Found Figurative Language by Terri Sabbag - The Education Fund

Found Figurative Language
By Terri Sabbag
tsabbag@dadeschools.net
Howard Drive Elementary School
Mail Code 2541
305-235-1412, ext. 133
For information concerning IMPACT II opportunities, Adapter and Disseminator grants,
please contact:
The Education Fund
305-892-5099, ext. 18
Email: Lvalle@educationfund.org
Web site: www.eudcationfund.org (to apply online for grants)
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Table of Contents
Goals and Objectives ..................................................................................................... 3
Course Outline/Overview ............................................................................................... 4
Lesson Plans .................................................................................................................. 5
Resource List ................................................................................................................ 10
Teacher-made Resources…………..……………………………………………………....12
Photographs…………………………………………………………………….…………….16
Adapter Application ..................................................................................................... 18
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Goals and Objectives
The following Next Generation Sunshine State Standards are applicable to this course.
Strand: Reading Application
Benchmark: LA.4.1.7.2 The student will identify the author’s purpose (e.g. to persuade,
inform, entertain, explain) and how an author’s perspective influences text.
Strand: Literary Analysis
Benchmark: LA.4.2.1.7 The student will identify and explain an author’s use of
descriptive, idiomatic, and figurative language (e.g. personification, similes, metaphors,
symbolism) and examine how it is used to describe people, feelings, and objects.
Strand: Writing Process
Benchmark: LA.4.3.3.3.3 Creating precision and interest by expressing vividly through
varied language techniques (e.g. imagery, simile, metaphor, sensory language)
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Course Overview
Figurative language helps to create imaginative and detailed writing. There can never
be too many examples of figurative language, particularly when one is a fourth grade
teacher instructing children on identifying figurative language, and then creating and
incorporating it in their own writing.
I began the figurative language unit with my fourth grade class by familiarizing students
with the different facets of figurative language. I have various posters and charts that I
have made and have bought with definitions and examples of figurative language
hanging on the walls in my classroom. From the first day, I encouraged the students to
find examples of personification in their independent reading. Subsequently, they
searched for similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and onomatopoeia. As we read poetry,
trade books, and non-fiction books and articles, I pointed out various examples. I then
distributed Post-it notes for students to mark the pages in their books each time they
found figurative language. We shared their findings aloud with the class on a daily
basis.
Once students started hunting for similes, metaphors, personification, etc. on their own,
they were soon “flooding” me each morning with examples. Figurative language
appeared all day long, in all aspects of their reading. With so many examples pouring
in, I decided they should be displayed; so, I provided students with index cards for them
to record their examples, which I subsequently tacked on a bulletin board.
One morning, two of my students handed me a large stack of index cards. I remarked
that they were quickly developing into the “queens” of figurative language and that we
needed a crown. Immediately, one of the girls volunteered to make one, and the very
next day, a plastic, jeweled tiara arrived. The students and I then decided that the boy
who provided the most figurative language would be crowned “king” and that he should
carry a scepter. Again, an eager student volunteered his artist-mother to create a staff.
Queen FL (figurative language) and King Scribe were born. We then decorated an old
jewelry box where students could place their figurative language “treasures,” which
were read aloud daily and displayed.
My fourth grade students nominated the King and Queen, based on either the number
of examples the students turned in or the richest examples found.
Displaying student examples on a bulletin board provided: (1) a daily incentive for
students to find their own FL for display; (2) an opportunity to be exposed to a plethora
of figurative language examples: and (3) opportunities to get recommendations from
peers for books rich in figurative language.
The students took great delight in this incentive to find writing treasures and to share
them with the class. Each Queen FL and King Scribe proudly wore/carried their royal
finery on the day they were crowned
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Lesson Plans
Objectives:
Strand: Reading Application
Benchmark: LA.4.1.7.2 The student will identify the author’s purpose (e.g. to
persuade, inform, entertain, explain) and how an author’s perspective influences
text.
