Tool #4: Comparisons (Post #7)

Welcome back to my blog post series: Journey into Poetry Land. This is post #7 in the series. Post #1 is on All Things Upper Elementary of which I am a contributor. Read it by clicking HERE. The rest are here on my own blog.

Tool number four was going to be a challenge for me to teach. The concepts that I needed to really get across was similes and metaphors. I really wanted to do something to get their attention so I came up with a plan.

I started each of my three class sessions by asking the students what "Compare" meant. I was surprised at the lack of understanding in this department. I had then had the students draw a t-chart and compare summer and winter. We talked about what was the same and what was different.

Then, I showed them the following video:


After they finished laughing and talking about what they saw, I asked them what was being compared. They compared all sorts of things, but not what was really being compared... the happiness of the customer to the happiness of the witch.

I saw doubt on their faces. So we watched another one. I told them to watch carefully and LISTEN to what the two guitar men at the end said to each other. I started the next video:


After it was over, they immediately caught on what was being prepared. We talked about it for a minute or two (focusing on the KEY WORDS that show comparisons) and then I showed them one final video (I saved this one until the end because it is my favorite one!).


Ha ha! Isn't that one AWESOME! We again discussed the comparisons being made. I had the students make notes in their writing journals about what they had learned from the lesson.

I then handed out a copy of a packet from a book that I have at school, Figuratively Speaking by Creative Teaching. It has wonderful 3-4 page packets that focus on the specific skills. Part of the packet asks the students to write a poem using provided prompts that compares a life event to something else. This is what I wrote as the model poem. I compared accomplishment to going on a hike

Accomplishment

Accomplishment is like a hike.

You set your sights on the top like a dog does a bone.

You start off, usually like a shot out of a gun,

Sometimes you stumble like a wounded deer.

But, when you reach the top, your heart races like a NASCAR engine,

and you cheer like you just won a million dollars!

After I modeled my poem, I challenged them to write one of their own. That is how we spent the remainder of the class period. 

Before they left, I made sure they had written in their journals:

=Similes

Compare two unlike things, usually using LIKE or AS (or THAN, like in the commercials)

=Metaphors (More difficult)

Compare two unlike things with OUT using LIKE or AS (usually 'was')

For their homework, I assigned them: The Runner by Walt Whitman. They had to find the common and proper nouns, find alliteration, onomatopoeia, imagery words, and any simile or metaphors.  

YES! Another successful lesson taught! MAN, I love teaching writing... sigh...

Until next time-

Cheers!

-Mr. Hughes

P.S. I wanted to share that I am the featured teacher in the Teachers Pay Teachers Newsletter today. WAHOO! When I can find the link to the on-line version, I will link it here. :)

I also wanted to let everyone know that I have finished my Poetry Unit (that has some of what I have been sharing here) in my store now! Check it out by clicking the picture below: