Figurative Language 1

Lesson Plan:

Basic introduction: What is Figurative language?

- A way of saying something other than the ordinary meaning.

Game Introduction: That’s What I mean

Since we’re all so lively at 7 am, time for a game –

Need: 3 volunteers (or victims as the case may be; best to get lively, theater-esque kids mixed in with quiet people so that we get everyone involved)

Have a set of cards, each has a seemingly random line. This game is similarly structured to that of Whose Line. During the course of the scene, each volunteer will have to incorporate their card phrase into their dialogue. Now, the twist is that at the end, the rest of the audience has to guess which type of figurative language was used in the statement. (Example: a person reads “that was like a rollercoaster!” The audience would have to guess simile.) Each of the cards has a different reference and is varied enough to keep things fresh.

The scenes shouldn’t run for too long, as we still have to do a sort of wrap-up with the lesson and then go into the poem. By the end of a few game rounds, there should be a brief close/transition:

What was the point of this? (Other than because we had to). The point is that ultimately we unified to create a scene. In poetry, the use of figurative language creates depth. The literary devices build on each other. Sometimes figurative language says things better than direct language. Here, it can create vividness, feeling, jam-packed full of meaning.

Poem Panning: The Lost Baby Poem by Lucille Clifton, page 277. Maybe we can read alternating every other stanza; I think every other line might lose a bit of footing with the flow of it. TPCASTT the poem and do a sort of oral back-n-forth between class interpretation and our notes. It’s a quick sort of thing, but after the game people will have enough energy to feed off of.