Language Arts - Grade 2 TEKS 2.8B - Developing Vocabulary by Listening and Discussing Selections Read Aloud by Melissa Filson

Category:  Language Arts
Grade Level:  2nd Grade
Objective: 

Language Arts TEKS 2.8B Reading/vocabulary development.
The student develops an extensive vocabulary  The student is expected to develop vocabulary by listening and discussing both familiar and conceptually challenging selections read aloud.

Music TEKS 1.2A  Creative expression/performance.
The student performs a varied repertoire of music.  The student is expected to sing or play a classroom instrument independently or in groups.

Behavioral Objective:
The student will develop vocabulary through listening to and discussing the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Materials: 
Precut tree branches, tape, black sharpies, overhead of poem, tuned and non-tuned percussion instruments, and a picture book of Robert Frost's poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

Frost, R. (1978).  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.  New York: Dutton Children's Books.

Activities: 
Begin lesson by showing students actual branches, leaves, and acorns.  Ask students to identify where they think these items may have come from.  Have students describe what they know about the woods in terms of touch, smell, taste, sight, and sound.  Read Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.  As a class, discuss how the speaker in Frost's poem chose to describe the woods.  Have students work in five small groups and assign each group a particular sense such as smell.  Ask each group to refer back to the poem and find a word or phrase that describes the woods in terms of their assigned sense.  For example, a group assigned sight may choose the words, “lovely, dark, and deep."  Have each group write this word or words on a tree branch.  Tape the branches to the board.  Review the branches with the class.  Have students work in their groups again to choose one word from the board that only has one syllable.  For example, the word "dark."  Then have each group select a group of words by choosing a verse that they like that the poet uses.  For example, “Whose woods these are I think I know.”  Students will then work in their groups to come up with a word or group of words that are not from the poem but are related to its content.  For example, "cold" and "scary."

Process:

• Say the words as an entire group

• Divide the class into groups.  Groups say words - start with steady beat (one syllable)

• Add body percussion to words

• Drop words - body percussion alone

• Move to non-tuned percussion with words

• Introduce instruments from low to high

• Drop words - tuned percussion alone

• Once everybody is comfortable with their parts, add the chant rhythm (i.e., words) in a high glockenspiel or xylophone

	Beat 1	Beat 2	Beat 3	Beat 4
High=snap=triangle=glock	co	ld	and	scary
Middle=clap=claves=s. xylophone	whose woods	these are	I think	I know
Low=pat=hand drum=b. xylophone	dark	dark	dark	dark

Evaluation: 
I will observe students developing vocabulary through listening and discussing the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.  As they work in five small groups to find words that are described through one of the five senses, I will be able to check for mastery by the “branches” the students will display for the class.  I will also monitor small groups as they select vocabulary from the poem to create a musical expression.  I will observe students as they use this new vocabulary in their musical expressions.