Page 125 - SpringBoard_ELA_CA_Smapler_Flipbook

acTIVITY 4.5
PLaN
Suggested Pacing: 2 50-minute class periods
Teach
Text Complexity Overall: Complex
Lexile: 1210L
Qualitative: Moderate Difficulty Task: Moderate (Analyze)
1 Read the Preview and the Setting a Purpose for Reading sections
with your students. Introduce the essay by reading the About the Author information. Help students understand any unfamiliar terms.
2 FIRST READ: Based on the complexity of the passage and your knowledge of your students, you may choose to conduct the first reading in a variety of ways:
• independent reading • paired reading
• small group reading • choral reading
• read aloud
3 As students are reading, monitor their progress. Be sure they are engaged with the text
and annotating words and phrases intended to be humorous and those speaking to a universal truth. Evaluate whether the selected reading mode is effective.
4 Based on the observations you made during the first reading, you may want to adjust your reading mode. For example, you may decide for the second reading to read aloud certain complex passages, or you may group students differently.
aCTIVITy 4.5
Finding Truth in Comedy
learNING sTraTeGIes:
Think-Pair-Share, Marking
the Text, Metacognitive Markers, Questioning the Text, Rereading, Close Reading, Discussion Groups, Socratic Seminar, Drafting
my Notes
Learning Targets
• Collaborate to analyze a humorous essay in a Socratic Seminar.
• Write to explain how an author conveys universal truths through humor.
Preview
In this activity, you will read a humorous essay and think about how people use comedy to discuss serious or important topics.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• As you read the essay, underline words and phrases that are intended to be humorous.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
• Place an exclamation point by text that deals with a universal truth.
About the Author
Dave Barry (b. 1947) was a humor columnist for the Miami Herald until 2005. His work there won him the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1988. He has also written novels and children’s books and continues to write articles for a variety of magazines. Much of Barry’s work provides humorous commentary on current social issues.
essay pet peeves
I’ve got a few
about sea creatures by Dave Barry
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
272 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
9781457304644_TCB_LA_SE_L8_U4.indd 272
Chunk 1
1 Pets are good, because they teach children important lessons about life, the main
one being that, sooner or later, life kicks the bucket.
2 With me, it was sooner. When I was a boy, my dad, who worked in New York City, would periodically bring home a turtle in a little plastic tank that had a little plastic island with a little plastic palm tree, as is so often found in natural turtle habitats. I was excited about having a pet, and I’d give the turtle a fun pet name like Scooter. But my excitement was not shared by Scooter, who, despite residing in a tropical paradise, never did anything except mope around.
3 Actually, he didn’t even mope “around”: He moped in one place without moving, or even blinking, for days on end, displaying basically the same vital signs as an ashtray. Eventually I would realize—it wasn’t easy to tell—that Scooter had passed on to that
272
SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
cOMMON cOre STaTe STaNDarDS
Focus Standards:
W.8.2d: Use precise language and domain- specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
SL.8.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on Grade 8 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
Additional Standards Addressed:
RI.8.1; RI.8.2; RI.8.4; RI.8.5; RI.8.6; RI.8.10; W.8.2c; W.8.2e; W.8.4; W.8.9b; SL.8.1a; SL.8.1b; SL.8.1c; SL.8.6; L.8.5a
W.8.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
W.8.2a: Introduce a topic clearly, previewing what is to follow; organize ideas, concepts, and information into broader categories; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
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1:48 AM