Week 11

04/27/2011

Lesson: Poetry Literary Devices Part I

Objective: Students will define and identify examples of imagery and figurative language in poetry. Student will be able to read and analyze the imagery and figurative language used in poetry.

Aim: What makes the imagery and/or figurative language used effective?

Skill/Concept: Imagery and Figurative Language

Materials: Mentor Text: Dreams and Juke Box Love Song by Langston Hughes

Agenda

Do Now: Create a figurative expression to convey sadness. For example, I had a hole in my heart.

Acquisition – Imagery and Figurative Language
Mini Lesson:
Imagery is the use of words to appeal to one of the five senses: touch, sight, sound, hearing and taste. An author uses imagery to give readers an immediate sense of what is being described in the story or poem.
Figurative Language is the use of words that go beyond their ordinary meaning. It requires you to use your imagination to figure out the author's meaning. Figurative language creates pictures/images in the mind of the reader or listener. These pictures help convey the meaning faster and more vividly than words alone. We use figures of speech in "figurative language" to add color and interest, and to awaken the imagination. It makes the reader or listener use their imagination and understand much more than the plain words.

There are many different types of figurative language. For example:

Simile- figure of speech comparing two dissimilar things using like or as.
Metaphors - figure of speech comparing two dissimilar things.
Alliteration - repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words or within words.
Symbolism - when the author uses an object or reference to add deeper meaning to a story.

Juke Box Love Song
by Langston Hughes

I could take the Harlem night

and wrap around you,

Take the neon lights and make a crown,

Take the Lenox Avenue buses,

Taxis, subways,

And for your love song tone their rumble down.

Take Harlem's heartbeat,

Make a drumbeat,

Put it on a record, let it whirl,

And while we listen to it play,

Dance with you till day--

Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.

Read lines 1-6 :

         - What imagery does Hughes use in the poem?

What words in the poem painted a picture of Harlem?

For Example, Imagery:  “Take the neon lights and make a crown,”

Sampler Response:Hughes uses the imagery of the bright night-lights “neon lights” of NYC to create an image of a glorious glistening crown on the head of a girl.

Read lines 7- 12 :

What is being compared in the poem?

What words does Hughes use to capture the feeing of dance and movement?

For Example, Metaphor: Harlem

Sampler Response:The sights and sounds of Harlem are a metaphor for Jazz/music.

Dreams

by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
  For if dreams die
  Life is a broken-winged bird
  That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
  For when dreams go
  Life is a barren field
  Frozen with snow.

Read the first stanza:

To what does the speaker compare to life in the first stanza?
Interpret the metaphors. What does each suggest about life?

Read the second stanza:

Interpret the metaphor. What does the speaker suggest will happen when you let dreams go?

Meaning Making: Read for 15 minutes and take notes using the guiding questions:

Level 1 Question: Identify two examples of similes and/or metaphors in the book you are reading.
Level 2 Question: What meaning do you infer from an example of imagery in the book you are reading?
Level 3 Question: How do the examples of symbolism help the author convey their meaning (central idea)?
Level 4 Question: Do you think the symbolism is effectively used? Why or why not?

Transfer: Write a poem using figurative language and imagery to explain how much you love/care about your friend or parent(s), etc.

HW#23: Read for 30 minutes. Write a paragraph explain how the author of the book you reading uses figurative language (metaphor, simile, alliteration, symbolism) to convey his/her message/central idea.

04/28 Lesson 2: Poetry Literary Devices prt II

Objective: Students will be able to identify the mood of a poem and understanding its meaning.
Students will be able to identify and analyze a poet’s purpose by the use of diction in poetry.

Aim: How does understanding the author’s choice of words (diction) help me better understand the mood of the text?

Skill/Concept: Diction, Mood

Materials: Mentor Text – The Tropics of New York by Claude McKay

Agenda

Do Now: Write two sentences describing walking down a dark corridor. Try to create a very dark mood.

Acquisition – Diction, Mood

Mini Lesson: Diction and Mood - The writer’s purpose—whether to convince, entertain, amuse, inform, or plead—partly determines diction. Words chosen to impart a particular effect/mood on the reader reflect and sustain the writer’s purpose.

1. Diction – refers to the author’s choice of words
2. Mood – The general atmosphere created by the author’s words.

The Tropics of New York
by Claude McKay

Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root
    Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
     Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,

Sat in the window, bringing memories
     of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical skies
     In benediction over nun-like hills.

My eyes grow dim, and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.

Read the first stanza:

What is the speaker looking at in the beginning of the poem?

Read the second stanza:

The speaker has a “flashback.” What does he see in his flashback?
How does the flashback influence the mood of the poem? Pay attention to the diction.

Read the third stanza:

Why do you think the speaker weeps at the end of the poem?
What does the tropic/exotic fruits symbolize for the speaker?
What is the overall mood of the poem? Pay attention to diction.

Meaning Making: Read for 15 minutes and take notes using the guiding questions:

Level 1 Question: What (special) words( diction) have you noticed the author is using to create a certain mood? Identify two descriptive words used to create the mood.
Level 2 Question: What is the mood of the book you are reading? How does the author use diction (words with rich connotations-implied meaning) to create the mood?
Level 3 Question: How does the author use diction to create and shape the mood of the book?
Level 4 Question: Why does the author use: archaic words, colloquialism, jargon, profanity, slang, trite expressions, or vulgarity? If so, what effect do these words have to help the author convey his/her meaning?

Transfer: Give an example of a time when you had to choose your words very carefully to avoid a conflict.

HW#24: Read for 30 minutes and write a paragraph explaining how the author’s choice of words (diction) creates a particular mood in the book you are reading.