It's Raining Cats and Dog: Studying Idioms

Designed by:   Lisa A. McClain, Hand Middle School  

GRADE LEVEL: 6th       SUBJECT(S):  Reading/Language Arts

1) CORE CURRICULUM OBJECTIVE(S):  Evaluate the author's use of language (including figurative language) and its effects. (6-WS-3) (PACT:  IV.K)

Integrate new information with prior knowledge.  (6-CM16) (PACT:  I.A)

Listen for specific information (details, sequence, definition, inference, predict outcomes, draw conclusions, distinguish informative from persuasive messages). (6-LS-4) (PACT: II.A.4)

RESTATEMENT:  Students will determine the literal and figurative meanings of idioms used in written works.  They will learn the history of idioms and also complete a PACT listening activity.

2) OVERVIEW:    Students will read two books by Fred Gwynne, The King Who Rained and Chocolate Moose for Dinner.  These two books are packed with examples of idioms and other figurative language.  The students will select two idioms from the book and, using books and web sites, determine the figurative and literal meanings for each idiom.  They will also research the history of the idioms.

3) FOCUS/ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S):

* What is an idiom?

* Why do author's use idioms?

4) TIME FRAME: Two-three fifty-minute class periods.

5) RESOURCES: 

* assignment form and rubric (included)

* chalkboard or overhead

* markers, colored pencils, crayons

* slips of paper

* hat/bucket/container

* computers with Internet access

* web sites:

www.clta.on.ca/ce.htm

http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/idioms.html

* Books:

The King Who Rained by Fred Gwynne

Chocolate Moose for Dinner by Fred Gwynne

The Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms by Marvin Terban

6) ASSESSMENT:  Students will illustrate the literal meaning of commonly used idioms and then explain the figurative meaning.  They will also research the history of the idiom via printed materials and the Internet.  Students will be assessed using the provided rubric.  Students will answer four questions after the PACT listening selection.  This will be scored using the included rubric.

7) INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

* Read to the students the PACT listening practice "Giving Lip Service to Animals".  (Students can answer the included questions.  This will provide PACT practice as well as introduce the lesson.  Using the provided rubric, assess the students listening comprehension.  This can be either for a grade or simply to gain a better understanding of your students' abilities.)

* After discussing the specific idiom used in the passage ("Giving Lip Service to Animals") have the students generate a list of idioms that they know.  (Once the students get started, this can become a lengthy list so you may want to have students break into groups and brainstorm for 5-10 minutes.  Each group then has to present its best 5 idioms to the class in round robin fashion.  The rule is that no group can repeat an idiom that has already been stated.)  All the idioms generated should be written on slips of paper and put into a "hat" for future drawing.  You want to make sure that you have enough idioms so that all students get to draw two.

* Write the words "literal" and "figurative" on the board/overhead.  Discuss with students the differences between these words.  Define both words for the students.  You may want to ask a volunteer to look the words up in the dictionary and read the definitions.  Lead the discussion to reasons why authors often use figurative language or why we use figurative language in conversation.  (It paints a more vivid picture.)

* Have each student draw two of the idiom slips from the "hat."

* Pass out the form on which students are to complete the activity.  Each student should receive two.  Explain that students are to write the idiom in the provided space, illustrate the literal meaning, and write a brief history of the idiom.

* Students should begin to use the computers to begin searching out information about idioms.  If there are not enough computers for all the students, they may be paired either by counting 1-2, self-selecting partners, or having the teacher select the partners.

* Students may not be able to find the history of all idioms.  If, after a thorough search a student cannot locate a history, he or she is to write how they think the idiom got started.

* Talk to the students about the difficulty that non-English speaking people have with idioms.  Many of the sites they will use to locate  information about idioms have been created to help ESL students improve their communication skills. 

* As the students are working, the teacher should circulate and monitor student progress.  Make sure that the students are visiting appropriate sites and that the students know the figurative meaning of the idioms with which they are working.

* After the information has been gathered, the students should begin sketching their drawing of the literal meaning of the idiom.  They also need to follow the writing process as they are writing the paragraph of the history of their idiom.

