East Detroit Public Schools
Lesson Design

Author: Annette Theiss
Subject: English Language Arts
Grade: 5th (can be adapted for 1st - 5th)
Course: Communication
Title: Rebus Writing

Length of Unit: One or two class periods
Materials Needed:
Power Macintosh G3 computers
color printers
PrintShop Deluxe (software program)
I Love You: A Rebus Poem by Jean Marzollo

Standards-Based Outcomes (MDE):

English Language Arts:

I. Meaning and Communication

Content Standard I, 3: All students will focus on meaning and communication as they listen, speak, view, read, and write in personal, social, occupational, and civic contexts.

3. Read and write fluently, speak confidently, listen and interac appropriately, view knowledgeably, and represent creatively. Examples include exploring ideas in a group, interviewing family and friends, and explaining ideas represented in pictures.

5. Employ multiple strategies to construct meaning while reading, listening to, viewing, or creating texts. Examples include summarizing, predicting, generating questions, mapping, examining picture cues, analyzing word structure and sentence structure, discussing with peers, and using context and text structure.

8. Express their responses to oral, visual, written, and electronic texts, and compare their responses to those of others.

VI. Genre and Craft of Language

Content Standard VI, 8: All students will explore and use the characteristics of different types of texts, aesthetic elements, and mechanics- including text structure, figurative and descriptive language, spelling, punctuation, and grammar- to construct and convey meaning.

4. Identify and use aspects of the craft of the speaker, writer, and

Prior Knowledge:

• Students must have basic computer skills.
• Students are familiar with the software program PrintShop Deluxe.

Cue Set:

• The teacher begins a discussion by posing two questions:
  - What is a rebus?
  - How can I relate important values to my schoolmates?
• The teacher then reads the book I Love You: A Rebus Poem by Jean Marzollo.

Best Shot Instruction:

• After listening to and discussing the book, the class reviews the concept of a rebus.
• The students are each directed to create a rebus with the use of technology. The project guidelines are discussed and they learn they are to share their finished projects with students from a first grade class.
• The students use PrintShop Deluxe to complete rebus pages for their fellow schoolmates.
• The fifth graders are introduced to their first grade student partners. Then they share their finished projects with the assigned students.

Reteaching and Enrichment:

The students are given class time to share the rebus projects with the first graders. Time is also allowed for the older students to assist the younger in checking out books from the library and then read those books to the students.

Review and Closure:

The students are given time to create a bond with younger students through the rebus projects and shared reading time.

Assessment:

• Students successfully use technology to create a professional quality rebus for younger students.
• The teacher’s observations of the sharing time spent between fifth graders and first graders are noted.

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