Jessica Prestifilippo

Reflection
November 16. 2015
While planning todays lesson, I wanted to ensure that I would create a studentcentered atmosphere within the classroom wherein the students would perform most of
the talking and the majority of the deepening of each others knowledge. Knowing that
this was my end goal, I planned for questioning that would lead students to the necessary
knowledge without me telling the students the answers in an outright fashion. The overall
purpose of the unit on Night is to expose students to complex literature, expand their
knowledge base, and focus them on interesting and multi-variegated language. Wiesels
diction is particularly noteworthy and remarkable. Before we can fully appreciate
Wiesels use of diction, the students have to have workable definitions of diction,
including denotation and connotation. Therefore, the purpose of this lesson was to
analyze how authors use purposeful diction to convey meaning, which is in alignment
with the common core standards. I wanted students to look closely at the meaning of
words and phrases. To reach this goal, it is integral to look at connotative meaning and
the reasoning behind word choice. Throughout the lesson, this goal was constantly
achieved as students not only looked closely at diction, but they also manipulated words
and made choices about the best structure of a poem to maximize the conveyance of their
desired meaning.
I created the Do Now and Motivation to appeal to students prior knowledge and
social competencies. When asked about their days, students typically respond with good.
One of the goals of English is to expand the students vocabulary, which is a necessary
component of appropriate diction. Students must understand the denotative and
connotative meanings of a multitude of words so that they can make suitable word choice
decisions. The students were engaged in the beginning of the lesson, and many of them
provided solid synonyms for good. I made sure to establish a conversational tone with
the students, and I maintained an easygoing atmosphere in the classroom to promote
participation. The rapport that I established at the beginning of my time with the students,
and at the beginning of the lesson, helped the students feel at ease so that they would
stretch to answer questions even when they were challenging. Once we had a long list of
other words for good, I then directed students to look at a few sentences that I had prearranged with synonyms for good. I then asked students to pull apart the meaning of the
sentences based on the one different word. Students were quick to pick apart the
differences between the various words, and how these words illuminated the sentence,
creating different meaning.
I used an additional example (slim, skinny, and emaciated) so that students would
be able to understand the difference between the denotation (thin) and the connotation
(good looking, middle of the road, and much too thin/sickly skeletal). Once students had
come to those understanding through my questioning, I then informed them that thin
was the denotation whereas good looking versus skeletal is the connotation. I then
asked students to determine the definitions of denotation and connotation. Students were
quickly able to respond with the definition for denotation, and I led them further to the
definition for connotation. To solidify the concept, I asked for the difference between
house and home. Once a student explained the difference, I then asked which was the

same, the denotation or the connotation. I had to reword the question a couple of times
before the students were able to respond correctly because the students were interested in
giving a full explanation and not just an answer. Upon reflection, I should have stopped
students from over-explaining and just requested a single word response so that they
could not talk their way around the answer. I believe that the variety of examples for the
complex concept of diction, along with its counterparts of denotation and connotation,
were crucial in developing the depth of understanding expressed by the students at the
end of the lesson.
To further the students facility with diction and word choice, I had students create
found poetry out of a page from Night. I used their homework to prompt them and had
them work in pairs. I chose pairs for a multitude of reasons that I believe proved effective
in the execution of the lesson. I placed students in heterogeneous pairs so that a
struggling reader would be paired with a stronger reader. I also placed anyone who was
absent on Friday with a person who was in class, and would have the homework
completed. Additionally, I kept the pairs single gendered, placing males with males and
females with females. I made this decision because females and males typically have
different sensibilities when it comes to poetry and I wanted the students to feel
comfortable expressing their ideas and creating their poems. The students appeared to
respond favorably to found poetry, and many came up with very interesting poems that
featured exceptional diction. I believe that a more solid example would better prepare
students for the creation of their own found poetry. Prior to starting the independent
work, I had students give me words and I created a three line found poem. However, if I
were to teach this lesson again, I would show artistic examples from various Internet
resources. Some of the examples require a copy of a page of the text, and the models
have students connecting words on the page to create their poems without having to
rewrite anything. This may have also been a helpful alternative for the students. It may
have been a less creative leap for some of the students who were finding it difficult to
combine words. Although, as I was circulating, I informed students that they should start
by placing words next to each other and then filling in the surroundings. Many of the
students excitedly created their poems and wanted to share them. The responses were
wonderful, with exceptional diction and profundity.
As per my informal assessment, during circulation and with the exit slips, I would
respond to a common question of when to use denotation and connotation. It seems that
there was a slight misconception in that arena. I would inform students that they are using
their knowledge of denotation and connotation constantly, even if they are unaware of
this actuality. A good way to get at this knowledge (which students have intrinsically) is
to have them think of a time when they wanted something from a parent, sibling, friend,
etc., and to discuss what they said and why the said it. Why would they use certain words
instead of others? How would those words help them get what they want? Aside from
reviewing this slight confusion, I would like to return to found poetry at a later point in
the unit. Students seemed interested in their creations and many of them were
experimenting with new ways of expressing themselves, and with creative diction
choices. This is incredibly important as students look at word choice based on denotative
and connotative meanings. Students need room to experiment and they need multiple
different entry points into a more complete understanding of the concept. I may have
students revisit found poetry once they are half way through the book, or three quarters

through the book, and they have an even greater appreciation for Wiesels powerful
diction. I may have them create an artistic interpretation of a found poem so that they can
incorporate images with diction as an additional source of understanding. This will aid all
students, especially my visual learners, in incorporating diction into their schema, thus
preparing them for more complex and multi-layered analysis of word choice in literature.