Nanuet Union Free School District
101 Church Street
Nanuet, New York  10954

PERFORMANCE TASK

Area of Study:  English Language Arts

Grade Level/Course:  Grade 4 Speech and Language
Enriching Connections
Figurative Language

developed by:  A. Frendel

Nanuet Learner Standard(s): 

Effective Communicator

  • Expresses ideas clearly
  • Adapts to various purposes
  • Communicates using a variety of informational and aesthetic modalities

 

New York State Learning Standard(s): 

English Language Arts Standard 1:   Language for Information and Understanding  (Elementary)

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

Speaking and Writing:  Key Idea 2:  Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one’s own words, applying information from one context to another, and presenting information and interpretation clearly, concisely, and comprehensibly.

English Language Arts Standard 2: Language for Literary Response and Expression  (Elementary)

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for literary response and expression.

Speaking and Writing:  Key Idea 2:  Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one’s own words, applying information from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely, and comprehensibly.

 

Nanuet Content Standard(s): 

English Language Arts Standard 1  (Elementary Level)

Students will read, write, listen, and speak for information and understanding.

English Language Arts Standard 2  (Elementary Level)

Students will read, write, listen, speak, and view for literary response and expression.

 

Benchmarks (New York State/Nanuet):      

English Language Arts:

  • Include relevant information and exclude extraneous material
  • Explain the meaning of literary works with some attention to meanings beyond the literal level.
  • Create their own stories, poems, and songs using the elements of the literature they have read and appropriate vocabulary.
  • Observe the conventions of grammar and usage, spelling and punctuation

Concepts: 

  • The students will demonstrate an understanding of ambiguous language.
  • The students will incorporate idioms into listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities.
  • The students will increase their awareness of the extent to which idiomatic expressions are used in English.
  • The students will be able to express in written form how saying something can often mean something else.

Skills:

Context for the Task:

As part of the fourth grade Enriching Connections speech and language groups, the students have been studying figurative language. They have developed an understanding that speakers often say something, but really mean something else. They have learned that humor is often used to convey a message. They have developed an understanding that communication can be both serious and comical at the same time.

The purpose is to develop their own story and to use some of the idiomatic expressions and multiple meaning words that they have learned about.

Task: 

"In this task you are going to write a story using some figurative language".

Because we have been learning about figurative language, the publishers at Avon Camelot Books have asked us to formulate our own short story about everyone’s favorite literal minded housekeeper, Amelia Bedelia. Using the provided list of idiomatic expressions, design a short story about a day in the life of Amelia Bedelia using at five of the expressions provided.

Your goal: a short story that uses humor to convey messages.

Glossary of Idiomatic Expressions

  • Bend Over Backwards
  • Sees The Light
  • Put Your Best Foot Forward
  • Holds Her Tongue
  • Tie The Knot
  • Turn Over a New Leaf
  • Put Your Foot Down
  • Pulls Her Hair Out
  • Sharp Tongue
  • Giving An Evil Eye
  • Nose Is Always Stuck In a Book
  • Come Out of Her Shell
  • Puts His Foot In His Mouth
  • In a Tight Spot
  • Buries Her Head In The Sand
  • Goes Through The Roof
  • Bites off More Than She Can Chew
  • Sees The Writing on the Wall
  • Get a Load Off One’s Shoulders
  • Put up on a Pedestal
  • Rub Elbows
  • Pull One’s Hair Out
  • Miss The Boat
  • Lend an Ear
  • Go Through The Roof

Time and Materials Required to Complete the Task: 

Time: 

  • This project will take three weeks of speech and language groups that meet twice a week for forty-five minutes.

Materials:

  • The students will need to have access to the list of idiomatic expressions that have been provided.
  • The students will also need to be familiar with many of the short stories by Herman Parish about the fun, literal-minded Amelia Bedelia.

Teaching Tips: 

Before the students begin it will be beneficial for them to read or listen to an original short story including some of the idiomatic expressions from the list provided. This will give them a concrete understanding about what they actually need to compose.

Possible Solutions:

Rubrics:

Reflections:

 

Updated 07/15/03