CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5 - Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5.a - Interpret figures of speech (e.g., personification) in context.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5.b - Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each of the words.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5.c - Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty).

 
Authors: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers

Title: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.6.5 Demonstrate Understanding Of Figurative Language, Word Relationships,... Language - 6th Grade English Language Arts Common Core State Standards

Publisher: National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, Washington D.C.

Copyright Date: 2010

(Page last edited 10/08/2017)

1. A Christmas Carol chronology - Christmas Carol Chronology, based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, provides students with an opportunity to develop comprehension by listing plot developments and arranging them sequentially. This lesson begins with cooperative learning groups and ends with an individual manipulative activity of cutting and pasting strips of events in chronological order.
2. An exploration of Physical Theatre - Lessons and activity [from the Internet Archive]
3. An integrated poetry unit - The goal of this lesson is to aid the students in understanding and appreciating a variety of genres--in this case poetry. The unit incorporates vocabulary necessary for the study of literature (figurative language and elements of poetry) as well as recognizing the different types of poems dealing with many topics.
4. Book Reviews, Annotation, and Web Technology - Students work in groups to read and discuss a book, keeping track of their feelings and opinions about the book, as well as facts and quotations, as they read. After reading, each group goes through their notes on the book, marking items they want to include in a book review. They look at sample book reviews and discuss the common elements of book reviews. Next, each group works together to write a review of their book and use Web-authoring tools to publish the review onto a Web page. Students then decide which parts of their review they wish to annotate, with each student in the group responsible for one topic. Students research their topics, taking notes. Each student writes about his or her topic, including bibliographic information. The writings are then peer-reviewed by the group, published to the Web, and hyperlinked back to the group's book review.
5. Campaigning for Fair Use: Public Service Announcements on Copyright Awareness - Who owns what you compose? Who controls what happens with the words, images, music, sounds, videos that you create? What rights do you have to use other peoples compositions? This unit plan focuses on helping students find answers to these questions. Students explore a range of resources on fair use and copyright then design their own audio public service announcements (PSAs), to be broadcast over the schools public address system.
6. Doodle Splash: Using Graphics to Discuss Literature - As students read a short story, they "doodle," either in a journal or using an online tool, responding to the text through images, symbols, shapes, and colors. They must be sure to represent all of the elements of the short story (setting, plot, character, point of view, theme) in their doodles.
7. Energy Pioneers - This activity is designed to introduce students to many of the scientists and inventors who have contributed to the development of todays modern energy systems. Students may also be exposed to the developments that are being made in the technology of renewable energy.
8. Entering History: Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King, Jr. - Students read Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in conjunction with Nikki Giovanni's poem "The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr." in order to better understand the speech and the impact it had both on observers like Giovanni during the Civil Rights Movement and on Americans today.
9. Everyone Loves a Mystery: A Genre Study - Students examine story elements and vocabulary associated with mystery stories through Directed LearningThinking Activities and then track these features as they read mystery books from the school or classroom library.
10. Exploring Author's Voice Using Jane Addams Award-Winning Books - This lesson uses Jane Addams Award-winning books to explore author's voice and style.
11. Fairy Tale Autobiographies - Students work together in small groups to read, discuss, and analyze fairy tales. After compiling a list of common elements, students collaborate on their own original fairy talesbased on events from their own lives or the lives of someone they know.
12. Figurative language: Metaphor - This lesson is a part of a unit on poetry and figurative language. It is designed to teach students the characteristics of metaphor within the context of poetry.
13. Finding Figurative Language in The Phantom Tollbooth - This lesson provides hands-on differentiated instruction by guiding students to search for the literal definitions of figurative language using the Internet. It also guides students in understanding figurative meanings through the use of context clues and making inferences.
