K–5 Reading

Interpret Figurative and Literal Meaning

When Pigs Fly

15-minute short version

Ready-to-teach lesson

Interpret Figurative and Literal Meaning

Interpret Figurative and Literal Meaning - Grade 2 - Short lesson

TIME

OBJECTIVE

15 minutes Work out what Ralph's dad means by Interpret Figurative and Literal Meaning, and what Ralph decides it means.

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

Materials

Text to mark

PRODUCT

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

  • The book The dad's line and Ralph's plan copied together
  • Prepared passages: Passage 1, Passage 2, Passage 3, Passage 7
  • 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

Lesson sequence

1 What had happened first - 4 min

  • Passage 7 - a cow's face and a man's, close together against green
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.
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

Support & 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

  • Says the dad means never
  • Says Ralph reads it as a condition
  • Quotes Ralph's own explanation of his plan

page 1

page 1

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