Lesson Plan: Denotation and Connotation via Raymond Carver

Rationale and Objectives

Rationale: To introduce the concept of denotative and connotative meanings in language and to illustrate the concept through literature.

Objectives (aligned with standards): Students will be able to explain the difference between denotative and connotative meaning in language and recognize which is which (2.A.4d). Students will read age-appropriate material with fluency and accuracy (1.B.4c). Students will learn to look for denotative and connotative meaning in literature (2.A.4d). Students will look up the meaning of words in the dictionary. Students will follow complex oral instructions (4.A.4c). Students will strengthen interpersonal communication skills through small-group discussion (4.B.4b). Students will use questions and predictions to guide reading (1.C.4a). Students will explain and justify an interpretation of a text (1.C.4b). Students will analyze how the author uses denotative and connotative meaning in the text to express and emphasize his ideas (1.C.4e). Students will discuss and evaluate motive, resulting behavior, and consequences demonstrated in literature (2.B.4c). Students will create another part of the story and illustrate it with a drawing.

Multiple intelligences engaged: Linguistic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Spatial.

Materials:

Text: Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver | Handout with discussion questions for small groups | Student journals | Drawing paper | Pens or pencils, crayons, and/or colored markers | Chalkboard and chalk (or marker board and markers)

Materials and Multiple Intelligences

Anticipatory Set: (Teacher says) I had some upsetting news yesterday. A friend of mine called and told me she is getting a divorce from her husband. They have two children. I asked what would happen to the children — who will they live with? My friend said it has not been decided yet because they both want the children. Whom do you think the children will most likely live with when the divorce is final?

(Students are likely to answer that most of the time the mother gets the children, although there are exceptions — sometimes the father gets them, or a grandmother, or an aunt.)

Anticipatory Set and Preview

(Teacher continues) Nowadays the mother usually gets the children, but that was not always the case in this country. During the 1800s in the United States, before women's rights, the father always received custody of the children in a divorce. Even if the father were in prison for murder, or was an alcoholic who beat and abused his family and spent all his money on whiskey, he automatically received custody of the children. It was the law — they were considered his property. (Allow students to react, then explain.) This was a major reason why women held the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848 and decided to work toward equal rights for women. Even today in some countries, particularly in parts of the Middle East, the father receives custody of the children. (Approximately 2 minutes.)

Preview: Today we are going to read a story about a man and woman who are separating. (Hand out copies of Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver.)

Activity 1: Read the Story Aloud (3 minutes)

Read the story Popular Mechanics by Raymond Carver aloud.

(Teacher asks) Who are the characters in the story? (Students should answer: a man, his wife, and their baby.)

Reading Activities and Vocabulary Instruction

(Teacher says) An unusual thing about this story is that the characters have no names. Why do you think the writer did not give names to the man, the woman, and the baby? (Allow students to speculate. One interpretation might be that the people could be anybody — they are very ordinary people, and perhaps the author is sending a message about people in general, about human nature, or about people in American culture.)

(Teacher asks) The characters have no names, but the story has a title: Popular Mechanics. I wonder how the author came up with that title. One way to figure out what it means is to think about denotative and connotative meanings — two important words.

(Teacher explains) Every word in a language has two kinds of meaning. One is the denotative meaning. (Write denotative on the board.) The denotative meaning is the dictionary meaning. (Write dictionary beside denotative.) The meaning of a word found in the dictionary is the meaning everyone officially agrees upon. Let's look up right now the meanings of the words popular and mechanics in the dictionary. (2 minutes.)

Activity 2: Dictionary Work and Connotative Meaning (1 minute)

Students look up popular and mechanics in their dictionaries and discuss the denotative meanings of the two words. They should paraphrase the meanings and write them down.

(Teacher explains) The other kind of meaning is called connotative. A connotative meaning is the meaning each person brings to a word from his or her individual experience. For example, suppose I use the word roses. The denotative meaning of roses is that they are a flower that grows on a stem with sharp thorns. But the connotative meaning of roses would be different for each person. Roses mean romance to some people. Someone else might think of the rose garden at the White House where ceremonies take place, or of Miss America carrying roses during her victory walk. When I think of roses, I think of a funeral — when I was very young, my grandfather died, and the room where he was laid out was full of roses. So the connotative meaning I bring to the word is negative. There are as many connotative meanings for a word as there are people.

(Teacher continues) Here is another example: think of the word flag. What is the denotative meaning of flag? A flag is a piece of cloth with colors and symbols on it that stands for something — perhaps a country. The stars and stripes, for example, stand for the United States of America. What else does the flag stand for? (Students may say liberty, equality, justice, etc.) Teacher asks: What kind of meanings are those? (Students should by now recognize those as connotative meanings.)

(Teacher explains) A good way to keep the two words straight is to remember that denotative and dictionary both begin with the letter d. Denotative is the dictionary meaning. Connotative is the other kind of meaning. (2 minutes.)

Activity 3: Small-Group Discussion (12 minutes — approximately 2 minutes per question)