Helen Chaney
Hannah Mayer
Jarelie McAfee
Shannon Reaves
Format of Strategy Lessons for the Integration Plan
Introductory Section
Grade level: 3
Topic of your content: Figurative Language and Idiomatic Expression
Area of your strategy: Vocabulary
Specific strategy: Figurative Language and Idiomatic Expression
Purpose of your strategy: The purpose of this strategy is to make students aware that language
is not always to be taken literally.
Stage 1: Desired Results
Georgia Performance Standard: Social Studies or Science – content specific
S3L1. Students will investigate the habitats of different organisms and the dependence of
organisms on their habitat.
a. Differentiate between habitats of Georgia (mountains, marsh/swamp, coast,
Piedmont, Atlantic Ocean) and the organisms that live there.
Learning Outcome (LO): Social Studies or Science – GPS content specific:
Students will differentiate between the habitats of Georgia.
Essential Question (EQ): Social Studies or Science – GPS content specific:
What are some differences between the coastal and mountain habitats?
Georgia Performance Standard: ELA - Strategy Specific
ELA3R2- The student acquires and uses grade-level words to communicate effectively. The
student
d. Identifies the meaning of common idioms and figurative phrases and incorporates them into
oral and written language.
Learning Outcome (LO): ELA GPS - Strategy Specific
Students will identify and use common personifications of figurative language in their oral and
written language.
Essential Question (EQ): ELA GPS - Strategy Specific
How does figurative language make writing more interesting?
Phase of Learning: Acquisition
Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction
Didactic/Direct Instruction
What the teacher does/uses (Lesson Structure and Teaching/Learning Strategy)
Hook and Hold:
 The teacher will first show the Allstate “Mayhem” commercial at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CocgDJJCBFI
 The teacher will briefly explain that Mayhem is personifying the wind in this
commercial in order to make it more interesting to the viewer.
 We will be learning about figurative language and its forms today.
 LO: Students will identify and use common personifications of figurative language in
their oral and written language.
 EQ: How does figurative language make writing more interesting?
 Learning about figurative language is important because it can do many things
including helping to improve our writing skills.
 Using figurative language in your writing helps to draw the reader in and make the
topic more interesting. It also helps the reader form more of personal connection to
the topic.
Teaching (and modeling)
Teaching:
 Define figurative language and its components to the students:
o Figurative language- Whenever you describe something by comparing it with
something else.
 Types of figurative language include: similes, metaphors, idioms, personification, and
alliteration. The type of figurative language we will focus on today is personification.
o Personification- A figure of speech in which human characteristics are given
to an animal or an object.
o Personification fits into the category of figurative language because a person
has to use their imagination in order to understand what is being said. If
someone took the sentence literally, it would be extremely confusing and not
make any sense!
o When we personify something, it doesn’t mean that we actually think the
object or animal has real human qualities. It’s used to let our imaginations go
further in what we read.
o We use personification to gain a deeper understanding of everyday words by
giving them human qualities.
o Below are examples of how to take a non-human thing and change the verb to
give it human qualities or actions that a human would do. (Read the sentence
then replace the first verb in parenthesis with the personified verb in
parenthesis.)
 Ex. The great oak tree (moved) because of the cold wind. The great oak
tree (shivered) in the cold wind.
 Ex. The Chattahoochee River (flows) through the state of Georgia. The
Chattahoochee River (stretches) through the state of Georgia.
 Ex. The Appalachian Mountains (are located) in North Georgia. The
Appalachian Mountains (sit) in North Georgia.
Modeling:
The teacher will write the sentence, “The mountains are very tall” on the board. This is just a
regular sentence, but we want to personify the mountains in order to make the sentence
more interesting. Below the first sentence the teacher will write, “The mountains reached for
the sky.” Explain that the word ‘reached’ makes the mountains seem to come alive and the
sentence becomes much more exciting. After that, the teacher will draw a picture of the
personified sentence on the board to demonstrate how personification changes the sentence
and gives it human qualities. The picture of the mountains will have arms reaching out of the
top in order to align with “reaching.”
The same steps will be taken with the sentence, “Huge waves came to the shore.” The
teacher will write the first (boring) sentence on the board, and then write, “The waves clawed
at the shore” under it. The teacher will then draw a picture of waves that have big claws
gripping the shore so the students can see how the personification worked in this sentence.
*The teacher will remind the students that we don’t actually think the mountains have arms
or the waves have claws. They are imaginary to help us picture a story.
Practice (guided and independent)
Guided Practice:
Students will raise their hand to volunteer a sentence that has an object from one of the
many Georgia habitats. The teacher will write the sentence on the board. The students will
then volunteer a personification that could be used to describe the object in the first
sentence. The teacher will write the new, personified sentence on the board under the first
sentence. The students will then suggest pictures that could be drawn that match the literal
meaning of the personified sentence.
Assessment: Students will choose one aspect of the coastal and one aspect of a mountain
habitat to personify. The students will write a sentence describing the object from the
mountain habitat and one sentence from the coastal habitat. The students will then rewrite
the sentence using personification. Lastly, the students will draw a picture of their
personification for both the mountain and coastal habitats.
Teacher Resources and Instructional Resources
Citations and summaries:
Allstate. ( 2010, August 25). Allstate TV Ad: Tree Branch Mayhem. Retrieved March 6, 2012,
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CocgDJJCBFI
This is a commercial advertisement for Allstate insurance. It depicts a man as “Mayhem”
to depict real-word incidences that can happen to you. The commercial uses
personification in order to hook the viewer into watching the rest of the commercial
because it is out of the ordinary and interesting to see.
Chaney, H.E. (2012). Graphic Organizer. Unpublished graphic organizer, Valdosta State
University, Valdosta, GA.
The graphic organizer was created specifically for this lesson on personification.
Pearson Custom Education: Developing literacy: LITR 3130. New York: Pearson Learning
Solutions. 520.
The text book gives definitions for figurative language and idiomatic expressions.
Personification is under the umbrella of figurative language. The text book stresses the
importance of young children being aware that language is not always literal.
(n.d.) Personification Lesson Plans and Resources. Retrieved from:
http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/7lesson.htm
This website gives multiple ideas for engaging students in a personification lesson. It
teaches what personification is, and gives the teacher ideas on fun activities to do with
the class as a whole group or small group.
Research Article
Allen, M. (1996). The Poetics of Personification. Medium Aevum, 65 (1), 110-110.
Http://search.proquest.com/docview/194184401?accountid=14800
Subjects of this article include Aristotle, Cicero, Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, and
James J. Paxon. The purpose of the research is to raise questions about the revival of
personification among contemporary writers in literature. The research found modern
theoretical terminology can help writers talk with precision about personification, which
is fundamental to literature and human consciousness.