and freshmen, though her
song is flat and elemental—an old, familiar harmony, really,
about sacrifice and denial and a child venturing where the
parent never could.” (164).
I will ask the students if they think this is a metaphor or a
simile.
I will then introduce their homework assignment, which is to
find a song, or an image (or draw their own images) that
describes them. They will write an extended metaphor about
their song or image thereafter. “My song is a song of growth,
of trouble…”
The next class students will share a clip of a song or their
images if they feel comfortable doing so.
Assessment
Informal: I will monitor student progress in their group work.
Formal: Students will write their own metaphors, optionally
presenting them to the class.
Reflections
This section to be
completed only if lesson
plan is implemented.
Student Work Sample 1 – Approaching Proficiency:
Student Work Sample 2 – Proficient:
Student Work Sample 3 – Exceeds Proficiency:
Lesson Implementation:
Pat Padillia
Page 4 of 4