Lesson 29: Look Both Ways, Analyzing Structure

Instruct students to take out the original poems that they wrote for homework after Lesson 24. Explain that they will share their work with another student.

Say these Directions: Share your poem with a partner, listen carefully to your partner’s poem, and respond respectfully. As you talk, make one statement about the poem and ask one question about its meaning or significance.

Have students make one statement and ask one question about their poems. Provide example sentence frames to scaffold:

• Your image of ____ made me think of ____.

• What is the significance of ____ for you?

• I can tell that ____ is really important to you. Would you like to share more?

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Today, you’re going to use similar language to discuss the structure of a few of the vignettes in Look Both Ways. Remember that a vignette is a brief story or episode. You will work in groups to analyze the text structure, make statements, ask questions, and clarify meaning to help you understand the text more deeply.

Word Relationship

Target words: literal, poetry, metaphor, simile, figurative language, symbolism, explicit, implicit.

Project or display the following words where all students can see them: literal, poetry, metaphor, simile, figurative language, symbolism, explicit, implicit. Display the words in such a way that they can be rearranged, whether written on a board or shared digitally.

Say these Directions: Look at the vocabulary words and think about how they connect to one another. As we discuss, explain the relationships you notice and how grouping the words can help you talk about texts more precisely.

Lead a discussion on the relationships that exist among these words and how they might be rearranged to show those relationships.

• Ask: What are some relationships you see among these words?

  • Literal and explicit are related because they are almost the same thing. Implicit and explicit are related because they are opposites. Figurative language includes a lot of other words, like metaphor and simile. Metaphor and simile are both comparisons of unlike things. And poetry is a type of writing that usually has a lot of figurative language.

Share Student Connections: Invite students to share their ideas with the class. As students share, rearrange the words to visually represent the relationships they describe.

Connecting Words: Prompt students to think more deeply about how the words connect.

• Ask: Can figurative language exist without metaphor or simile? Why or why not?

  • Figurative language can include other devices, but metaphor and simile are common examples that help show comparisons.

• Ask: How do these words help you better understand a text like “The Broom Dog”?

  • These words help me explain how the author uses figurative language and symbolism to show emotions and meaning.

Verify Meaning: Prompt students to confirm their understanding of the words.

As students share relationships, they move words around to show the different relationships.

• Say: Use the relationships you identified among these words to help you explain ideas clearly. As you move into today’s reading, keep this vocabulary in mind so you can describe structure and meaning with precision.

Connection to Today’s Learning

• Say: Today, we are going to analyze and discuss the structure of a few of the vignettes in Look Both Ways. Remembering your vocabulary terms around literal and figurative language will help you discuss the text effectively.

Part A: Intro to Structure: Look Both Ways, Vignettes 4, 6, and 7 (RL.6.5) (10 minutes)

Introduce the idea of a story’s structure and how structure can contribute to character development, themes, and the reader’s experience.

Teach: Text Structure

Have students take out their copies of Look Both Ways for reference. Introduce the idea of a story’s structure, including examples of simple and complex structures for narrative stories.

Say these Directions: Today, you will think about how a story’s structure shapes what readers notice and understand. As we review examples from Look Both Ways, pay attention to how the opening, shifts, and ending of a vignette affect character development and reader experience.

• text structure: the way that a story’s elements are arranged and relate to each other

• Say: A very simple text structure has a beginning, middle, and end and goes in chronological order. The beginning introduces the characters and situation, the middle has the important action, and the end shows how it is resolved. In a very simple structure, the text is written in paragraphs.

• Say: But some stories have different text structures. They may have multiple points of view and very short paragraphs. They may have flashbacks and flash-forwards to tell parts of the story out of order and create suspense. A story may use text features like headings or images or include letters, journal entries, or lists as part of the story. Each of these elements can give you, the reader, a more interesting experience and help you understand the characters better.

Display the following terms and their definitions for students: sentence, paragraph, dialogue, chronological, flashback, internal monologue, heading, numbered list, checklist, journal entry.

Discuss: Text Structure in Look Both Ways

Prompt students to analyze and discuss the author’s use of text structures in Look Both Ways.

