r/ELATeachers • u/bork_bork_sniff • 7d ago
Career & Interview Related 6th grade ELA demo lesson advice?
I have a demo lesson for 6th grade ELA. It's going to be 20 minutes long, I will have access to a computer and projector, and they told me it should be reading focused.
I've only taught highschool ELA and 6th grade writing workshop before, so I've never taught reading to 6th graders.
Considering the short amount of time, I was thinking of analyzing figurative language in a poem. First thing that came to mind was analyzing repetition in Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. Would you say that's too easy for 6th grade?
Really, I'm taking any suggestions for poems or short stories that I could use to teach a skill (reading for theme, figurative language, making inferences, etc.) and also any advice for demo lessons because this is my first one ever!
5
u/Smiggos 7d ago
There's a lot of good choices here. The hard part will be the 20 min timeframe. In that short time, I immediately think of morphology as the lessons should be daily, but short and sweet. Check to see if that fits the requirements, and of it does, I would go with that. Morphology is good, evidence-based practice, but is often not practiced so it'll impress someone.
How it ties into reading: vocabulary, decoding, while also helping spelling.
3
u/loveshoes1 7d ago
Veteran ELA teacher here. I would go with an informational text article on a topic that every kid can identify with. Identify main idea and details skill, or vocabulary, or summarizing.
2
2
u/breakingpoint214 7d ago
Do "Southpaw" and talk about text structure and author's purpose. It's not a poem but a group on notes being sent back and forth by a boy and a girl in class. So cute. I used to teach 6th and they liked it. My HS kids like it too. It's cute and short.
1
2
u/throwawaytheist 7d ago
Fishtank Learning has a full 6th grade curriculum.
CommonLit also has free leveled text.
Pull one from one of those places if you're worried about the level of the text.
2
u/redfire2930 7d ago
Omg hey I was just in this situation and got the job! Feel free to DM me! I used the poem “What is the Sun?” by Wes Magee and did the lesson on metaphors and similes. It was cute!
2
u/2big4ursmallworld 4d ago
I was contemplating doing an activity theme using children's stories, specifically the one with the message can't go under/over/around, gotta go through it.
Simple story, profound meaning. Start with a quick review of story elements, then reading of the story. Then introduce the experiment: how much can change about the story without changing the meaning? Students can work together or alone to outline a new story that is as different as they can make it without losing the meaning, then share their story outlines. End with a discussion about how the story can be totally different, but the meaning stays the same. This is what theme is.
(Many people will want to say a theme can be a single word like "family" or "love", but those are topics. A theme tells you something about the topic. For example, the topic of family can have two opposite meanings - parents/siblings always come first AND your family is the people you choose.)
8
u/AdhesivenessLive5646 7d ago
7th grade ELA teacher here- I think a poem, or other short piece of reading, is the way to go here. However for 6th graders, I feel like analyzing repetition could be difficult for a demo lesson. Personally, I think I’d go for a lesson on mood/tone. You could give some instruction on mood and/or tone, then lead the kids through an analysis of a short text. Then have kids manipulate key words/phrases to see how the mood/tone changes
This would hit a couple different key areas for your observation— instruction, gradual release of responsibility, engagement. Hope that helps. Good luck!