Strand: Literary Analysis
Benchmark: LA.4.2.1.7 The student will identify and explain an author’s use of
descriptive, idiomatic, and figurative language (e.g. personification, similes,
metaphors, symbolism) and examine how it is used to describe people, feelings, and
objects.
Strand: Writing Process
Benchmark: LA.4.3.3.3.3 Creating precision and interest by expressing vividly
through varied language techniques (e.g. imagery, simile, metaphor, sensory
language)
Personification Lesson Plan:
Activity:
1. Teacher sits on top of the desk and then asks students: “How do you think the
desk is feeling with me sitting on top of him?”
2. Allow various responses (e.g., complains because of the weight, moans under
the weight, creaks under the weight, etc.)
3. Instruct students to create sentences describing the action of the teacher sitting
on the desk and the reaction the desk experiences with the teacher sitting on
top. (e.g., As Ms. Sabbag’s feet kicked back and forth, the desk struggled and
moaned under her weight, wishing she would get off.)
4. Define personification as “giving human qualities to an object, thing, or animal.”
5. Have students form small groups to discuss how a pencil feels as a student takes
a timed multiplication test.
6. Instruct the groups to first make a list of the pencil’s feelings.
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7. Encourage students to associate body parts with the pencil. For example: The
pencil screeched in pain as the student turned him on his head and feverishly
erased the 7 from the paper.
8. Working in their groups, the student are to create sentences, showing how the
pencil feels during the test.
Evaluation: Check students’ personification sentences; star any sentences that are
especially creative to be shared the next day with the whole group.
Home Learning:
1. Students will choose an object found in their kitchens at home and personify it.
They will create a feelings and parts list, and then create sentences using
personification.
2. Instruct students to search for personification in their independent reading. They
should mark the page with a Post-it note, without interrupting the flow of their
reading. They can later go back and write the personification sentence on the
Post-it note and leave it on the page where it was found. They should be
prepared to share examples with the class.
Adapt Personification Lesson Plan to Teach Similes:
Activity:
1. Sit on top of the desk. Remind students of their previous discussion in class
when they “personified” the desk as the teacher was sitting on top of it (e.g.,
moaning under the weight, creaking under the weight, etc.).
2. Ask students: “Can we compare the creak of the desk to something else?
(e.g., creaks like a rusty hinge)
3. Create sentences, orally, with the students, comparing the moans and creaks to
similar objects. (e.g.; Straining under the weight of the teacher as she sat
teaching her class, the desk creaked and whined like a rusty hinge.)
4. Define simile as a specific comparison between two different things. The
comparison is made by using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
5. Provide examples of similes. Discuss what is being compared and what aspect
of is being compared. (see resource list)
ex. The clouds are like cottonballs in the sky.
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What is being compared? Students may say that clouds and cotton balls are
being compared. I require more precise details than that. What aspects of the
clouds are being compared? Their shape, color, texture?
6. Have students form their small groups from the previous lesson to use the
“pencil” personifications that they created.. Students are to discuss other things
they can use to compare the way the pencil feels, sounds, looks, etc. during the
timed multiplication test.
7. Encourage students to associate body parts with the pencil as they create
similes. (For example: The pencil point was a sharp as a pin, ready to conquer
the math test.)
Evaluation: Check students’ similes; star any sentences that are especially creative to
be shared the next day with the whole group.
Home Learning:
1. Students will choose a weather phenomenon and create 2 similes comparing its
appearance, force, effects, etc.
2. Instruct students to search for similes in their independent reading. They should
mark the page with a Post-it note, without interrupting the flow of their reading.
They can later go back and write the simile sentence on the Post-it note and
leave it on the page where it was found. They should be prepared to share
examples with the class.
Adapt Simile Lesson Plan to Teach Metaphors:
Activity:
1. Explain that metaphors are similar to similes because they compare two things.
However, metaphors are more potent than similes because they state that one
thing ‘is’ another thing; like and as are not used in the comparison.
2. Provide examples of metaphors (e.g., grass is nature’s blanket) and discuss the
things being compared. Metaphors are not as easy to identify as similes. It is
helpful to identify the aspect that is being compared. (e.g., size, shape, feeling,
sound, etc.)
