The Pink Ribbon

Worksheet: The Pink Ribbon ungroup

Understanding

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Utilise prediction strategies to see how meaning shifts in a poem.

As a class, read the poem presenting one stanza at a time and without revealing the title or Sylvia Morris’s accompanying illustration.

After each stanza, students predict what the poem is about, selecting a quotation to justify their response (e.g. in stanza one, they may choose the “plump pink ribbon”). They could also draw a visual of each prediction, to easily track how their predictions have changed.

At the end of stanza four, and prior to presenting the final stanza and Sylvia Morris’s illustrations, students should all reveal their final prediction. This could be done in the form of a word cloud. Ask students to explain their reaction to finding out that the “pink ribbon” is actually a worm.

Ask students to find clues about the poem’s subject (that the ribbon is actually a worm) on a second reading. Closely analyse language used in the poem and how it shifts the meaning. Direct attention towards the vague adjectives that could apply to a number of nouns in stanzas one and two (“plump”, “glistens”) and how the focus narrows in stanzas three and four (“twisting and wriggling”, “stretch and contract”), giving greater specificity about the worm’s real self.

Finally, ask students to find the initial clue in line one that hints that this poem is about a worm (“after last night’s rain”) and explain why this is a significant clue that the ribbon is actually a metaphor.

Connecting

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Analyse a personal experience and compare it with a text of a similar nature.

Prior to reading, students write a recount about a time that they explored their gardens or local parks after a period of rain.

Plan responses before commencing writing. Provide prompts so that students include small details. What were they wearing: waterproof clothing or their old clothing that could get dirty? What time of day was it? Why did they want to go outside? Construct a Y chart asking them what they saw / smelt / felt.

Students peer read and review another work. Ask students to focus on locating:

• Words with positive and negative associations
• The use of idiomatic expressions (such as raining cats and dogs)
• Use of imagery (metaphor, simile and personification)

Then ask the peer reviewer to answer the following question: Did the author have a positive or negative experience going into the wild, wet outdoors and why?

After reading the poem, students compare it with their own annotated and analysed recount. Students need to locate the same language features:

• Words with positive and negative associations
• The use of idiomatic expressions (“brand new boots”)
• Use of imagery (metaphor, simile and personification)

After comparing texts, students analyse which techniques were most successful in capturing the awe and wonder of a child playing and discovering after a period of rain (for example metaphors successfully capture beauty because a worm is described as something lovely, a ribbon.)

Engaging Critically

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Understand and appreciate the use of enjambment ungroupin free verse poetry to foster student appreciation in increasingly challenging poetic forms.

Explicitly teach the etymology of enjambment by breaking it into French components. Jambe means leg and en means to stride over. Students complete a Frayer Modelungroup of the term with an example from their favourite poem or song and a visual representation to remember the technique.

Contrast enjambment with an end-stopped line, where a line ends with punctuation that closes the thought or phrase.

Explain to students that there is no one reason that enjambment is used. However there are common reasons for a poet to use it. These include:

1. To simulate or imitate human thought processes where ideas run one after the other and into one another
2. To create a flowing rhythm, which often simulates the poem’s mood or events in the poem
3. To draw attention to key details of the poem or messages in the poem, particularly when only one or two words are enjambed
4. To surprise readers by delaying the meaning of a line until the subsequent line is read.

Using two colours, have students identify / technique spot end-stopped lines and enjambed lines

Model how to analyse enjambed lines. Use the following example:

After last night’s rain
I stomp outside in my brand-new boots
and spot a plump pink ribbon

Ask students which of the four reasons for enjambment best explains this example? (Suggested answer: reason two because the rhythm of the poem sounds like a person slowly wandering from their house, into the garden and then stumbling upon something).

Provide students with examples from the poem of enjambed lines on A3 paper and display the four common reasons for enjambment. Students complete a carousel activity ungroupin which they read an example of enjambment in The Pink Ribbon and write their own justification for why it has been used. They then read and review comments made by their peers about the same example, also written on the paper. The paper is then passed onto the next student and the activity is repeated.

Experimenting

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Collaborate on creating metaphors to write a class poem based on The Pink Ribbon.

Review the definition of metaphors with students and locate the examples of metaphor in the poem (the earthworm is described as a ‘plump pink ribbon’ and a ‘treasure’). Ask students to explain whether these metaphors are examples or positive or negative imagery and why.

Ask students to write a list of metaphors about earthworms. They should aim to write at least three. Students then need to categorise their metaphors as positive, negative or neutral.

Students choose their best metaphors and write them onto a piece of coloured paper that corresponds with their connotation. For example: positive metaphors could be pink, neutral could be yellow, negative could be brown.

Arrange metaphors by colour and place them in an outline of a worm to construct a large class shape poem.