This lesson allows students to understand imagery and metaphor in relation to someone that they admire. Students use their own poetry to express imagery and metaphor after looking into Billy Collins’ Litany.
Australian Curriculum Links:
- Year 8 – Recognise that vocabulary choices contribute to the specificity, abstraction and style of texts (ACELA1547)
- Year 8 – Experiment with particular language features drawn from different types of texts, including combinations of language and visual choices to create new texts (ACELT1768)
- Year 8 – Interpret and analyse language choices, including sentence patterns, dialogue, imagery and other language features, in short stories, literary essays and plays (ACELT1767)
- Year 8 – Create literary texts that draw upon text structures and language features of other texts for particular purposes and effects (ACELT1632)
- Year 9 – Investigate and experiment with the use and effect of extended metaphor, metonymy, allegory, icons, myths and symbolism in texts, for example poetry, short films, graphic novels, and plays on similar themes (ACELT1637)
- Year 9 – Analyse text structures and language features of literary texts, and make relevant comparisons with other texts (ACELT1772)
- Year 9 – Identify how vocabulary choices contribute to specificity, abstraction and stylistic effectiveness(ACELA1561)
Introduction (7 mins):
Have students brainstorm individuals they admire or look up to.
- Who are they? Why do you look up to them?
- What characteristics do they possess?
During Reading Strategy: Annotation (5 min)
1. Ask students to pay attention to Collins’ other uses of metaphor while listening to the video of his reading.
2. Ask students to underline metaphors that stand out to them.
After Reading Strategy: Rereading, Annotation, and use of T-chart (10 min)
1. Have students place the metaphors they underlined and create a T-chart with
“What it says” on the left side and “What I think it means” on the right side.
2. Model this with one of the metaphors that one of the students mentions.
3. Have students also discuss the voice and humor of the poem and what kind of person he is describing.
After Reading Strategy: Magazine Images (7 min).
1. Have students look at the magazine images that are provided to each group.
2. Have students select images that could reflect/not reflect the characteristics of
the person they admire that they brainstormed at the beginning of class.
Exit Ticket (Conclusion):
Write a metaphor comparing the person you admire to one of the images you have selected. Then write one to two sentences explaining why you chose to use that metaphor.
Writing Assignment (to be completed during next class)
Students will write their own “Litany” poem using the images they selected during the first class period. Have the students make the poem at least three stanzas long (one concentrating on what the person is; one concentrating on what the person is not; and one concentrating on what the author is in contrast).
- The student’s ability to recognize metaphors and imagery will be assessed through his or her annotations as well as the exit slip turned in at the end of the first class.
- The student’s ability to create metaphors will be assessed through the writing assignment to be completed during the second class period.
– Billy Collins’ Litany Broken into 5 Sections:
– Billy Collin’s reading of “Litany” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56Iq3PbSWZY
– Magazine pictures