Mi primer libro de dichos/My First Book of Proverbs

In the classroom/library:

Introduction
GRADE LEVEL: Second
SUBJECTS: Reading: Comprehension; Literary text and strategies
Art: Creating and contextual
OVERVIEW: In this lesson, students will use their background knowledge of a previous lesson on Benjamin Franklin in order to connect it to My First Book of Proverbs. By analyzing the selected proverbs, they will be able draw conclusions and recognize the hidden meanings behind the proverb and Ben Franklin's sayings.
PURPOSE: The students can compare and explain each of their illustrations, making connections and recognizing proverbs/sayings in everyday life.

Outcomes
Students will be able to:
1. Use background knowledge as a premise for comprehension.
2. Make connections to proverbs/sayings by analyzing and illustrating.
3. Draw conclusions and recognize hidden meanings behind sayings.

Standards
Language Arts /Reading Standards:
Strand 2: Comprehending Literary Text
Concept 1: Elements of Literature
Identify, analyze, and apply knowledge of the structures and elements of literature.
PO 5. Identify words that the author selects in a literary selection to create a graphic visual experience.
Concept 6: Comprehension Strategies
Employ strategies to comprehend text.
PO 4. Relate information and events in a reading selection to life experiences and life experiences to the text.

Arts Standards
Standard 1: Creating Art
Foundations (Grades 1-3)
1AV-F1. Select and use subjects, themes and symbols in works of art
PO 1. Use subjects in a work of art
PO 2. Use themes in a work of art
Standard 2: Art in Context (Grades 1-3)
2AV-F1. Select and demonstrate an understanding of how subject matter communicates meaning, themes, and ideas in works made by themselves and others
PO 1. Match similar subject matter in art images/objects

ELL Standards:
Comprehending Text Standard:
The student will analyze text for expression, enjoyment, and response to other related content areas.

Resources
My First Book of Proverbs by Ralfka Gonzalez and Ana Ruiz
More Parts by Ted Arnold for bridging
Poor Richard's Almanac by Benjamin Franklin (background knowledge)
Sample of "saying" drawing, different from any of the student's choices

Materials
Graphic Organizer containing an empty border and a specified saying by Benjamin Franklin
Colored pencils/crayons

Process

1. Introductory Set
Reference a previous lesson about Benjamin Franklin's Almanac that had sayings that we will integrate into the lesson.
Do you remember when Mrs. Wilson read the book about Benjamin Franklin and the things that he invented? Remember the almanac that he created that had records of weather, fun puzzles, and different sayings? Some of the sayings were:
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
"A penny saved is a penny earned."
Sometimes there are sayings like these that are easy to understand but other sayings don't make a lot of sense right away. If you think about them and talk through what they could mean, there is usually a hidden meaning within the words.

2. Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Comprehend and orally describe what a complex saying means
2. Illustrate one of the complex sayings which we will analyze

3. Input
Here is a book written by Ralfka Gonzalez and Ana Ruiz of things said or remembered during their travels through the United States and Mexico. It is called My First Book of Proverbs. Some of these sayings or proverbs you may understand and some you may not. I will read a few of these to you and show you the picture. The picture may help you understand the deeper meaning of the proverb.
Read and discuss one or two (depending on the class' level of understanding as a whole) selected proverbs from the book. The illustration will also be discussed as to how the details of it relate to the saying. Show an example of an illustration, like the one they will create after the small group discussions. Today, you are going to make your own class book similar to this.

4. Modeling
Certain expressions are sometimes shared, retold, or passed down to family members. When we break into four groups, each group to draw an illustration to show how you understand a selected saying from Benjamin Franklin. There is also room on the graphic organizer for you to create your own type of border that maybe can represent the theme of the saying. For example: a border of ice cream cones can be drawn to show the meaning of "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. You can use this book My First Book of Proverbs as a model for your ideas on how to express the meaning of your illustration.

5. Check for Understanding
Ask students to repeat the directions: Get into our four groups, draw an illustration on the graphic organizer of what the proverb or saying means to you, make a border to show the main theme. Does everyone understand? Are there any questions? What do you do when you are finished? (Read a book quietly at their seat and wait for the others to finish.)

6. Guided Practice
The class will then be split into four groups with an adult in each group. Each group will discuss one or two proverbs from the book and one Benjamin Franklin saying. Each child will share a few ideas with each other as to how to illustrate this saying like the illustrations in the proverb book. The illustration will be modeled after the style used in the proverb book. The individual illustrations will all be combined and be bound into a class book for the students to enjoy.

7. Independent Practice
None

8. Closure
Review: A student from each group will come up and share one of their illustrations with the class. The students will be given the chance to raise their hands and speak and make any text-to-world or text-to-self connections that they may have with some of the sayings.

Assess: If the students are able to illustrate their groups saying and explain what their drawing is and how it relates to the saying, they will have grasped the concept.

Bridge: "I want all eyes glued on me… think about how that would really look. Tonight, spend some time thinking about what this really means. Sayings don't always make a lot of sense until you really think about them, just like the sayings discussed today. Tomorrow we will read a fun book called More Parts with a lot more of silly sayings that are very different from the ones we talked about today."

Assessment
The students' graphic organizers will show how they connected the use of their background knowledge to the book of proverbs and then again to the previous lesson on Benjamin Franklin. Each group's presentation of the sayings will display their contrasting ideas of that particular saying. "Each head is a world of its own" (My First Book of Proverbs by Ralfka Gonzalez and Ana Ruiz).

Extensions
Expand the students' recognition of proverbs or sayings in environmental text around them. For example: "I'm Lovin It", can be connected to McDonald's or "Eat Fresh", with Subway, but what do these sayings really have to do with the object? See if they can find some correlation.

Modifications
Select more or less complicated, yet familiar, proverbs or sayings
Present them in other languages if needed
For students in the GEM (Gifted Education) Program, they may chose to create their own saying like Benjamin Franklin's sayings and draw from that. There will be blank graphic organizers available to them if they chose to branch off and think creatively.

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