Christine A. Elmore
Objective: To identify and practice using similes and metaphors in writing.
Materials:
Patricia Hubbell's poem
Whales
, Harrison and Cullinan's book,
Easy Poetry Lessons that Dazzle and Delight
, chart paper, writing paper
Procedure:
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1) I will begin by saying that poets not only like to play with words, they also like to play with ideas. One way they do this is by showing a relationship between different things, things which at first we may not have thought could be associated together.
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2) In introducing similes I would begin by saying that similes are directly stated, using the words 'like' and 'as'. Similes help the reader see something described more clearly. I plan to use two poems for Harrison and Cullinan's book which will clearly demonstrate the use of similes to make comparisons. One is called
First Snow
by Marie Louise Allen (p. 44) which, for example, says that snow covered bushes are "like popcorn balls". A second poem is entitled
Some People by Rachel Field
(p. 44). In this poem the writer describes how meeting some people causes your thoughts to "shrivel up" like dry leaves whereas meeting other people causes your head to be full of thoughts that are "as thick as fireflies". Together we would identify and discuss the similes used in these poems.
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3) Simile practice would involve choosing a subject such as a sleeping snake and imagine what it could sound like (a hissing teapot), look like (a patterned, moving piece of rope) etc. Students would be paired together to create similes for their chosen subject which they would share with the group.
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4) We would continue our simile practice using a list of what Harrison and Cullinan call "simile jumpstarts" (p. 43) such as:
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The storm clouds looked like
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Swinging high in the air is like
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A river with rapids is like
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Embarrassment is like
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Green sounds like
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The mall during the Christmas season is like
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5) Following this practice we will look at Hubbell's poem
Whales
written on chart paper. I will first ask a general question about what they can picture in this poem and then ask them to find the simile in it. The line, "They wear white lilies in their blowholes", will lead us into a discussion of metaphors where comparisons are made more directly, In fact, the object actually becomes that other thing.
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6) There are two warm-up activities suggested by Harrison and Cullinan that I plan to use (p. 45). One involves looking in the classroom and turning things there into other things (pencils are writing sticks, fluorescent lights are artificial suns, the intercom is a talking box). Because we are creating metaphors, I will remind the class that we do not use like or as in our statements. A second warm-up involves taking a celebrity and saying what he/ she would be if he/ she were an animal, an insect, a weather condition, a car, a bird, etc.
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7) We would then go back to
Whales
and look again at the metaphor used in this poem.
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8) This poem also makes good use of personification so on another day we would revisit this poem and learn what this device is and how the poet has used it in this poem. We would go on to read other poems that use personification.