Appealing to the Senses
Appealing to the Senses
Objectives
[IS.5 - Struggling Learners]
In this lesson, students analyze the ways in which literary devices are used to appeal to the senses. Students will: [IS.6 - Language Function]
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identify sensory details in several literary works.
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determine how the details were created.
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analyze the relationship between sensory details and author’s purpose.
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identify the use of literary devices, including imagery, alliteration, figurative language, hyperbole, metaphor, personification, and simile.
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practice analyzing the effects of these literary devices.
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collect and analyze examples of effective sensory details.
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compose sensory details.
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analyze and respond to their creations and those of their classmates. [IS.7 - Level 1]
Essential Questions
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How does interaction with text provoke thinking and response?
Vocabulary
[IS.1 - Preparation ]
[IS.2 - ELP Standards]
[IS.3 - ELL Students] [IS.4 - Struggling Learners]
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Author’s Purpose: The author’s intent either to inform or teach someone about something, to entertain people, or to persuade or convince their audience to do or not do something.
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Hyperbole: An exaggeration or overstatement (e.g., I was so embarrassed I could have died.)
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Imagery: A word or group of words in a literary work which appeal to one or more of the senses: sight, taste, touch, hearing, and smell; figurative language. The use of images serves to intensify the impact of the work.
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Literary Devices: Tools used by the author to enliven and provide voice to the writing (e.g., dialogue, alliteration).
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Metaphor: A figure of speech that expresses an idea through the image of another object. Metaphors suggest the essence of the first object by identifying it with certain qualities of the second object. An example is “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun” in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Here, Juliet, the first object, is identified with qualities of the second object, the sun.
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Personification: An object or abstract idea given human qualities or human form (e.g., Flowers danced about the lawn.).
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Simile: A comparison of two unlike things in which a word of comparison (like or as) is used (e.g., She eats like a bird.).
Duration
110–165 minutes/2–3 class periods
Prerequisite Skills
Materials
[IS.8 - Struggling Learners]
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“The Thanksgiving Visitor” from A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, & The Thanksgiving Visitor by Truman Capote. Random House, 1967. (Use the two paragraphs on pp. 62–63, beginning “Breakfast was our principal meal . . .”) [IS.9 - ELL Students]
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A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964. (Use the first two paragraphs of “A False Spring,” p. 49.)
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Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck. Viking Press, 1962. http://www.route99.org/books/travelswithcharlie.html (the edited excerpt beginning “I came out on this trip to learn something of America,” which is from pp. 139–142 of the book.)
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“Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/rtt.html
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a collection of pictures of a variety of scenes, at least one for each group
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copies of Sensory Details in Fiction and Literary Nonfiction (L-L-6-1_Sensory Details in Fiction and Literary Nonfiction and KEY.doc)
Related Unit and Lesson Plans
Related Materials & Resources
The possible inclusion of commercial websites below is not an implied endorsement of their products, which are not free, and are not required for this lesson plan.
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Image in Poetry. OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/617/01/
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“Sea Fever” by John Masefield.