Sage Workshop: Intro to Poetry/Autobiography
Unit Essential Question: How can the five senses be used in my writing?
Resources: Paint, Quiz 1, five mystery stations (bags filled with stuff), and bandanas
Focus Question: How can I use my senses of touch, smell, taste, and sound?
Objective:
• Define sensory details and describe them in writing
• Review literary elements and take pre-quiz
• Explain and describe the different sensory details
Assessment: Students will take a quiz on sensory details, literary devices, and literary terms. The prequiz will be used to see if students improved during the workshop. A similar quiz will be given at the end
of the workshop. Assessment: Entrance Slip. (Students will be required to wash their hands
before class begins.)
INTO (10-18min)
Introduction to the workshop
• Introduce who I am and explain my senior thesis
Hook: (10 minutes)
• Students will receive a workshop syllabus
• We will go through it and I will answer any questions they might have.
• I will also go over the schedule and my curriculum
Activity Before Concept: (5 minutes) Quiz
• Students will take a pre-quiz that reviews literary elements.
THROUGH (45 min)
Activity 1 (10 minutes total)
Mystery Stations: Have a total of five stations and two students per station. Fill five bags with objects to
describe. The first bag would be filled with gummy worms, the second bag would be filled with sunflower
seeds, the third bag would be filled with koosh balls, the fourth bag will be filled with rose pedals, the fifth
bag would be filled with peeled pears and raisins soaked with water.
Students will be able to use each of their 5 senses. They will have to wash their hands before
they come in the class. The students will have to describe what is contained inside their bag.
They will write down the description of their mystery object. They will use their imagination to
figure out what is inside the bag. The students will present it by writing what sense they used
and describe it using that sense. For example they could write, “I used my sense of touch and
the object felt squishy and wet.” In the end, the mystery will be revealed.
Activity 2 (15 minutes total)
Describing a Painting
There will be a painting on the table and the students will take notes on the painting. They will write as
many details as they can (make sure to introduce the painting and tell them the story about this poem).
That will influence what they write. Then they will write a poem that will include a story. They will
describe it in detail using literary devices. The final product will be a poem using the painting they have
in front of them. On the board or in a PowerPoint describe what stanzas and literary elements are and
show them an example of a painting poem. The poem should have a total of 5 stanzas. The only literary
elements needed for this activity are metaphors, foreshadowing, and similes. The most important aspect
of this poem is describing the painting’s colors. Students must have at least 4 colors inside the poem.
Give students a total of 5 minutes to get all the details from the painting.
© Loyola Marymount University/CMAST
Lesson ________
Activity 3 (Remaining Time)
Write a Painting Poem
Once the students have written down details about the painting, they may get started on their painting
poems.
I will use Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” as the painting for my 2
detail and take notes. From those notes they will create a poem.
nd
activity. Students will describe it in
Example of details I want them to write down:
• The town below has a church and a wonderful night sky view.
• The swirls in the sky look like smoke.
• The yellow moon shines bright along with 11 stars that might not even be stars.
• The valley and the sky is divided by a baby blue horizon; maybe it’s about to be daylight.
Example:
This is an example of a painting poem I created, using Vincent Van Gogh’s “Wheat Field with Crows” as
inspiration.
© Loyola Marymount University/CMAST
Lesson ________
Undercover Crow
By Sergio Peralta
I sit on a dim black bench
Outside prison walls
Sharing my last piece of bread
With a flock of pigeons
Fighting for crumbs.
All these pigeons look identical,
Grey feathers and bright red toes,
All except one, a pigeon with a zipper on its back.
He looks at me; his eyes resembles that of a vulture,
Such a cold stare.
His head turns around
And with his beak he unzips himself,
Ever so slowly dark wing comes out.
He flaps his wings twice and reveals his face.
A black crow emerges
Holding a shiny object
Between his bright grey toes.
In shock I say “Hey what are you holding?”
The crow grins
And says “If you wish to find out then follow me.”
He plunges into the sky
Within seconds his flock appears,
Bright sun covered in darkness.
I follow the trail of ashy black feathers.
The trail ends at a wheat field
On my last breath I say “Why here?”
From far away the wheat field
Looks like a mountain of gold coins
The mountains reflect this painted sky,--feel like what you had hear before worked
better
Pitch black with blue splatters
You could see how light struggled
To show an appearance
The crops wave back and forth
As if they were trying to say goodbye.
The flock flies towards the sky
And joins the shiny blue spots.
It’s the undercover crow
Who stands in front of me and says “Are you ready?”
© Loyola Marymount University/CMAST
Lesson ________
I swallow my throat “Ready for what?”
“Oh you will see” whispers the crow.
We take a road where the brown soil
And the green grass, live side by side.
He stops, the cold air suddenly
Rushes through my body.
The crow grins and looks at me,
Expands his wings, and grows
The feathers turn into silk
Black cloth covers his body.
He is holding a long black stick,
With a razor sharp blade,
The blade curled perfectly for ending lives.
He looks at me with his vulture eyes
“This is your final resting place”…
© Loyola Marymount University/CMAST
Lesson ________