Second Grade Weekly Reading Plans
Building Bridges with Unlikely Friends – Week 6
Common Core Objectives:
RL.2.4 Describe how words and phrases (e.g., regular beats, alliteration, rhymes, repeated lines)
supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song.
RL.2.7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to
demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
Essential Question:
How can stories teach us life lessons?
I can statement:
I can identify the rhyme pattern in a poem.
I can identify the rhythm pattern in a poem.
Vocabulary
Parable
Poem
Narrative poem
Rhyme pattern
Rhythm pattern
Stanza
Weekly Literature:
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Technology Links:
The Giving Tree – in poem format online
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8538991-The_Giving_Tree-by-Shel_Silverstein
Shel Silverstein’s Official Website - http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html
YouTube Video - “The Crocodile’s Toothache”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN8PfuyowG0
Standard/Lesson
Materials
Day 1
Reading Skill Focus:
• Tell the students that today they are going to read a story about
another unlikely friendship. It is a friendship between a boy and a tree.
• The author, Shel Silverstein, is pictured on the back of the book. Show
them the picture. Then show them the title of the book, The Giving
Tree.
• Let the students see how thick the book is … but then also point out
that there are not many words on the page. Because of that, Shel
Silverstein had a difficult time getting it published. It took him four
years to get the story published.
• Tell them that this is Shel Silverstein’s 2nd book. His first book was
titled Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back. It was published in 1963. The
Giving Tree was published in 1964. Ask them: How many years ago was
that? Model on the board how to do the subtraction algorithm for the
current year minus 1964.
• Before Reading… Tell the students t hat The Giving Tree is a narrative
poem. It is a poem that tells a story. This particular narrative poem is a
parable. A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or a
lesson. Tell them to listen as the story is read and see if they can
identify the moral or lesson.
• Read the story to the students. Show them the pictures as the story is
read.
• After reading (and before anyone has a chance to give what they think
the moral is) get them to tell you some of the events in the story. Write
them on chart paper. This will be important later when they have to
complete the booklet.
• Ask “Are the tree and the boy friends? How do you know that? “ Get
them to give examples from the story. (The boy visits the tree, the tree
gives him things etc.)
• Ask “Do you have to give people things to be their friend?”
• “Do you think the tree wanted to give all those things to the boy?”
• “What character trait would you use to describe the tree?” Introduce
them to the word “Selfless” - having no concern for self. “
• Ask them if they think that definition fits the tree. What would be the
opposite of selfless? See if they can give you selfish – concerned
excessively with oneself.
• Now, see if someone can give you the moral to the story. If they can’t
come up with one you can tell them that giving is good and important
and we should give what we can because it makes us happy and not
because we expect anything in return.
• Talk about personification – giving human characteristics to animals or
objects. Did you see any personification in this story? The author gives
Book
Chart Paper
•
the tree human characteristics and makes her talk and care for the boy. Response
Booklet
Have them complete the booklet about The Giving Tree by Shel
Silverstein. (pages 1 & 2)
Day 2
Reading Skill
• Begin by showing the students the official website of Shel Silverstein. It
is on the website that they will see some of the characters in his books.
•
•
http://www.shelsilverstein.com/indexSite.html
Tell the students that they are going to read some more of Shel Silverstein’s
poems and analyze the meaning, structure and mood. For that reason, they
are going to practice what they learned during the Wild West Unit… The Plan
for reading poetry – read it 4 times.
1. First time read it for enjoyment
2. Second time read it for meaning
3. Third time read it for structure
4. Fourth time read it for mood/feeling
The first poem is Alice (Where the Sidewalk Ends p.112)
1. Enjoyment - Read the poem with or to the class.
2. Meaning – “Let’s read it again and this time let’s stop and talk about the
meaning as we read.” Point out that the character – Alice- is brave. She
likes to try new things.
3. Structure – Before reading for the 3rd time - Ask the students “Is this a
rhyming poem?” “What does it mean for a poem to Rhyme?” See if
someone can explain it. If not, discuss how Rhyme is the words that
sound alike at the ends of lines.
Read the poem for the 3rd time. Ask the students to find the words that
rhyme. Use the overhead paper included to annotate the poem. Students
can do the same in their booklet. This is a rhyme pattern since every two
lines rhyme.
Ask them to help you count the syllables for each line. Then write the
number of syllables on the right side of the poem.
For instance –
She drank from a bottle called Drink Me. – has 9 syllables.
Continue counting the syllables for each of the lines.
Have the students notice that the lines that rhyme also have the same
rhythm pattern.
Review from last unit –
How many lines ?
How many stanzas?
4. How did you feel when you read this poem? Let’s read it again and talk
about how you feel when you read the poem. What is the mood of the
poem?
5. Ask them if this poem reminds them of a story or movie that they have
seen with a character named Alice.
Activity –
With a partner – Analyze the next poem. “Come Skating”
Poem from
Book
Response
Booklet
Students will analyze the poem in their booklet.
Teacher walks around and facilitates activity
Share out as a class and go over answers
Day 3
Reading Skill
•
•
•
Review the vocabulary words learned on Tuesday.
Tell the students that they are going to learn about rhyming couplets today.
They already know what rhyming means. Couplet is a group of two lines that
rhyme.
With a partner, have them take a few minutes to fill in the missing words that
they think go in the blank. Page 5 of their booklet.
1. Have the students share what they wrote.
2. Then, read the whole poem to them. SICK page 58 of Where the Sidewalk
Ends.
Other poems in the book that have rhyming couplets:
“Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout would not take the garbage out” page 70
“Pirate Captain Jim” page 144
“If the world was crazy” page 146
“Enter this Deserted House” page 56
Response
Booklet
Book
Day 4
Reading Skill
• Tell the students that today they are going to read a poem by Shel
Silverstein that has never been published. It is a poem that cannot be
Poem
found in any of his books. The title of the poem is “The Romance”.
Share the poem on the Digital Projector/ELMO. The poem is also in
their booklet but the overhead paper will have the illustrations that will
make the poem funnier and set the mood. Discuss how the illustrations
can add to the poems and make them more interesting to read. It is a
text feature that authors add to help the reader better understand the
poems.
• Read the poem to the class… for enjoyment.
• Then go back and read each stanza and discuss the meaning with the
Response
students.
• Have the students read it again and find the words that rhyme. Ask the Booklet
students to identify the rhyme pattern. Is there one?
• Have the students identify the rhythm in the poem . They should write
the number of syllables for each line at the end of the line. Ask the
students to identify the rhythm pattern. Is there one?
• How many lines are there? How many stanzas?
• Read the poem again and talk about the mood/ feeling of the poem.
• Have the students use the back page of the booklet to write their own
short poem. If they have trouble, they can work together.
Get them to think of words that rhyme. Then have them create
sentences around those words. Next, have them put the sentences
together to form a poem. They may need to change words as they go
to make the poem come together.
Day 5
Reading Skill
• Read the poem and show the students the YouTube Video “The
Crocodile’s Toothache” page 66 of Where the Sidewalk Ends.
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN8PfuyowG0
•
Play the Rhyme Race Game – After spending all week talking about
rhyme, have the student play the game to list as many rhyming words
as they can think of as a team.
The class should be divided into teams of 3-5 students.
Assign each team a common word that has many rhymes. Have the
teams come up with as many words as they can think of in approx. 5
minutes. The team with the most words wins.
Game cards
of common
words that
will rhyme
(not
included)