My second, interpreting the meaning of figurative language, I thought was better implemented than the first lesson on identifying

figurative language in text. My partner and I followed the roles we delegated for ourselves for the most part and we also differentiated for independent practice. I felt I had better teacher talk; particularly when I modeled with my independent practice group how they were to conduct conversations around the meaning of the figurative language. I also asked students to repeat the directions of the activity to me which was highly beneficial for then I could understand that students knew what their task was. The lesson for my group of lower level readers who had difficulty finding similes, metaphors and personification in text, were to go back into pictures books, find those forms of figurative language with a partner and then get to the goal of today which was to derive meaning form the forms of figurative language that they found. I thought that working with partners was effective because they like to talk and they can better make sense of text when it is discussed together. I heard many conversations while walking around of students thinking together and discussing aloud a passage and what the author meant from it. I tried to pair students in uncommon pairs or a more proficient reader with a struggling reader so that the struggling reader could see how the proficient reader was rationalizing thoughts about the figurative language passages. This was a strategy learned in book clubs that I knew could help struggling readers. I thought that our whole group lesson went well too overall. Owl Moon was a great text to use as it was engaging and read alouds are uncommon in fifth grade so being read to was something I feel they appreciated. Re-reading the book was helpful for many students however, they seemed to struggle with remembering the figurative language that was in the passage read aloud. The students could not restate the text and just hearing it and therefore, they had difficulty making meaning of it. Next time, I would have the text displayed on the smart board or have each child have the text. I also wish I had a glimpse of their notebooks to check for comprehension and if they were constructing meaning appropriately. If able to do this again, I would also demonstrate with another student or my partner how to reason what the author is saying in his/ her use of figurative language. Instead I just stated my thought when it would have been beneficial to hear others. Finally, my directions could have been more explicit for some students were confused of what to write and where. Overall though, the students said that they enjoyed this lesson and they could explain why we use figurative language and why identifying the meaning of it is important. My teacher thought that our supports were great and that the activities were developmentally appropriate for each group. Our next lesson will be students sharing their meanings of the figurative language or what they reasoned in a text today.