Dade-Monroe Teacher Education Center

Lesson Plans

Middle School-Social Studies

Student Script
Student Teacher #2

Say: Please highlight any word or idea that you do not understand.

Read:

     Home is where the heart is. there's no place like it. I love my home with a ferocity totally out of proportion to its appearence or location. I love dumb things about it: the hot-water heater, the plastic rack you drain dishes in, the roof over my head, which occasionally leaks. And yet it is precisely those dumb things that make it what it is--a place of certainty, stability, predictability, privacy, for me and for my family.It is where I live. What more can you say about a place than that? That is everything.

Ask: Who has Picture in Your Mind Card #2?
Please tell what picture you had in your mind as you read this part of the essay.
Which words helped you form this picture?
Ask: Who has Clarifying Questions Card #2? Please tell us any words or ideas that you don't understand.

Suggested Clarifying Questions:

  1. What does ferocity mean? Can you think of another word that looks like it? Have you heard another word that sounds like it?
  2. What does the author mean when she says, "a ferocity totally out of proportion to its appearance or location"?
  3. What do certainty, stability, predictability, and privacy mean? How can you figure them out without looking them up in the dictionary?
Ask: Does anyone else have a clarifying question?

Please ask some clarifying questions.

Ask: Who has Teacher-like Questions Card #2?
Please ask a teacher-like question.

Suggested Teacher-like Questions:

  1. How does the author feel about her home?
  2. Does she think everyone feels that way?
  3. Do you feel that way?
Ask: Does anyone else have a teacher-like question?
Ask: Who has Summary Card #2? Please make a summary for this part of the essay.

Suggested summary:

This paragraph tells the author's definition of what a home is and how much she loves her own home.
Ask: Who has Prediction Card #2? Please make a prediction for the next part of the essay.

Predicting:

What more can you say about a home?
Do you think the author will tell more about "home" in the next paragraph?
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