This lesson plans was written for general education classrooms - has additional plans

built in to accommodate learners with different needs, IEP goals, or abilities. They
represent my skill in not only writing engaging and effective elementary level lessons
across subject areas, but also my ability to adapt classroom instruction so that every
student, regardless of learning difference, is able to access the standards and activities
contained in the lesson.

LESSON
PLAN

Date: March 30th 2015

Cycle: Cycle 2
Duration: 60-75mins

Learning
Intentions

The main learning goal of this lesson is for students to gain

exposure to and understand poems that utilize personification
and to comprehend the meaning and usage of personification as
a literary device. Students will brainstorm personifying terms
for a given object using a guided worksheet, as well as craft an
original poem using personification based on their prompted
responses.
-The students will decode the meaning of personification
through oral reading of several poems and subsequent
discussion.
-The students will demonstrate their knowledge of the meaning
of personification by generating their own examples.
-The students will further demonstrate their knowledge of the
meaning of personification by crafting their own original poem
that utilizes personification as a device.
-The students will utilize a guided worksheet to brainstorm and
organize ideas for their poems.
-The students will peer edit and serve as both author and
reader/audience in paired work.

Objectives

COMPETENCIE
S
Subject Areas
(EnglishLanguage
Arts)

Unit: Poetry
Topic: Language Arts
Time: Morning

Competency 1:
To read and listen to literary, popular and information-based
texts
Competency2:
Writeselfexpressive,narrativeandinformationbasedtexts
Competency 4:
To use language to communicate and learn

-Explain

Essential
Knowledges

CrossCurricular

how authors use text and art to express their ideas (e.g.
point of view, metaphor, etc.)
-Identify literary elements and literary techniques (e.g.
characterization, use of narration, use of dialogue) in a variety
of literary works
-Write for a variety of purposes and for specified audiences in a
variety of forms including narrative and persuasive writings
Competency 1: Uses information (Gathers information,
systematizes the information-gathering process, puts
information to use)
Competency4:Usescreativity(Becomesfamiliarwithallthe
elementsofasituation,explores,adoptsaflexiblemodeof
operation)
Competency5:Adoptseffectiveworkmethods(Considersall
aspectsofatask,adjustshis/herapproach,analyzeshis/her
procedure)

Materials

Professional
Development
Goals

Copies of poems (Appendix A)

Guided worksheet example/overhead projector transparency
(Appendix B)
Guided worksheets (one per student)
Whiteboard and markers
Professional Competency 1: To act as a professional inheritor,
critic, and interpreter of knowledge or culture when teaching
students.
Professional Competency 2: To communicate clearly in the
language of instruction, grammar, in various contexts related to
teaching.
Professional Competency 3: To develop teaching/learning
situations that are appropriate to the students concerned and the
subject content with a view to developing the competencies
targeted in the programs of study.
Professional Competency 4: To pilot teaching/learning
situations that are appropriate to the students concerned and the
subject content with a view to developing the competencies
targeted in the programs of study.
Professional Competency 6: To plan, organize and supervise a

class in such a way as to promote students learning and social

development.
Professional Competency 7: To adapt his or her teaching to the
needs and characteristics of students with learning social
maladjustments or handicaps.
Professional Competency 11: To engage in professional
development individually and with others.
Professional Competency 12: To demonstrate ethical and
responsible professional behavior in the performance of his or
her duties.

TIME

15 mins

30-40 mins

ACTIVITY
Introduction
1. I will tell the students that we are going to take turns
reading poems together that all share a special strategy
to get the reader interested in the subject of the poem.
2. I will begin by reading the first poem and then asking if
anyone can identify the main subject of the poem.

