7. Which poet comes closer to expressing your own feelings about roaches?
LESSON PLAN: PRACTICE / APPLICATION
Preparation
1. During this lesson three students demonstrate the sentence "She walked into the room."
Before you begin the lesson, prepare these students by asking them to walk into the room
in a particular manner:
o Ask one student to walk in quickly, as if she is late. She's not to run, but she
should seem rushed and hurried.
o Ask another student to walk in at a fairly normal speed, but as if she is very happy
and pleased. She might bounce in or float in dreamily.
o Ask the last student to walk in very slowly, as if she really isn't interested in the
class and has plenty of time to get into her seat.
Instruction and Activities
1. Write the following sentence on the board or overhead projector, "She walked into the
room."
2. Discuss the meaning of the sentence. What can we really tell about what the student did?
Point out to students that the sentence is rather bland, because we cannot visualize
anything about the action.
3. Send the three students you've prepared into the hallway, and ask them to enter one at a
time, following your instructions.
4. Think aloud as you revise the sentence—write your new version under the original as
each student enters so that you have four sentences on the board once all the students
have entered:
How could we replace the verb, so that we get a better understanding of the person
entering the room? If I change the sentence to "She rushed into the room," how do the
verb's connotations help to see not only what she looked like, but also what type of
person she is? Or maybe I should say that "She hurried into the room"? I'm not sure.
Maybe I'll write both.
Okay, here comes another student. "She walked into the room" doesn't really capture
what she's doing either. Hmm. What about "She bounced into the room." Or instead of
just the verb, maybe I should add an adverb that tells the reader more: "She bounced
happily into the room." Okay. That's better.
Last student. Wow. She's walking very slowly. Looks like she doesn't even want to be
here. I wonder if I should revise the sentence to say "She meandered into the room." Or
maybe add an adverb and leave the verb alone: "She walked slowly into the room."