Name: Kelsey Mayo

Subject: English II/III

Period: 3rd period

Approximate Time: 50 minutes

 

 

Objectives:

 

The student will define the term personification and identify examples in short passages of literature drawn from a particular historical period. (English 2.d)

 

The student will demonstrate his or her knowledge of personification through a composition exercise. (English 3.c)

 

   
Materials:

 

The student will need notebook, pen/pencil, and handout. The teacher will need dry erase markers, overhead projector, transparency sheet of personification definitions and examples, vis a vis pen, handout.

Bell Ringer: Correct this sentence.

 

    “charlottes web is the story of animals these animals behave much like human beings the behaviors are helpful and friendly”

 

 

Set:

 

1.Review previous lesson on similes and metaphors. Call and response review for similes and metaphors and then review the difference between the two.

 

“My love is like a red, red rose?”- Robert Burns (Simile)

Jarvis is a beast at ping-pong. (Metaphor)

My biology teacher is as tough as nails. (Simile)

 

2.Introduce day's objective. This period we will discuss another kind of figurative language, personification, and how it is used in literature. Ask students to identify the word 'person' in the larger word, and emphasize this root. By the end of the period, we will also be able to employ personification to enrich our writing- the point of figurative language.

 

3.Ask for a volunteer to come up to the front of the classroom. Blindfold this person, wrap them in the sheet, toga-style, and hand them the scales. Ask the class to guess who this person is. Is justice really a woman? Does she really wear a toga? Explain that justice is often personified (made into a person) by a blindfolded woman (blind because she is supposedly impartial) holding the scales of justice. Show them the overhead of the portrait of justice.

 

4.Real life application: Personification is present in many daily conversations. How many of you have pets? Do you ever think your pets are crazy? Mad at you? Out to get you? All of us attribute human emotions and characteristics to animals and to objects sometimes. We are human, and we use our experiences to make more sense in the world. Ultimate example- Personification of God as human figure?

Procedures:

 

1.Put up overhead of the definition of personification. Have a student read the definition aloud, then read it again myself. Go through each example together, having a student read the passage and another one identify the personification present in that example.

 

2.Hand out sheet with passages and questions. Instruct the students that it is quiet, working time and that there will be no talking. Directions: read the passages and answer the following questions on personification.

 

3.As a class, review passages and answers to personification questions. Introduce the alternate term 'anthropomorphism' (50 cent word of the day) as it relates to specific instances of personification (animals, perhaps mention Animal Farm, Call of the Wild, etc.)

 

4.Writing assignment for homework: There is a house in Holly Springs that is over 200 years old. Describe the house as if it were a person. How does it feel about the people who live there? About the town? The weather? What has it seen during its life? (Civil War, Great Depression, etc.) What kind of person is it?

 

5.If time, share these stories with the class.

 

 

Closure:

 

1.Quick call and response; review personification definitions and examples.

 

2.Remind students of objectives- define 'personification' and be able to recognize it in literature and when we ourselves write creatively!

 

3.Involve students by eliciting examples from movies or other sources (Babe, Charlotte's Web) and reiterating that we do this because we are human, and that is our reference point.

 

4.Next period we will be working on figuring out the meanings of words we don't know in a longer passage through context clues. Who knows what these are?

 

 

Assessment:

 

 

Objective #1:

 

Informal: The teacher will listen -M- to students' responses to the questions on the personification worksheet -C-.

Formal: The material on personification -C- will be included on the weekly Friday quiz -M-, which the teacher will grade and record the results in the    gradebook -D-.

 

 

Objective #2:

 

Informal: The teacher will gauge student understanding of the creative aspect of using personification -C- by circulating and asking questions -M- of       individuals during time for composition.

Formal: The teacher will read and grade -M- students' creative pieces -C- and record results in the gradebook -D-

 

 

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