Onomatopoeia, memory poems, and Person of the Year presentation preparation...

During the week of 5/26 - 5/29, students continued working with poetry by analyzing sound devices used by writers and writing a memory poem. They also began preparing for their Person of the Year presentations that begin this coming Wednesday.

Person of the Year Presentations

You may recall that your child recently completed a biography he or she selected for Independent Reading Project #4. Following the reading of this biography, students have begun preparing a 2- minute presentation in which they show their audience that this person deserves the honorable title of Person of the Year because he/she has influenced or impacted the world around him/her through his/her actions, contributions, or innovations.

On Monday, I explained the criteria of the Person of the Year presentation and the steps necessary to complete this assignment, shared an example of a Person of the Year speech that I wrote, and reviewed the scoring rubric with the students.

On Friday, students practiced presenting in front of the class by sharing some brief information about themselves like their favorite food or the last movie they watched. They also learned how to take the outline of their speech and other key information and put it on notecards that they can use for their presentation. The presentation order was also selected, so students know the order in which they will be presenting.

Sound Devices

On Tuesday, students began the period by attempting to say she sells sea shells by the seashore five times in a row quickly and correctly. We discussed that this sentence is pleasing to hear (but difficult to say) because the author used sound devices. Sound devices are tools writers can use to enhance the poem's rhythm and feel.

Students defined four different sound devices. Some sound devices were familiar to them (onomatopoeia and alliteration), while others were new (assonance and consonance). We then read a poem called "Onomatopoeia" by Eve Merriam, identified the different sound devices she used, and analyzed how the use of these sound devices added meaning and interest to the poem.

Memory poems

In previous classes, the source for the students' poems was an object from the Object Box or words from the Word Bowl. During Thursday's class, memories were the source for their poetic ideas. Students selected a memory they had previously recorded in their writer's notebook and wrote a 15-line poem about the memory. While writing, students were encouraged to employ two writing techniques they practiced earlier in the school year: using the five senses in your description and show, don't tell. Students also pushed themselves to write about a memory that was important to them. We discussed that when writers write about a topic that matters to them the caring feeling they have for the subject comes through the words they write on the page. I shared the following quote from Kurt Vonnegut in order to support this idea:

Find a subject that you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive elements of your style.

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.