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Personification through Poetry

Lesson Plan

Personification through Poetry

Grade Levels

5th Grade

Course, Subject

Related Academic Standards
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Vocabulary

Personification

An object or abstract idea given human qualities or human form (e.g.,

Flowers danced about the lawn.).

 

Figurative Language

Language that cannot be taken literally since it was written to create a special effect or feeling.

 

Literary Devices

Tools used by the author to enliven and provide voice to the writing (e.g., dialogue, alliteration).

Objectives

Students will be able to identify personification in both fiction and nonfiction text.

Students will be able to interpret the meaning of personification in fiction and nonfiction text.

Students will be able to create a two stanza poem using personification.

Lesson Essential Question(s)

How does interaction with text and the use of personification in writing provoke thinking and response?

 

 

How does the use of figurative language in poetry enhance the poet's style?

Duration

(1) - 90 minute lesson

Materials

 http://www.titanic-facts.com/1912-the-sinking-of-the-titanic.html "Titanic Facts." Web. 17 Mar. 2010.

 

https://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson860/rubric.pdf. "Teaching Personification Through Poetry Rubric." ReadWriteThink, an affiliate of Thinkfinity.org. Web. 17 Mar. 2010.  http://www.thinkfinity.org

 

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/reference/examples-of-personification.html "Examples of Personification." Web. 17 Mar. 2010.

 

 

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112392/personificationclassics.html. "Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room." Thinkquest, an affiliate of Thinkfinity.org. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://www.thinkfinity.org

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/famous/hughes/4.html "April Rain Song." ShadowPoetry, an affiliate of Thinkfinity.org. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://www.thinkfinity.org

http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/dickin01.html#12 "The Sky is Low." The Other Pages, an affiliate of Thinkfinity.org. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://www.thinkfinity.org

 

http://pdesas.org/module/content/resources/1845/view.ashx Karpeles Document - "Titanic - Official Report/Rescue." Web. 17 Mar. 2010.

Writing Using Personfication Student Guide.doc Worksheet to use to help students write their Personification Poems and introduce students to writing poetry using Personification.

Suggested Instructional Strategies

Intervention Strategies: This lesson can be differentiated to meet the students' needs.  In addition to allowing for flexible grouping when analyzing the poetry, the teacher can also differentiate the poetry that the students will write.  For struggling learners, you could provide additional examples of personification and assist with the poetry writing.  For your higher achieving students, you could encourage them to use other forms of figurative language (similies, metaphors, hyperboles) in their poetry.  This could provide enrichment for those students.  This differentiation can best be used in conjunction with step 6 of "Instructional Procedures."

Instructional Procedures

*This lesson plan is for grade level 5.

 

1.  To begin this lesson, the teacher will introduce the concept of "Personification."  The teacher will first pass out the sheet "Examples of Personification," found at: http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/reference/examples-of-personification.html  After defining personification, the teacher will review the examples listed on the "Examples of Personification" page.  There are many examples, it is suggested that the teacher chooses specific examples to use with the students.  After the students have the opportunity to see these examples, have the students work in small cooperative groups to list a few examples of figurative language.  Have them share these examples with the class to ensure they are accurate examples of personification.

2. Next, the teacher will review several poems with the students that exhibit personification.  The poem titles are, "Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room," by Nancy Willard (Which is frequently misattrubuted to William Blake) found at: http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112392/personificationclassics.html, "The Sky is Low," by Emily Dickinson found at: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/dickin01.html#12 , and "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes found at: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/famous/hughes/4.html. The teacher should read these poems with the students to discuss all examples of personification in the first two poems, "Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room" and "The Sky is Low."  The teacher should also discuss what each example of personification in the poem means through discussion with the students.  The teacher should also discuss how the author is giving humanlike qualities to inanimate objects. After the teacher discusses these poems with the students, the teacher should allow the students to work in small cooperative groups to examine the poem "The Sky is Low."  Students will work in their cooperative groups to discuss how personification is used in this poem.  The teacher should be circulating around the room to meet with each cooperative group to listen to the discussion about the poem and help clear any misconceptions or add additional anaylsis.

 3.  Next, before the teacher gives the "Titanic Facts" worksheet to the students, the teacher should create a KWL Chart to gauge what the students already know, want to know, and what the students want to learn about the Titanic. The teacher can use this gauge of prior knowledge to know which areas of the Titanic history need to be taught and which will be review. The teacher will pass out the "Titanic Facts" worksheet to provide the students with background information for the students using the following website: http://www.titanic-facts.com/1912-the-sinking-of-the-titanic.html

4. Next, the teacher will have the students use a computer with internet access to retrieve the "Titanic - Official Report/Rescue" document found at the following website: http://pdesas.org/module/content/resources/1845/view.ashx.  This document is interactive; it is the official document that was written the night the Titanic sunk.  The students can drag and scroll over the text and a text box will appear that shows the students the words translated into easily readable text.  The students will identify examples of personification in the report.

5. After the students finish using the interactive document, pass out the"Writing Using Personification"  worksheet found at: Writing Using Personfication Student Guide.doc. This worksheet explains how writers use personification in their writing, provides students with opportunities to use personification to describe objects, provides a sample personification poem, and allows the students to brainstorm some humanlike qualities the ship might feel as it is sinking.  Allow the students to work independently on this sheet when using personification to describe objects.  Also, meet with groups of students either individually or in small groups to discuss the tree poem example on the worksheet and review the humanlike qualities list the students create about the Titanic before they begin writing their poems to ensure they understand how to effectively write poems using personification.