• Say: Think back to the vignettes you have read and identify any structural choices that stand out, such as lists, flashbacks, multiple points of view, or other unusual features. Be ready to explain not just what the structure is, but how it affects what the reader learns about the character.

• Ask: Which of them has unusual text structures? How would you describe them?

  • “How to Look (Both) Both Ways” jumps back and forth between Fatima’s story and her ongoing checklist of what has changed and what is the same. “Five Things Easier to Do Than Simeon’s and Kenzi’s Secret Handshake” tells Simeon and Kenzi’s story by listing those five things and explaining each one. “Satchmo’s Master Plan” uses flashbacks and a written plan to show where Satchmo’s fear of dogs came from.

• Ask: How do these text structures affect what we learn about the characters and how their stories unfold?

  • In “Five Things Easier to Do Than Simeon’s and Kenzi’s Secret Handshake,” each of the five things shows us a different character’s point of view. We learn how teachers see the boys, how they see their neighborhood, how they see Fredo, and how Fredo sees them. We learn how important their neighborhood is to Simeon and Kenzi and why they consider themselves to be brothers.

Part B: Structure in Look Both Ways (RL.6.5, SL.6.1) (20 minutes)

Have students work in three groups, one for each vignette with an unusual structure. If this makes group size unmanageable, two groups may be assigned to each vignette.

Jigsaw Reading

Hand out copies of the 3 Column Chart graphic organizer. Label (or have students label) the three columns: “Vignette Title and Structural Element,” “What It Shows,” and “What I Learned About the Character.”

Say these Directions: Work with your group to reread your assigned vignette and analyze how its structure affects the story. As you read, identify important structural elements, explain what they show, and record what they help you understand about the character.

Explain that each group will fill out this chart about one vignette with an unusual structure. Each group will then share their thoughts and learn from each other. Briefly model summarizing your thoughts on a story’s structural elements.

Assign each group to one of three vignettes identified as having an unusual structure: “How to Look (Both) Both Ways,” “Five Things Easier to Do Than Simeon’s and Kenzi’s Secret Handshake,” and “Satchmo’s Master Plan.” Invite groups to discuss the following question before completing their graphic organizer.

Say these Directions: First, summarize how your vignette is organized. Then look closely at how that structure shapes the way information is revealed and how it helps readers understand the character more deeply. Be sure to include at least one specific example from the text.

• Ask: How would you summarize the structure of this vignette?

  • “Five Things Easier to Do Than Simeon’s and Kenzi’s Secret Handshake” lists five different things that Simeon and Kenzi do after school together, ending with their secret handshake. Each of the five things is numbered and written in paragraph form. These five things show how other characters view Simeon and Kenzi. “Satchmo’s Master Plan” includes a section with his plan that is written in italics and with different paragraph indentations.

Give students time to closely reread and analyze their assigned vignette with their group, annotating the text as needed to record their analysis of the text’s structure and its effects on the reader.

• Say: Closely reread your vignette with your group. Pay attention to the story’s structure, and record your thoughts in the graphic organizer. Remember that your group will need to share your findings with the other groups.

Have one representative from each group share their findings with the other groups. Invite other groups to take notes so each has a completed graphic organizer.

• Ask: What new information did you learn from another group’s summary?

  • I learned that “Five Things Easier to Do Than Simeon’s and Kenzi’s Secret Handshake” not only shows the boys’ points of view about people (and those people’s points of view about them) but also shows how the boys feel about the neighborhood itself.

Turn and Talk

Have students reflect on today’s lesson by discussing the following prompt with a partner. Say these Directions: Turn and Talk with a partner about how structure can shape a reader’s understanding of a character. Use examples from today’s lesson to explain how structural choices can reveal thoughts, motivations, or changes in perspective.

• Ask: How does structure affect a reader’s understanding of a character?

  • • Optional Sentence Starter:

  • “Structure can affect a reader’s understanding of a character by ____.”

    • Structure can affect a reader’s understanding of a character by revealing important information such as other characters’ points of view, the character’s inner thoughts, and the character’s motivations.

Instruct students to answer the following prompts in their Journal and be prepared to share their responses in the next lesson:

• How do you think adults view kids your age?

• Has there been a time recently when you felt that you were unfairly judged because of your age?

• What would you like adults to know about middle schoolers?