* Once rough drafts of the paragraph are complete, students should peer edit and then write their final copy of the assignment form.

* When all forms are completed, students should present their idioms to the class and then display them in a hall display.  It would also be appropriate to make copies of the idioms and create a class book.  After studying similes and metaphors additional "chapters" could be added to this book on figurative language.  The books could be shared with other classes or placed in a class lending library.

* The assignment forms should then be assessed using the included rubric.

PACT Listening Activity

Read the following passage aloud twice.  Students may take notes as they listen.  After hearing the passage, students answer the questions based on the passage.

Giving Lip Service to Animals

Have you ever gone to bed late and awakened dog-tired?  Did you move through the day at a snail's pace?

Have you ever been hungry enough to wolf down your food?  Or so nervous that you've had butterflies in your stomach?

Our language is full of expressions that have to do with animals.  If you really want to do something, you're an eager beaver.  If you refuse, you're a stubborn mule.  Do something well, and you can feel proud as a peacock.  Do something foolish, and you feel like a silly goose.

You've probably heard and used many of these expressions.  And you probably know what they mean.  But have you ever wondered where sayings like these come from?  Some expressions, like the ones above, are based on particular qualities of certain animals.  Others date back to real events in history.

Do you know where the expression "to go the whole hog" came from?  First of all, this expression has nothing to do with pigs.  Hundreds of years ago, the word hog meant "lamb" or "young sheep."  Many farmers would cut and sell the wool from grown sheep for a profit.  But cutting wool from a lamb was not as profitable.  For one thing the wool was short.  Because it was so short, it was hard to cut - and hardly worth the trouble.  So most farmers would clip just a little wool from the lambs.  They would leave the rest untouched. 

Other farmers took a different view.  They argued that if you cut a lot of wool from a lot of lambs, you could make a lot of profit.  These farmers chose to "go the whole hog."  This meant they would give their lambs the crew-cut treatment.  Today, when you follow something through to the very end, you're going the whole hog.

"Letting the cat out of the bag" is another popular saying.  This expression dates back a few centuries.  Picture an old-fashioned country fair.  A customer is buying a pig.  The merchant hands over the purchase in a sack.  At home, the customer opens the sack.  But the animal inside is not a pig!  Instead, the sneaky merchant had secretly slipped in a cat!

The customer feels sheepish.  He knows he has been fleeced.  But he's learned his lesson. Next time the customer buys a pig at the fair, he'll be sure to open the bag right there to check the goods.  If a pig drops out of the sack - fine.  But if a cat should jump out, he'll have uncovered the merchant's secret trick.  And so today, letting the cat out of the bag has come to mean letting out a secret quite suddenly."

"Raining cats and dogs?"  That's a sad story.  In the 17th century in England, cats and dogs ran wild.  After a heavy rainstorm, many of them would be found drowned.  Their bodies would float in the rivers, or be swept down the streets by the floodwaters.  People would see the dead animals.  They would look up at the sky.  "Been rainin' cats and dogs," they would finally conclude.

PACT Listening Questions

Answer the following questions based upon the listening passage Giving Lip Service to Animals.

1. The subject of the article is _______________.

a. eating like a hog

b. a merchant's trick

c. interesting expressions

d. animal tricks

2. From the information in this article, you could not say that ___________________.

a. all English merchants were crooks

b. lambs were once called hogs

c. years, ago people thought cats and dogs fell from the sky

d. some expressions date back a few centuries

3. In this article, the word refuse means ______________________.

a. trash

b. not willing to do something

c. use something again

d. light switch

4. "The customer feels sheepish.  He knows he has been fleeced."  These sentences tell you that ___________________.

a. the customer does not like the haircut he's been given

b. the customer feels foolish because he's been tricked

c. the customer looks like a sheep because he has curly hair

d. the customer forgot to bring his money to the market

PACT LISTENING ACTIVITY

RUBRIC

Idioms Investigation

Name:  ___________________________

Idiom: ________________________

Literally...

Figuratively...  ____________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Why do we say that? 

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________