14. Homonyms Exercises - This section will help you review and strengthen your knowledge of Homonyms. The 30 exercises are grouped into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Determine your level of knowledge and then select an exercise from the lists
15. Making Personal and Cultural Connections Using A Girl Named Disaster - This lesson is intended to help students experience both efferent (reading for information) and aesthetic (reading as a personal, emotional experience) responses to the story A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer.
16. On a Musical Note: Exploring Reading Strategies by Creating a Soundtrack - This lesson has students create a soundtrack for a novel that they have read. Students begin by analyzing how specific songs might fit with a familiar story. Students then create their own soundtracks for the movie version of a novel they have read.
17. Ordering the Phrases - Excellent interactive quiz; learn about the different stages of a presentation and to learn some phrases that tell your audience where you are in your presentation.
18. Organized Speech Writing: Speech Structure - Seven part video lesson
19. Patterns of Organization and Their Clue Words - Handout for students [from the Internet Archive]
20. Performing Poetry and Building Meaning - Through the use of dramatic reading and the exploration of Internet resources, sixth through eighth grade students build a greater understanding of poetry and the poet's voice.
21. Planning, Writing, and Completing Oral Presentations - Quiz with 30 multiple choice questions and 5 essay questions
22. Plot Structure: A Literary Elements Mini-Lesson - This lesson plan provides a basic introduction to Freytag's Pyramid and to the literary element of plot.
23. Press Conference for Bud, Not Buddy - This lesson can be used after the reading of Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. The lesson encourages students to use higher level thinking skills and asks them to examine different character perspectives. Students demonstrate comprehension of the story by actively involving themselves in group and whole-class discussions.
24. Principles of Organization - Scroll to middle of page to get to this section; four broad principles
25. Reading and Writing Workshop: Freak the Mighty - This unit revolves around Rodman Philbrick's Freak the Mighty. Lessons include teaching and practicing pre-, during, and after reading comprehension strategies.
26. Stage Directions - The stage can be divided up into fifteen playing areas
27. Stage directions poem - Helps students remember terminology
28. Story Character Homepage - Combine higher order thinking with creativity in this lesson that uses diamante poems to illustrate the phenomenon of cause and effect. Students define and identify instances of cause and effect to help them generate their own examples.
29. The History Behind Song Lyrics - In this lesson, students research and categorize items from the song as well as illustrate their historical relevance. Students use an online chart to display their research.
30. The Reading Performance: Understanding Fluency Through Oral Interpretation - This lesson examines how oral reading of poetry may be useful in supporting fluency for sixth- through eighth-grade students. Central to this lesson is the idea that students require practice and repetition to master decoding skills for fluency and comprehension in oral reading.
31. Understand figurative language - In this lesson you will learn the meaning of the idiom, a needle in a haystack, by looking at a cartoon.
32. Using QARs to Develop Comprehension and Reflective Reading Habits - Middle school is a time when students move from reading for literal comprehension to developing inferential comprehension strategies. This lesson provides a foundation for building reflective reading habits, which enables students to develop these higher-level comprehension strategies.
33. Using the Four-Square Strategy to Define and Identify Poetic Terms - In this lesson, students will learn the definitions of alliteration, assonance, simile, and rhyme. Using these definitions and a graphic organizer, they will search through a variety of poems for examples of each poetic element.
34. Ways to Make Communication Sparkle - We can sparkle in conversations, walking down the street or even ordering fries at McDonald's.
35. What am I? Teaching poetry through riddles - In this lesson, students explore, analyze, and discuss how metaphor, simile, and metonymy are used in riddle poems.
36. Word Art With Dr. King's Words - In this activity, children and adults will review one or more composition by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., identify meaningful words and phrases, and create word art using the Wordle Web site. This activity will help children develop vocabulary and critical reading skills by encouraging them to think carefully about the words Dr. King used in speeches and letters. Special focus is given to figurative language and poetic devices: repetition, idioms, similes, metaphors.
37. Word Frog - Match correct word on incoming flies - select synonym, homonym or antonym practice
38. Word Parts - This section will help you review and strengthen your knowledge of root words, prefixes, and suffixes. For each topic, exercises are grouped into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Determine your level of knowledge and then select an exercise from the lists below. The 87 exercises are grouped into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.