Ready-to-teach lesson
Interpret Literal and Intended Meaning
Pecorino's First Concert - Grade 3 - Short lesson
TIME
OBJECTIVE
15 minutes Work out why Pecorino's answers are wrong even though they make sense, and what the man meant instead.
Essential question: How can an answer be true and still not be an answer?
Materials
Text to mark
PRODUCT
Rows for each question the man asks, with a box for what Pecorino answers and a box for what was actually meant
- The book The bus exchange copied without the pictures
- Prepared passages: Passage 1, Passage 2
Lesson sequence
1 The first question - 4 min
- Passage 1 - a small boy at the door of a yellow house on bare ground
- Passage 2 - an enormous blue-shirted torso filling the page, a huge black mustache across it
- Focus:
- An answer that fits the words and misses the point
- Teacher model:
- Read the man's first question and Pecorino's answer, and ask whether the answer is untrue.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 2 2 Both questions - 7 min
- Teacher direction:
- Write what Pecorino answered and what the man meant, for each question.
- Expected answer:
- A new bicycle, when the man meant why are you staring; and not gargling, when the man said googling.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 2 3 Who is silly - 4 min
- Focus:
- A judgement the first page invites
- Teacher direction:
- Ask whether the bus scene really makes Pecorino silly.
- Prepared text:
- Passage 1
Support & extension
Above: Say what the man could have asked instead so that Pecorino would have understood him.
Below: Read the man's first question and Pecorino's answer and say whether the answer is true.
Assessment
- Says what the man meant, not just what he asked
- Notices Pecorino's answers are honest
- Uses the man's own line about not meaning that
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