I’m staying home from school today!

Poem lesson plan

Janne van C542294YAL

Introduction:

This lesson plan is developed as a tool for ESL teachers. It contains a forty-minute lesson plan build around a poem. This lesson plan contains:1. Student learning goals2. Student hand out3. Poem4. Pre-reading4. While-reading6. Post-reading

1. Student learning goals:

At the end of this lesson students:

- learned at least three new words regarding being ill.- can identify the main theme of a poem.- can identify the rhyme scheme of a poem.- can match pictures with the right strophe.

2. Student hand-out

Poetry lesson 1G 16 oktober 2014

I’m Staying Home From School Today – Ken Nesbitt

I’m staying home from school today.I’d rather be in bed

pretending that I have a painthat’s pounding in my head.

I’ll say that I have a stomach ache.I’ll claim that I’ve got the flu.

I’ll shiver like I’m cold.and hold my breath until I’m blue.

I’ll fake a cough. I’ll fake a sneeze.I’ll say my throat is sore.If necessary I can throwa tantrum on the floor.

I’m sure I’ll get away with it.Of that, there’s little doubt.But, even so, I really hopemy students don’t find out

Questions:You just read a poem. Now you will answer some questions about this poem to help you to understand it better.

1. Which picture describes the poem the best?

Picture A: Picture B: Picture C:

2. Describe in one sentence what the poem is about.-

_________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________

3. Connect the pictures with the right strophe. Underline the words that told you which picture you needed to use.

I’m staying home from school today.I’d rather be in bedpretending that I have a painthat’s pounding in my head.

I’ll say that I have a stomach ache. I’ll claim that I’ve got the flu.I’ll shiver like I’m cold.and hold my breath until I’m blue.

I’ll fake a cough. I’ll fake a sneeze.I’ll say my throat is sore.If necessary I can throwa tantrum on the floor.

I’m sure I’ll get away with it.Of that, there’s little doubt.But, even so, I really hopemy students don’t find out

4. Name at least five of the seven symptoms of being ill that are mentioned in the poem. Fill in the Dutch translation, if you don’t know: guess! Ask the teacher to check your answers.

Symptom Dutch word

5. Can you explain why this poem is funny? Give the explanation.___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

6. Look at the rhyme scheme of the poem, which rhyme scheme does it have? (- means it doesn’t rhyme)

A) ABABB) AABBC) AAABD) - A - AC) A - A -

7. Game-time!Put away the poem and study the next wordsThink of a way to show (uitbeelden) these words. You will show it to you group and the need to guess the English word.

Which words were shown?

SickMisselijk

Head achehoofdpijn

ShiversRillingen

Nurseverpleegster

Sore ThroatKeelpijn

Runny noseLoopneus

Feverkoorts

CoughHoesten

1.___________________________________________________________________

2.___________________________________________________________________

3.___________________________________________________________________

4.___________________________________________________________________

5.___________________________________________________________________

6.___________________________________________________________________

7.___________________________________________________________________

8.___________________________________________________________________

3. Poem

I’m Staying Home From School Today – Ken NesbittI’m staying home from school today.

I’d rather be in bedpretending that I have a painthat’s pounding in my head.

I’ll say that I have a stomach ache.I’ll claim that I’ve got the flu.

I’ll shiver like I’m cold.and hold my breath until I’m blue.

I’ll fake a cough. I’ll fake a sneeze.I’ll say my throat is sore.If necessary I can throwa tantrum on the floor.

I’m sure I’ll get away with it.Of that, there’s little doubt.But, even so, I really hopemy students don’t find out

4. Pre-reading

These activities are designed to make the students familiar with the theme of the poem and the take away the fear of unknown words.Important: do not hand out the poem yet! At first their attention should be with these activities. Handing out the poem will point their attention towards the poem (‘What is this?’) instead of the pre-reading activities. Furthermore, the use of the pre-reading activities will diminish when they already know what the poem is about.All these questions or given sentences are merely guidelines for you to use in your class. Feel free to modify or change these in ways it suits you the best.

Start the lesson by asking the students questions. Introducing it by telling: ‘today I want to talk about being ill, not feeling so well:’

Who has been sick lately?How did you feel?Which symptoms did you have?

Make a word web on the board, with in the middle the word ‘being ill’. It could look like this:

Make sure you come across some words that are mentioned in the poem like ‘flu’ or ‘cough’. You could describe these words to them, if they only know the Dutch word, that’s not a problem! You can teach them the English word.

Ask the students who ever faked being ill to avoid something, e.g. staying home from school, missing a test, a performance for which they felt nervous.

End with that they are now going to read about someone who was ill to miss out on school.

Being ill

Sick

Head ache

Drinking Tea

Sleep a lot

VomitMum

takes care of me

Runny nose

Watching tv

Handker-chief

5. While-readingYou read the poem out loud with the students.After this you pair them up and let them answer some questions about the poem.

Meaning of the poem1. Which picture describes the poem the best?

Tell them it is okay to re-read the poem if it’s necessary. Let them search for the main theme. If they have difficulties, make them think first about which picture it definitely isn’t.

2. Describe in one sentence what the poem is about.After looking for the picture that fits the best, it should be more easy to tell what the poem is about in words.

3. Connect the pictures with the right strophe. Underline the words that told you which picture you needed to use.

This exercise is to make the pupils look more closely at each strophe. It’s also a way to learn them strategies, underlining the words you need in order to finish an assignment. Words that need to be underlined:

- Pound in my head- Stomach Ache- Sneeze- My students

4. Name at least five of the seven symptoms of being ill that are mentioned in the poem. Fill in the Dutch translation, if you don’t know: guess! Than ask the teacher to check your answers.

This exercise is also designed to make the students look more closely at the poem. It’s also a way to learn them strategies: it doesn’t matter if you don’t know a word, you can still understand the poem and you can guess: most of the time they’ll guess correctly. It is important that you point out these two point to the students. Five of the seven words should be mentioned:

- Pounding in my head- Stomach ache- Flu- Shiver (like I’m cold)- Cough- Sneeze- Throat is sore (sore throat)

Meta-thinkingWith these exercises you let go of the meaning of the poem and give the students a look at the structure and technical side of a poem.

5. Can you explain why this poem is considered funny? Give the explanation.Let them think about the twist at the end, can they figure out why this poem is seen as funny?

6. Look at the rhyme scheme of the poem, which rhyme scheme does it have?This exercise give you the opportunity to explain more about the technical sites of poems, you can go in depth with this, or just keep it easy. Show them that a poem not always needs to rhyme in order to be a poem. (rhyme scheme: -a-a, -b-b, -c-c).

4. Post-Reading

This activity is designed to teach them new words while having fun.Explain that they have 3-5 minutes to study the words and think up ways they could depict them. After this you will call eight students to the board to show the words, the rest of the students need to guess which word the student is depicting.

You can alter these words in ways which suits you best!