2. +
Text example for teaching figurative language.
TREES
I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
- Joyce Kilmer
3. Example of an inadequate, DOK Level 1 set of questions on that poem.
1. This is a line from Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees”:
And lifts her leafy arms to pray
This line seems to be saying that trees have arms. What kind of
figurative language is this?
a) metaphor b) simile c) personification d) verb
2. Which of these lines from the poem is “literal,” (means exactly
what it says):
a) Poems are made by fools like me
b) a nest of robins in her hair
c) a tree whose hungry mouth is prest
3. Identify 3 descriptive words in the poem:
___________________ ______________________
_____________________
4. Additional texts that could be added to the poem to increase the rigor of the
lesson.
Winnie the Pooh thought he looked like a little black cloud floating up
into the blue. “Every little cloud always sings aloud!” sang Pooh, as
he floated among the welcoming branches of the leafy oak tree. Up
above he could hear the buzzing of the bees. Pooh thought he looked
very much indeed like a cloud, but the bees were buzzing as
suspiciously as ever.
(Note that this one is an informational text.)
The Mandolin Trail in northern California winds peacefully through the
trees which bend and rise toward Mount Tamalpais. Boys and girls
from local scout troops had volunteered to help clean up the litter
from the trail. As they worked, they listened to the songs in the leaves
and on the breeze as they picked up the bottles, cans, and wrappers
left behind by littering visitors. The scouts were tired but happy as
they left the mountainside at dusk, and the Mandolin Trail showed her
thanks with a golden sunset and a leafy goodbye.
5. Rigorous, CCGPS-appropriate writing prompts that represent a better
assessment on these texts.
Prompt 1
We have read a poem, a paragraph from Winnie the Pooh, and an
article about boys and girls who helped clean up a hiking trail. All
three of the texts talked about trees. Using words from the texts,
show how each author used figures of speech (non-literal words) to
describe the trees, and tell why you think the author decided to use
figures of speech instead of just saying what he or she meant directly.
Prompt 2
We have read a poem, a paragraph from Winnie the Pooh, and an
article about boys and girls who helped clean up a hiking trail. All
three of the texts talked about trees using figures of speech (non-
literal words). Authors usually use figures of speech to help describe
things in a way that is more powerful than just using adjectives. For
example, if you really like ice cream, you might say ice cream is like a
party in your stomach! That is a little more interesting than just
saying you like it, isn’t it? It lets your reader know that you like ice
cream because it is like a party: festive, sweet, special, delicious, and
fun. Find the figures of speech describing trees in two of the three
pieces of text above (any two you choose), and explain how you think
the author wanted you to feel about those trees.
6. Student work sample in response to the second prompt on the previous page.
In the Winnie the Pooh story, the author said
the tree had “welcoming branches.” When someone
is welcoming to you, it means they want you to be
there. I think in this story the author must have
wanted to make me feel like Winnie the Pooh was
in a friendly place where he belonged when he was
in the Hundred Acre Wood. In the poem about
trees, the author said that the tree was like a poem.
Poems are pretty and they are fancy and sometimes
they are complicated. I think the author probably
wanted me to think that a tree was beautiful like
that. She also made the tree do things, like wear a
hat made of a bird’s nest and lift its arms. That
made me think that tree was like a person, so it
made me feel like a tree could be my friend. She
must want me to like trees more.
7. Science-content text (This is not meant to represent grade
3 text or to have a connection to grade 3 science
standards. It is simply provided as an example of how to
use disciplinary lenses to consider the purpose of a text
and how to better analyze informational
text. Please see the corresponding PPT slide to see the
graphic organizer that accompanies this text.)
Everything is made of chemicals, and chemicals can be sorted into various
categories. Some chemicals are acids. Some chemicals are bases. Some
chemicals are in between acids and bases and are called neutral.
Acids have a sour taste and can create certain reactions in addition to the
color change in the next paragraph. Acids can react with limestone to
produce carbon dioxide or react with various bases to form salts and water.
Bases have a bitter taste and sometimes a soapy or slippery feel. They
react with oils and grease, as well as reacting with acids to form salts and
water. Acids produce protons (H+) and bases produce hydroxide ions
(OH-)
Red cabbage juice has an interesting property; it changes colors depending
upon whether it is exposed to an acid or a base (cabbage juice is known as
an acid/base indicator). Cabbage juice is naturally neutral. When it is
neutral, it is a purplish color. If an acid is poured into it, it will turn reddish. If
a base is added, it turns blue or greenish. Vinegar
makes your juice turn red, so vinegar is an acid.
Baking-soda makes it turn blue or greenish, so
baking-soda is a base.