Development
3. I will ask the students why they think that the author
described the subject that way, using a prompt about
why a human might be described that way if necessary.
4. I will ask the students whether or not the subject is
capable of exhibiting those characteristics.
5. I will ask the students why they think that the author
described the subject that way, using a prompt about
why a human might be described that way if necessary.
6. I will remind the students that authors have a wide
range of options for conveying descriptions, emotions,
and events in their writing. Authors have the freedom to
choose whatever words or expressions they desire to let
the reader of their work know what they mean.
7. I will explain that sometimes authors choose to give
non-human subjects human characteristics to make the
reader interested in the subject and to have the reader
think about the subject in a new and interesting way.
8. I will write personification on the board and ask for a
volunteer to identify the root word and underline it for
the class.

15-20 mins

9. I will solicit examples from the students of objects that

cannot do person-like things (such as speaking,
moving around, feeling emotions, etc.) and write them
on the board.
10. I will use those examples to pair with person-like
actions by generating a personification for the first
given example (for example, if the first object on the
board is shoe, I will write the complete sentence My
shoe yells when I put her on in the morning.)
11. I will ask the students to generate sentences for the
remaining examples on the board. I will transcribe them
as they are dictated.
12. I will reiterate the definition of personification, ask the
students to repeat personification along with me and
then by themselves, and finally ask if there are any
questions regarding what has been explained so far.
13. I will ask the students to read the other two poems. And
to look for personifications.
14. I will ask for a student volunteer to pass out one guided
worksheet to each student.
15. I will then take one example generated from the ones
given on the board to use as a basis for a class-generated
guided worksheet and poem. I will solicit input from
students for generating a class worksheet about the
given example using the overhead projector. I will
demonstrate placing my subject in the top line of the
worksheet and then using words and ideas to fill in the
question prompts. I will read each question on the
worksheet aloud and ask the students to follow along on
their own papers as we model the assignment together.
16. I will explain to the students that they will each be able
to get a chance to write their own poem using
personification. I will ask them to each choose a
possible subject to write about. I will explain that the
subject could be an object in the world, a color, or an
idea. I will allow time for the students to raise their
hands and ask any questions about an idea for a subject.
17. I will pass out the guided worksheets and ask the
students to begin working quietly. I will circulate
around the room checking progress and answering
questions as they arise.

Conclusion
18. Once the students have filled in their worksheets, I will
ask them to select a favorite portion of the ideas they
have generated to use as an opening line to their poem.
19. I will encourage the students to be free and silly in their
poems, to not worry about spelling or grammar (for this
project), to think about who they are writing this poem
to (audience), and to create a picture of their subjects
that brings a new way of thinking of the subject to their
readers.
20. I will continue to circulate around the room, pairing up
students as they complete their poems to read aloud to
one another and make suggestions. I will encourage the
students to tell their partner what part or parts of the
poem they liked best and why. I will ask them to tell
each other what the others poems made them think
about the subject that was new or different.
21. I will read students poems aloud (with students
permission) as examples of personification.
Formative Assessment
Assessment will be judged through comprehension of the
meaning of personification throughout the lesson. Students can
demonstrate comprehension of the idea by identifying
successful examples of personification in the initial whole-class
conversation and volunteering ideas during the whole-class
modeling activity. Further demonstration of comprehension can
be judged through completion of the guided worksheet as well
as subsequent drafting of a poem that correctly identifies both a
non-human subject and a person-like description of that
subject. Students will not be assessed on spelling, grammar, or
punctuation for these activities.

Notes on
Individual
Students
Notes on
Management

Notes on
Professional
Development Goal

(Appendix A)
Poem 1:
The Sky is Low
by Emily Dickinson
The sky is low, the clouds are mean,
The sky is low, the clouds are mean,
A travelling flake of snow
Across a barn or through a rut
Debates if it will go.
A narrow wind complains all day
How some one treated him;
Nature, like us, is sometimes caught
Without her diadem.
http://allpoetry.com/The-sky-is-low,-the-clouds-are-mean,
Poem 2:
Trees
by joyce kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earths sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/1947

Poem 3
April Rain Song
by Langston Hughes
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/april-rain-song/

(Appendix B)

If ____________________ was human

What would it say?

How would it move around the world?

Who would its friends be?

What would it be feeling?

Why would it do those things? What is its history?

Other questions about your object