6.  Next, the students will write a personification poem from the perspective of the "Titanic" ship as it was sinking.  It is important to stress to the students that their poem will be from the perspective of the ship itself as it is sinking, not from the perspective of a passenger on the ship. The poem the students create will be a total of 8 lines.  The 8 lines will be a total of two four line stanzas.  In each line, the students must use personification to describe how the "Titanic" is sinking.  They need to give humanlike qualities to illustrate to the reader the significant event in history.

**Intervention Strategy - This lesson can be differentiated to meet the students' needs.  In addition to allowing for flexible grouping when analyzing the poetry, the teacher can also differentiate the poetry that the students will write.  For struggling learners, you could provide additional examples of personification and assist with the poetry writing.  For your higher achieving students, you could encourage them to use other forms of figurative language (similies, metaphors, hyperboles) in their poetry.  This could provide enrichment for those students.

 

7.  As a summative assessment, the teacher will use the "Teaching Personification Through Poetry Rubric" to assess the personification poems that the students create. 

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How will you help your students to know where they are headed, why they are going there, and what ways they will be evaluated along the way?

As the teacher introduces the lesson, they will preview the activities with the students.  They will specifically discuss the poems the students will be creating with the students so they know where they will be going with the lesson.  The teacher will also introduce the peer-editing checklists and rubrics so they students are familiar with how they will be assessed throughout the lesson. 

How will you hook and hold students’ interest and enthusiasm through thought-provoking experiences at the beginning of each instructional episode?

The students will be initially hooked to the lesson as they begin discussing examples of personification and its meaning.  They will continue to be enthusiastic with the lesson as they examine personification-rich poetry.  They will be able to identify examples of personification used in poetry.  Finally, they will continue to be "hooked" as they use the Karpeles Interactive document by using technology.  This experience will be thought-provoking for the students as they are able to generate ideas to write a personification poem based on the interactive document they reviewed.

What experiences will you provide to help students make their understandings real and equip all learners for success throughout your course or unit?

There are two experiences the students will be provided with to make their understandings real and equip all learners for success.  The students will be able to see real examples of personification being used in forms of poetry that are already published.  This allows the students to examine how personification can be used to write poetry and make poetry more effective for the reader.  The students will also be provided with the experience of writing poetry based on their understanding to make the real-world connection of how personification can be used in poetry.

How will you cause students to reflect, revisit, revise, and rethink?

The students will have to revise, revisit, reflect, and rethink when they are creating their two stanza personification poems from the Titanic's viewpoint.  They will be revisiting the Karpele's interactive document to decide how to best write from the ship's point of view.  They will be reflecting on how to best use personficiation to convey the ship's thought process and emotions.  They will be revising and rethinking when they meet with a partner to review each other's poems using the Peer-Editing Checklists.

How will students express their understandings and engage in meaningful self-evaluation?

The students will best express their understandings of personification through their poetry writing process.  The students will be engaged in meaningful self-evaluation when they are examining their written poetry.  First, they will self-evaluate their own poetry to ensure it meets the guidelines of the Personification Poetry Rubric that will be used to assess their work.  The students will also self-evaluate not only their work, but the work of their partners as well using the Peer-Editing Checklist.

How will you tailor (differentiate) your instruction to address the unique strengths and needs of every learner?

This lesson can be differentiated to meet the students' needs.  In addition to allowing for flexible grouping when analyzing the poetry, the teacher can also differentiate the poetry that the students will write.  For struggling learners, you could provide additional examples of personification and assist with the poetry writing.  For your higher achieving students, you could encourage them to use other forms of figurative language (similies, metaphors, hyperboles) in their poetry.  This could provide enrichment for those students.

How will you organize learning experiences so that students move from teacher-guided and concrete activities to independent applications that emphasize growing conceptual understandings as opposed to superficial coverage?

The students will move from teacher-guided activities to independent applications when they are both analyzing the poems and using the interactive documents.  The teacher will introduce the concept of personfication.  Once the students understand what personfication is and how to identify it in poetry, they will be able to lead the discussion on examples of personification in poetry they are reading.  The students would also be experiencing independent application of the lesson when they are using the interactive document to examine Karpele's Titanic report.  Their final method of indepedendent application will result in the poetry that they write.  They will be using the personfication elements they learned to write a personification poem.

Formative Assessment

1.  One form of formative assessment is the students' responses to the "Examples of Personification" worksheet that the teacher will review with the students.  Students will discuss examples of personification and how humanlike qualities are given to animals and inanimate objects.

2.  The next form of formative assessment will be through the discussion of the personification poems "The Sky is Low," "April Rain Song," and "Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room."  The students will discuss examples of personification used in each of these poems.

3.  The next form of formative assessment is when the students are online examining the "Titanic - Official Report/Rescue" interactive document.  The teacher will informally assess the students' ability to identify examples of personification in the document.

4.  The final form of formative assessment will be from the personification poems that the students write from the perspective of the "Titanic" ship that sunk.   The two stanza poems the students create will give humanlike qualities to the "Titanic" written using personification.

Related Materials & Resources

https://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson115/Suggested_Books_with_Figurative_Language.pdf "Suggested Books with Figurative Language." ReadWriteThink, an affiliate of Thinkfinity.org. Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://www.thinkfinity.org

 

 

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0112392/personification.html "Personification." Thinkquest, an affiliate of Thinkfinity.org.   Web. 17 Mar. 2010. http://www.thinkfinity.org

 

 

Author

Date Published

March 03, 2010
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