Student Teaching edTPA Lesson Plan Template

Subject: 5th grade Reading Central Focus: Understanding and Using Figurative Language

Essential Standard/Common Core Objective:

RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and

phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
Date submitted: Date taught: 3/22/17
RL.5.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or
stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure
of a particular story, drama, or poem.

Daily Lesson Objective: Students will be able to analyze poems with metaphors and/or similes, determine their main
ideas, and create their own poems using similes.

21st Century Skills: Academic Language Demand (Language Function and

Creativity Vocabulary): analyze, determine, create

Prior Knowledge: poem, simile, metaphor, stanza

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

1. Focus and Review
2. Statement of Objective
for Student
3. Teacher Input
Begin by reviewing the definition of a simile and a metaphor. Do this by 5-10 min
making a T-Chart on the board and ask students for the meanings of each.
Ask students for examples of either similes or metaphors. If a student gives a
simile, ask how it could be written as a metaphor and vice-versa.
Today you will be analyzing poems with similes and/or metaphors,
determining the main ideas, and creating your own similes.
Start by showing the poems Harlem and Dreams by Langston Hughes. 10 min
Allow students to take 5 minutes to read the poems.
Afterwards, discuss the themes of both, and ask about how each was written.
One of the main points should be how Harlem contains many similes, while
Dreams was written with metaphors; but both send a very similar message.

4. Guided Practice
Introduce the poem Caged Bird by Maya Angelou. Give students some 10 min
background on the poet (born in the 1920s, lived through segregation, lived
in an era where it was hard to be a woman of color).
Give the students 5-7 minutes to read the poem. Ask them to give a thumbs
up when they are done. When all students are done, ask the students to turn
and talk to a neighbor to discuss what the poem was about.
Analyze the poem one stanza at a time, as a class.
The following should be noted:
Stanza 1: Talking about the free bird; free to fly where it wants
Stanza 2: Talking about the caged bird; limited to a cage; not free to
go where it wants or do what it wishes.
Stanza 3: The caged bird has never had freedom; the caged bird is
afraid, but it still sings for freedom
Stanza 4: The free bird is still free to fly through the sighing trees;
free to find its own food
 Stanza 5: the caged bird wasnt able to realize its dreams; it cries like
someone who has nightmares; it is still not free, but is ready to fight
for freedom.
Stanza 6: repeated stanza 3

After going through this with the class, have the students turn and talk to their
neighbors again to see if their interpretation has changed.
Talk about the message that this poem was trying to send. Were there any
examples of metaphors or similes? Could the whole poem be a metaphor for
something completely different? Who do the birds represent?
Ultimately, you want the class to understand the poem was a metaphor for
slavery and segregation, where one group of people had more advantages than
the other, while the other always had restrictions.
10 min
Since the original poem is a large metaphor, students will write their own
poems, but try to incorporate at least 2 similes. Their poems will focus on the
life of either the caged bird, or the free bird. They should have at least 2
5. Independent Practice stanzas.
Option 1: Poems can be written in whatever format the students choose.
Option 2: if you are studying a specific type of poem, have them write it in
that style.

Formative: This will be based on observation; how the students answer questions; what
they discuss with their neighbors;
Summative: The students poems will be collected to assess how well they can use similes
in their own writing. Students should get at least 5 out of 9 points. (meaning they at least
6. Assessment Methods of tried to write a poem).
all objectives/skills: Grading (total: 9 points):
o At least 2 stanzas (3 points)
o At least 2 similes (3 points)
o Related to the original (2 point)
o Wrote a poem (1 point)
5
7. Closure Ask for volunteers to share their poems to the class, if time allows.

The majority of the students did really well writing their poems. Out of the 19 students I
had for this lesson, only one of them did not turn anything in.
8. Assessment Results of
11 students met all the requirements (9/9). 5 students met most of the requirements but lost
all objectives/skills:
1-2 points for missing one or two requirements (7/9, 8/9). 2 students lost points for not fully
completing the activity, but still got points for what they did do (5/9, 6/9).

Targeted Students Modifications/Accommodations Student/Small Group Modifications/Accommodations

Students who have hearing or visual impairments can Students who have trouble during the guided practice part, will
sit closer to the front of the class. be given extra practice interpreting figurative language. We
English language learners will be pulled into a small would look at the specific examples from the poems again. If
group. We would look at specific examples of they need more practice, we can look at simple examples that
figurative language in the poems, and clarify the they may hear every day (ex: hungry as a horse, tall as a tree,
meanings. This will help them with their busy as a bee, etc.)
comprehension of the poems.
Materials/Technology: Doc cam to show poems on the board, a copy of each poem for each student
Reflection on lesson:

Reflection on lesson (to be complete after the implementation of lesson):

What worked? What didnt work? Why?

The poems were great for this class, because they were all related and about a topic that these kids were interested in. The
guided practice activity ended up being too much direct instruction, and I realized in the middle of it that I was spending
way too much time on each stanza. I should have put the students together in groups to analyze it together, because the
higher performing students were basically taking over. This was another issue: I didnt challenge them enough. This
meant that they were also not as engaged as they should have been.

Based on the implementation of this lesson, what instructional changes would you need to make to prepare for
future lessons?

I would make the lesson less direct instruction and more active engagement. Also, in the middle of teaching this lesson, I
realized how hard it is to teach poetry, and different concepts of poetry. I also learned that I needed to be more prepared
the next time I taught a reading lesson.

How might these changes improve student learning? What research and theory in education would support the
implementation of these changes?

When students are engaged in their own learning, they perform better, because they get to inquire and think of solutions
on their own. They get to make more connections to their prior knowledge and personal experiences.

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