Title – Communication Arts

By – Vivian Zito

Subject – Language Arts, Social Studies

Grade Level – 7-9

Meda P. Washington Educational Center

SUBJECT: Communication Arts

GRADE: Middle School

TIME:

One or two class periods

OBJECTIVES:

The students will learn to identify images and refrain. The students will learn to create a word picture rich in sensory details. The students will compare / contrast various versions of The Big Rock Candy Mountain which is a poem that describes a hobo paradise where life is
easy and conditions pleasant.

MATERIALS:

Rock candy, peppermints, tape of several singers performing Big Rock Candy Mountain, and textbook or copy of poem.

STRATEGIES:

Review era when trains were the major means of transportation for commerce. Discuss possible reasons that people became hoboes.

Students will follow along in the text as the four or five versions are played and make notes for comparing and contrasting.

Distribute rock candy of assorted flavors and peppermints.

Vocabulary to be introduced will include: bulls, hoboes, jungle.

ASSESSMENT:

Students will complete one or more of the following: create their own poem to the rhythm, write about a dream place, or research about
homelessness in America today.

RESOURCES:

Elements of Literature, Holt Rinehart and Winston, HBJ, 1993, p. 261.

E-Mail

Vivian Zito

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