English Language Arts, Expository Writing Unit



English Language Arts, How Not To Talk Like the Guys in “Dumb and Dumber” Unit, Lesson 1: “It’s water under the fridge” (It’s water under the bridge).Standards Met: This lesson is part of the How Not to Talk Like the Guys in “Dumb and Dumber” Unit Plan and meets the standards adumbrated therein. Big Ideas: idiom, literal meaning, figurative meaning, interpretation, cultural literacy, malapropisms, satire, comedy. This lesson aims to assist students in developing their own understanding of idioms and malapropisms, and how the latter affects the meaning of the former, and how this is used for satire. This lesson activates prior knowledge of idioms, writing complete declarative sentences, using the internet for research, the “Dumb and Dumber” movies. Students will be able to complete a worksheet, briefly using an internet search engine, on a classic idiom which has been reduced to gibberish via the malapropisms of the protagonists of the film comedies “Dumb and Dumber” and “Dumb and Dumber 2,” which calls upon calls upon them to provide the correct version of the idiom, then interpret it. Students will then be able to apply their newly acquired knowledge of the corrected idiom by using it, as below, in two to five sentences.Classroom Aim: When Lloyd says to Harry, in “Dumb and Dumber To,” that the twenty years that passed while he was faking mental illness, that “it’s water under the fridge,” what does he really mean to say? What does this expression mean?Do Now: Cultural Literacy Worksheet: malapropismClass Work: Classwork for this lesson is student-centered. After introducing the lesson with do-now exercise, the teacher will ask students to move to computers, where they will take the worksheet that day, whose first question asks them what Lloyd meant to say to Harry when he says “It’s water under the fridge” (which is, of course, It’s water under the bridge). Students will then use an internet search engine to find the correct version of this mispronounced idiom. Once students have determined which is the correct version of the idiom, they will answer a variety of interpretive questions, depending on the figurative and literal complexity of the idiom involved. As below, students will apply their new understanding of the idiom under study by using it, independently, in two to five sentences as time permits.Independent Practice: As time permits, write two to five sentences that demonstrate your understanding of the use of the expression “It’s water under the bridge.”Methods and Materials: This lesson, as with the others in this unit, introduce students to a number of classic idioms in American English, but with a twist: students will study these idioms as they are mangled—via malapropism, the other concept this unit aims to teach—by the characters in the hit comedies “Dumb and Dumber” and “Dumb and Dumber To.” This lesson requires computers or smart phones for a brief internet search, and, as below, the teacher-authored do-now exercise and worksheet.Need for Lesson: ELA DMB-DMBR LP1*lp; ELA DMB-DMBR LP1*dn; ELA DMB-DMBR LP1*wsKey Points and Connections:Essential Questions:How precise must we be?How can we know if the author was serious?Is art a matter of taste or principles?What is an idiom?What is a malapropism?What is the difference between figurative and literal language?What is the difference between the denotative and connotative definitions of words?How the best writers hook and hold their readers?What is satire?What is comedy?How do you know that you comprehend what you are reading?Why should readers regularly monitor their comprehension?How do the best writers and speakers hold their audience?Next Lesson: English Language Arts, How Not To Talk Like the Guys in “Dumb and Dumber” Unit, Lesson 2: “You had me hook, line and sphincter (You had me hook, line and sinker).NameDate Cultural Literacy Worksheet: Idiom. Cultural literacy is familiarity with and ability to understand the idioms, allusions, and informal content that create and constitute a culture. Here is a short reading from The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Hirsch, E.D., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002). Please answer the accompanying questions.Idiom: A traditional way of saying something. Often an idiom, such as “under the weather,” does not seem to make sense if taken literally. Someone unfamiliar with English would probably not understand that to be “under the weather” is to be sick.What is an idiom? What is often the problem with idioms? Why?For whom are idioms in the English language likely to be a problem?Can you think of an idiom you use on a fairly regular basis?NameDate Cultural Literacy Worksheet: Idiom. Cultural literacy is familiarity with and ability to understand the idioms, allusions, and informal content that create and constitute a culture. Here is a short reading from The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Hirsch, E.D., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2002). Please answer the accompanying questions.Idiom: A traditional way of saying something. Often an idiom, such as “under the weather,” does not seem to make sense if taken literally. Someone unfamiliar with English would probably not understand that to be “under the weather” is to be sick.What is an idiom? What is often the problem with idioms? Why?For whom are idioms in the English language likely to be a problem?Can you think of an idiom you use on a fairly regular basis?NameDateEnglish Language Arts, How Not to Talk Like the Guys in “Dumb and Dumber,” Unit, Lesson 1 Worksheet: In the movies “Dumb and Dumber” and “Dumb and Dumber To” we watch Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunn (it’s hard to tell most of the time which of them is dumb and which of them is dumber) stumble through a series of misadventures. Along the way they mangle several idioms—which you know are traditional ways of saying things that if taken literally seem to make no sense. Harry and Lloyd, alas, make the idioms they use even harder to understand by mangling them. When people misuse words in expressions, we call that a malapropism, which is “humorous confusion of words that sound vaguely similar, as in “We just finished our physical year.” This worksheet asks you to consider a moment of dialogue in “Dumb and Dumber To, when Harry and Lloyd are talking about the fact that Lloyd has just spent 20 years, the best years of his life, pretending to be mentally ill. Harry is amazed he would do this, and Lloyd says, “It’s water under the fridge.”What did Lloyd actually mean to say. If you search the internet for water under the fridge, it will take you to a number of websites that explain the actual expression.What is a fridge?Do you think pronouncing water under the bridge this way is funny? Why?On the other side of this page, please write five sentences using the expression water under the bridge. ................
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