Chopsticks

Learning Intention:

I am learning about the effects of imagery and other figurative language on storytelling so that I can use it to enhance my imaginative writing.

Success Criteria:

• I can identify imagery and figurative language used in a text.
• I can share ideas of my own imagery and figurative language.
• I can compose a narrative incorporating imagery and figurative language.

Essential knowledge:

Students should have an understanding of figurative language, particularly similes, metaphors and imagery. Definitions of these can be found in NESA’s English K-10 Glossaryungroup.

Focus question:

How does figurative language help an audience understand character?

Understanding text:

Read the story, or if you have a digital subscription, you may wish to listen to the audio version. Afterwards, ask students to identify any imagery and figurative language used in the story. Answers may include:

• The mountains in the distance loom up like giant ogres. I stare out of my window at farms, dotted with dams and gum trees
• ‘The words flash away as fast as a … as fast as a …’ She shakes her head. I offer, ‘As fast as a falling star’?
• I’d watch, amazed, as her hands flew along the piano keys, her fingers a blur. Nonna had a theatrical way of playing, tossing her head, throwing up her hands, and crossing them over each other
• As her fingers fluttered over the keys, the thrumming notes sounded like bees buzzing from flower to flower
• The room becomes as hushed as a forest night
• Nonna attacks the keys in a frenzy, both feet pumping the pedals. The jarring noise echoes through the reception room, rattling glasses and dishes
• Her eyes are brimming like a lake after rain.

Discuss the way they each enhance the readers’ experience by creating a picture in their minds as they read and adding depth to their understanding of the story. If you have a digital subscription, you may wish to complete the interactive activity to allow students to practice their figurative language skills.

Vocabulary:

Divide students into small groups of 4-5. Choose some of the prompts from the following list, ensuring that you have enough for one per group and write each on a separate sheet of paper:

• Describe someone riding a bike.
• The school hall was as…
• As I looked out at the crowd…
• Describe a butterfly landing in a flower bed.
• My bedroom felt like…
• The beach was as…
• Describe a quiet coastal road.

Distribute one sheet to each group and inform the class that all students within their group should respond to their group’s prompt by creating at least one description using imagery and/or figurative language. After each student has had a chance to write their response on the piece of paper, have the groups take turns reading their responses to the class. Discuss the effects of these responses and highlight the way we come up with different ideas from the same prompts, creating different pictures in the minds of our audience.

Creating text:

Inform students they will be composing their own story using imagery. Like Chopsticks, it may be about a family member, going on a trip, attending an event, or another idea the student has. Explain that they may prefer to instead use an existing story they are already working on and begin to incorporate more imagery and figurative language. They may wish to use the Stage 3 Assessment and Evaluation Rubric for Imaginative Textsungroup to guide them in their writing and story structure and self-assess their drafts.

Assessment for learning:

After students have completed their stories, ask for volunteers to share sections of their writing with the class so that they can demonstrate their use of imagery and figurative language. All students should then hand their stories in to the teacher for formal feedback.