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Beyond Words Language Arts-What and Why

This pullout class for first grade gifted and/or highly able students with language strengths will meet daily until mid-May, unless the class has special days such as ones for field trips. Beyond Words is curriculum designed to meet the unique needs of high ability students in this age group. It is designed by the Center for Gifted Education at The College of William and Mary to provide extra depth, faster pacing, and complexity. Classes will begin after initial Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) data have been analyzed, reading testing is complete, and Advanced Learner Plans (ALPs) are ready. Letters and permission slips will go home to parents ahead of time.

Students will come to us during part of their regular Language Arts time. We will work on some writing techniques from Step Up to Writing and Six-Trait Plus One to meet the Littleton curriculum standards in addition to the curriculum framework for Beyond Words. We will study poetry, short stories, picture books, and some easier chapter books. Children will still do a large portion of their Language Arts lessons with their regular classroom teachers.

Curriculum Framework forBeyond Words

Content Goals:

Goal 1: To develop analytical and interpretive skills in literature, the students will be able to:

1. Describe what a selected literary passage means;

2. State an important idea of a reading;

3. Analyze similarities and differences in meaning among selected works of literature;

4. Create a title for a reading selection and provide a rationale to justify it.

Goal 2: To develop skills in identifying, analyzing, and using figurative language, the students

will be able to:

1. Recognize figurative expressions in text, including simile, metaphor, and personification;

2. Analyze a metaphorical expression for topic, object of comparison, and shared characteristics;

3. Use the forms of simile, metaphor, and personification to create figurative comparisons.

Goal 3: To develop persuasive writing skills, the students will be able to:

1. Write a persuasive paragraph that includes a claim (opinion), reasons, and conclusion;

2. Revise and edit a piece of writing.

Goal 4: To develop linguistic competency, the students will be able to:

1. Use context clues and analogies to discover word meanings;

2. Develop vocabulary skill commensurate with reading.

Process Goals:

To develop analogical reasoning skills, the student will be able to:

Solve verbal analogy problems:
Use analogies as support or understanding new words;
Recognize and analyze figurative language that appears in analogy form.

Concept Goals:

To develop an understanding of the concept of change, especially changes related to language, the students will be able to:

Understand that change is linked to time;
Analyze changes to determine whether they are positive or negative, natural or human in cause, and orderly or random:
Recognize the change process at work in a selection of literature.
Demonstrate changes in language over time:
Describe changes language can cause in human behavior and emotions.

Beyond Words Reading List

Most of our readings for classroom instruction will come from this list. You may feel that some of these are below your child’s reading level. However, our purpose is not to just read the text, but to look at the art of writing going beyond the words to the images, similes, metaphors and the messages the author creates using these literary techniques. We will also use supplemental texts, often by the same authors, along with leveled book sets.

Books:

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Head in the Clouds

Many Luscious Lollipops

Baloney (Henry P.)

Frindle

Owl Moon

Amelia Bedelia

Cricket Never Does

Anno’s Journey

The Mysteries of Harris Burdick

Doodle Dandies

Poems:

“Fog”

“Cobbler, Cobbler”

“The Moon Has a Face…:

“The Moon’s the North Wind’s Cooky…” (British spelling)

“The Moon Was but a Chin of Gold…”

“Dream Maker”

“Grandmother Moon”

“Daisies”

“Foolish Questions”

“Nature is a Music Maker”

“The Train of the Stars"

“The Beginning of the Road”

“April Rain Song”