Interpret Figurative and Literal Meaning — When Pigs Fly

Ready-to-teach lesson

TumbleTA - ELA skill lesson

Florida

Standard winner: ELA.2.R.3.1

Interpret Figurative and Literal Meaning Grade 2 - Interpret Figurative and Literal Meaning

Instructional skill

Figurative language / idiom meaning

Audit status

CLEAR WINNER - strict exact-match pass; partial matches excluded.

Regional standards cover added to the approved canonical skill lesson. Lesson content is unchanged.

Why this text works: Every stage is on its own pages in order and the want is stated in the opening line, so the chart is filled from the text.

Expected answer:: He wants a bicycle and asks over and over. His dad finally agrees, on a condition meant to be impossible. Ralph decides to meet it. He tells Morris the plan, goes to the airport, finds Bill, spends a week learning to fly, and takes his friends up in the helicopter. When they land he thanks them and heads home for his bike.

Model: He asks for a bike on the first page. Everything after that is supposed to lead back to the bike, so I will keep checking whether it does.

Support and extension

Above: Say whether Ralph has earned his bicycle, and give your reason from the dad's own words.

Below: Say what Ralph wants at the start and what he is doing at the end.

Assessment

Look for:: Names the bicycle as the goal.

Puts the stages in order.

Says what happens when the helicopter lands.

2.When Pigs Fly

Full lesson

TIME

30 minutes 2

OBJECTIVE

Work out what Ralph's dad means by when pigs fly, and what Ralph decides it means.

STUDENT PRODUCT

Boxes for what the dad meant and what Ralph took it to mean, with the sentence copied between them

FOCUS

A saying meant one way and taken another

page 1

Essential question

Did Ralph's dad promise him a bike or not?

Materials

The book The dad's line and Ralph's plan copied together Text to mark before teaching Passage 1 — a young cow and an older one in front of a bicycle Passage 2 — the two cows on a red tractor, a bicycle in a thought bubble Passage 3 — two cows in dungarees standing on a green hill Passage 7 — a cow's face and a man's, close together against green

Lesson sequence

1: What had happened first · 6 min
Focus:: A promise made at the end of an argument
2

Teacher model:: Read these pages and ask how many times Ralph has already asked, and what the answers were.
Prepared text:: Passage 1, Passage 2
2: The promise · 10 min
Teacher direction:: Write the dad's sentence out and say what he means by it.
Expected answer:: He agrees to buy the bike, and then adds the saying after a pause. He means it will never happen - it is another way of saying no.
Prepared text:: Passage 3

3 What Ralph hears · 9 min Teacher direction:

Expected answer:

Prepared text:: 4 Who was right · 5 min

Focus:

Teacher direction:

Prepared text:: Read Ralph's own explanation and write what he has decided the sentence means.

He has taken it as a condition to be met. He says that once he can fly a helicopter he can take pigs up in it, and then he can have the bike.

Passage 7 A promise held to its words Ask whether Ralph has kept to what his dad said, and whether the dad can refuse.

Passage 3

Teacher guidance

Why this text works: The dad's sentence is printed with a pause before the saying, and Ralph's own explanation of what he intends to do about it is 2 saying, and Ralph's own explanation of what he intends to do about it is printed in his own words several pages later - so both readings are in the text.

page 2

Expected answer:: His dad means never. He has already said no over and over, and the saying is a way of saying no again. Ralph takes it as a condition: if pigs really did fly, he would get a bike. So he sets out to make pigs fly, and he explains that plan out loud - a helicopter, and pigs in it.

Model: When pigs fly. I know that means never. But it is a promise with a condition in it, and Ralph seems to be reading it as one.

Support and extension

Above: Say why the dad chose that saying rather than simply saying no again, and what it cost him.

Below: Say what the dad promises Ralph and when.

Assessment

Look for:: Says the dad means never.

Says Ralph reads it as a condition.

Quotes Ralph's own explanation of his plan.

Short version

TIME

15 minutes

OBJECTIVE

Work out what Ralph's dad means by when pigs fly, and what Ralph decides it means.

STUDENT PRODUCT

2 Boxes for what the dad meant and what Ralph took it to mean, with the sentence copied between them

FOCUS

A saying meant one way and taken another

Essential question

Did Ralph's dad promise him a bike or not?

Materials

Lesson sequence

1: What had happened first · 4 min
Focus:: A promise made at the end of an argument
Teacher model:: Read these pages and ask what the answers had been so far.
Prepared text:: Passage 1, Passage 2
2: The promise · 6 min
Teacher direction:: Write the dad's sentence and say what he means.

page 3

Teacher direction:: Write the dad's sentence and say what he means.
Expected answer:: He agrees, then adds the saying after a pause - meaning never.
Prepared text:: Passage 3

3 What Ralph hears · 5 min

Teacher direction:: Say what Ralph has decided the sentence means.

Expected answer:: A condition he can meet, by taking pigs up in a helicopter.
Prepared text:: Passage 7

Teacher guidance

Why this text works: The dad's sentence is printed with a pause before the saying, and Ralph's own explanation of what he intends to do about it is printed in his own words several pages later - so both readings are in the text.

Expected answer:: His dad means never. He has already said no over and over, and the saying is a way of saying no again. Ralph takes it as a condition: if pigs really did fly, he would get a bike. So he sets out to make pigs fly, and he explains that plan out loud - a helicopter, and pigs in it.

Model: When pigs fly. I know that means never. But it is a promise with a condition in it, and Ralph seems to be reading it as one.

Support and extension

Above: Say why the dad chose that saying rather than simply saying no again, and what it cost him.

Below: Say what the dad promises Ralph and when.

Assessment

page 4