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ES Literacy Shared Text Grade 2: Falling In Love with Reading

Week 1

Day 1 Focus: Read and Understand the Text

  • Title: “By Myself” (Poem)
  • Big Ideas Discussion: To show understanding of this text scholars must articulate that the speaker enjoys imagining being many different things, but above all enjoys being herself.
  • Craft and Structure Focus: Repetition
    • Highlight the poet’s repetition of the phrase, “I’m a…”
    • Discuss how the author uses repetition to show that the speaker imagines she can be many different things, but above all, wants to be herself.
  • Understanding the Big Idea: Scholars complete a bubble map graphic organizer identifying the big idea and the evidence that supports it.
    • Note: During the first two weeks, model using the bubble map to determine the main idea and fill it in together as a class. Once scholars know how to use the graphic organizer have them complete it themselves to assess their level of understanding.

Day 2 Focus: Responding to Literature in Writing

  • Title: “By Myself” (Poem)
  • Question: What does the speaker do when she’s by herself?
    • Sample answer: When she’s by herself, the speaker closes her eyes and imagines being all different kinds of things.
      • Lines 3–12 list all the things the speaker imagines herself as.
      • For example, she imagines herself as “a twin,” “a loaf of brown bread,” and “anything I care to be.”

Day 3 Focus: Read and Understand the Text

  • Title: “Oak Leaf Plate” (Poem)
  • Big Ideas Discussion: To show understanding of this text scholars must articulate that the speaker is using her imagination to create a meal from things found in nature.
  • Craft and Structure Focus: Repetition
    • Highlight the poet’s repetition of the phrase, “ ___for ___” to show how objects found in nature become things used for a meal.
    • Discuss how the author uses repetition to show how the speaker is using his imagination to transform objects.
  • Understanding the Big Idea: Scholars complete a bubble map graphic organizer identifying the big idea and the evidence that supports it.
    • Note: During the first two weeks, model using the bubble map to determine the main idea and fill it in together as a class. Once scholars know how to use the graphic organizer have them complete it themselves to assess their level of understanding.

Day 4 Focus: Responding to Literature in Writing

  • Title: “Oak Leaf Plate” (Poem)
  • Question: What is the speaker doing with the sand, mud, sticks, and stones?
    • Sample answer: The speaker is using the sand, mud, sticks, and stones to play, imagining that she is preparing food for a meal.
      • For example, the speaker imagines using “sticks” and “stones” for “bread” and “meat.”
      • She also imagines using “sand for salt” and “mud for pie,” as well as drinking “tea” out of an “acorn cup.”

Week 2

Day 1 Focus: Read and Understand the Text

  • Title: “The Tree and the Pool” (Poem)
  • Big Ideas Discussion: To show understanding of this text scholars must articulate that all the characters are resistant to change, but no one can escape the changes that come as time passes.
  • Craft and Structure Focus: Repetition
    • Highlight the poet’s repetition of the phrase, “I don’t want…”
    • Discuss how the author uses repetition to emphasize that none of the living things or objects in the poem want to change from their current state.
      • For example, the pool doesn’t want to freeze, the night doesn’t want to end, and the kite doesn’t want to fall.
  • Understanding the Big Idea: Scholars complete a bubble map graphic organizer identifying the big idea and the evidence that supports it.
    • Note: During the first two weeks, model using the bubble map to determine the main idea and fill it in together as a class. Once scholars know how to use the graphic organizer have them complete it themselves to assess their level of understanding.

Day 2 Focus: Responding to Literature in Writing

  • Title: “The Tree and the Pool” (Poem)
  • Question: Why does the poet end with the line, “‘You must do what I say,’ said Time.”
    • Sample answer: The poet ends the poem with this line to show that no one can avoid change over time.
      • The poet suggests that no matter how much people complain, “to change is a crime,” they can’t avoid change.
      • Instead, all people, plants, animals, and objects have to do what Time says.

Day 3 Focus: Read and Understand the Text

  • Title: “Hello and Good-by” (Poem)
  • Big Ideas Discussion: To show understanding of this text scholars must articulate that things come and go with time, following predictable patterns.
  • Craft and Structure Focus: Repetition
    • Highlight the poet’s repetition of the words, “hello” and “good-by.” Discuss how the repetition of “hello” and “good-by” in the first stanza helps us visualize a swing going back and forth.
    • In the end, the poet repeats these words to show that just like a swing moves back and forth, there are always patterns of change over time, such as the weather and seasons.
  • Understanding the Big Idea: Scholars complete a bubble map graphic organizer identifying the big idea and the evidence that supports it.
    • Note: During the first two weeks, model using the bubble map to determine the main idea and fill it in together as a class. Once scholars know how to use the graphic organizer have them complete it themselves to assess their level of understanding.

Day 4 Focus: Responding to Literature in Writing

  • Title: “Hello and Good-by” (Poem)
  • Question: What is this poem mostly about?
    • Sample answer: This poem is mostly about how things come and go with time, following patterns.
      • For example, just like a swing goes back and forth, weather changes from rainy to sunny.
      • Similarly, when the seasons change and winter comes, birds will always migrate.

What Else Do I Need?

  • Shared Text Selections:
    • Poem: “By Myself” from Honey, I Love and Other Poems by Eloise Greenfield
    • Poem: “Oak Leaf Plate”from The Llama Who Had No Pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman
    • Poem: “The Tree and the Pool” from The Puffin Book of Utterly Brilliant Poetry
      by Brian Pattern
    • Poem: “Hello and Good-by” from The Llama Who Had No Pajama by Mary Ann Hoberman

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