3. Using the similes created in the previous pencil lesson, work with the students to
adapt the similes by taking out the ‘like’ or ‘as’ to create metaphors. (e.g., The
pinpoint pencil tip stood at attention, ready to conquer the math test.)
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4. Have students work in small groups to create metaphors using their weather
similes from the home learning activity from the previous lesson.
5. Groups will share their metaphors with the class.
Evaluation: Check students’ metaphors.
Home Learning:
1. Students will look at the clouds and create 2 metaphors describing the cloud’s
shape, appearance, obstacles, etc.
2. Instruct students to search for metaphors in their independent reading. They
should mark the page with a Post-it note, without interrupting the flow of their
reading. They can later go back and write the metaphor sentence on the Post-it
note and leave it on the page where it was found. They should be prepared to
share examples with the class.
Other Figurative Language
Discuss and give examples of other forms of figurative language:
• Hyperbole: an overstatement or exaggeration used to express an idea (e.g., I
was hungry enough to eat a herd of elephants! – or - I have told you a thousand
times not to play with matches.)
• Onomatopoeia: using words such as buzz or thud that sound like the sound
they refer to.
Queen FL and King Scribe Lesson Plan:
Now that students are familiar with the different forms of figurative language, they
should continue using Post-it notes to mark pages in their independent reading where
they find examples.
Materials:
• index cards
• shoebox decorated to look like a treasure chest
• bulletin board with figurative language headings: personifications – similes –
metaphors – hyperbole – onomatopoeia
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Book Title: ____________
Author’s name: __________
Quoted sentence(s) from the book:
Activity:
1. Take one student’s book with the Post-it note marking the figurative language
example. .
Type of Figurative Language (simile, metaphor, etc.)
2. Model how to record the student’s example on an index card as shown below:
Student Name:
3. Post the student’s index card example under the proper heading on the bulletin
board.
4. Show students the treasure box and inform them that the index cards should be
placed in the box; the teacher will retrieve them from the box and read them
daily.
5. Distribute index cards to students to record the example(s) they brought in from
their independent reading. Explain that from now on, creating the index cards
will be done independently. A Queen FL and King Scribe will be nominated daily
or weekly, based on criteria established by the teacher.
Evaluation: Check index cards for accuracy before posting.
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Resource List
Books:
Bennett, G. Molloy, P., Cavalcade of Poems, Scholastic, 1968.
Bennett-Hopkins, L. Arenstein, M., Potato Chips and a Slice of Moon, Scholastic. 1976.
Bennett-Hopkins, l., Pterodactyls and Pizza, Trumpet Club, 1992.
Dunning, S., Lueders, E., Smith, H., Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickles,
Scholastic, 1986.
Literature and Writing Workshop: Exploring Lyric Poetry, Scholastic, 1993.
McGovern, A., Arrow Book of Poetry, Scholastic, 1965.
Sears, P., Gonna Bake me a Rainbow Poem: A Student Guide to Writing Poetry,
Scholastic, 1990.
Stine, R. L., Goosebumps: Vampire Breath, Scholastic 1996. (pp. 4, 13)
Sweeney, J., Teaching Poetry, Yes You Can!, Scholastic, 1993.
Tucker, S., Painting the Sky, Good Year Books, 1995.
Resources:
• (2) Poetry Anthology: Poem selections, checklist, and figurative language definitions
• (2) Figurative Language Chart: Record examples of found figurative language
Websites:
Discovery Education United Streaming
• A Closer Look at Figurative Language: Discovering Language Arts: Grades 03-
05: Style, Structure, and Tone
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• Simile and Hyperbole: Discovering Language Arts: Grades 03-05: Fiction
• Similes and Idioms: In a Manner of Speaking Discovering Language Arts:
Grades 03-05: Listening and Speaking
www.brainpop.com
• English
o Writing
o Similes and Metaphors
o Poetry
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Teacher-made Resources
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