By mixing an acid to a base (like when you added
vinegar to your baking-soda and juice mixture), you
made your solution become more an acidic. As you add acid, your solution
changes from a base (blue/greenish) to a neutral solution (purple) and
finally to an acidic solution (reddish). The opposite is true when you add a
base to an acid solution.
8. ELA graphic organizer illustrating the inadequacy of using an ELA lens in considering
text from other domains.
FIVE W’S AND AN H COMPREHENSION CHART
Who Students
What Experiment about acids and bases
When I don’t know when they did the experiment
Where The kitchen
Why To prove that they change color in cabbage juice
How By putting acids and bases in cabbage juice and seeing what
color they change to
9. Grade 3-appropriate content science text used to illustrate the principle of disciplinary
lenses for considering domain-specific text.
Fossils are rock prints of plants and animals.
These prints were made millions of years ago.
Plants and animals got buried under layers of dirt
and mud. Pressure turned the layers into rock.
Some of the best fossils are prints of things that
were hard, like bones and seashells. There were
probably lots of organisms that existed that were
never fossilized because they only had soft parts.
There are also “trace” fossils, which are made from
marks left by animals, like footprints or teeth marks.
Sometimes fossils can tell us things about the
environment that existed when the organism was
alive. For example, some fossils show evidence of
the chemicals that were in the air because of
meteorite or volcanic activity, such as iridium.
Fossils are often found far from where they were
formed. As time passed, the Earth’s crust moved.
Fossils of ancient sea animals are even found on
mountainsides!
- Nancy Jameson, “All About Fossils”
10. Two graphic organizers illustrating the superiority of using the appropriate disciplinary
focus in reading.
FIVE W’S AND AN H COMPREHENSION CHART
Who Nancy Jameson
What Fossils
When Millions of years ago
Where Everywhere, even on a mountainside
Why Pressure
How Pressed mud into rock
Science Note-Taking with Disciplinary Literacy
Process Product Properties Results/Facts
Organisms dying Skeletons, teeth, Hard and durable Hard artifacts left in
bones mud and dirt
Mud layers turn to Fossils Outlines and A “picture” record of
rock imprints of the what organisms
organism looked like
Chemicals trapped Chemical record of Chemicals such as Evidence of
in fossils environment iridium volcanic or meteoric
activity, help in
dating fossils
13. Instructions illustrating the use of a model (informational text) to teach steps of a process and
temporal words.
ELACC3RI8: Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and
paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a
sequence).
ELACC3W3c. Use temporal words and phrases to signal event order.
14. Example of a DOK Level 1 reading comprehension quiz.
1. What was the date of Paul Revere’s famous ride
through Lexington and Concord?
2. Paul Revere had to get a message to Patriot
leaders John ____________ and Samuel
_____________.
3. What was the signal Paul Revere had been
waiting for?
4. What job did Paul Revere go back to doing after
the Revolutionary War?
5. About how many farmers were gathered and
ready to fight the British?
15. Example of an appropriately rigorous CCGPS assessment on the same reading
material, with student response sample.
Our unit is about Americans in history who showed courage in
helping to shape our country. What kinds of facts did the author
choose to put in this text that helped to prove that Paul Revere
was courageous? Choose 3 facts to discuss and explain how they
show Paul Revere’s courage. For extra points, give 3 details
about Paul Revere that are interesting but do not have anything to
do with bravery.
The author of this story told us many things
about Paul Revere. She told us that he made false
teeth and church bells and that he lived in Boston
and that he liked to draw, but none of those things
prove that he was brave. One thing that does prove
it is that Paul Revere was a spy against the British
government. Paul Revere had to be brave to be a
spy because spies can get killed or put in jail if they
get caught, so he was taking a big chance with his
life. Also, when he was on his ride, he was
outnumbered by the British policemen by 6 to 1, but
he still fought them and won so he could keep
riding to warn people. I don’t think I would want
to fight against six people, so I think this proves he
was pretty brave. Finally, I think that when Paul
Revere heard the British might be coming, he could
have gone far away out of town with his family
and stayed safe. But instead he volunteered to be
right in the middle of the danger so that he could
encourage and lead other people to be strong and
to fight. To go into danger on purpose to do a good
thing proves you are very brave.
16. Illustration of expanded vocabulary study (words from text, words thematically related to
text from other domains, and academic vocabulary. Based on Charlotte’s Web.)
VOCABULARY STUDY
TEXT
Delectable Versatile Salutation
DOMAIN-SPECIFIC
Arachnid Mammal Agriculture
ACADEMIC
Abstract Excerpt Compile
Identify Format
