Creating Visual Images…
- Read and discuss the text, Just Fine the Way They Are, as a class. Discuss how an author uses figurative language to help create a picture in the reader’s mind. Figurative language is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. The author describes something through the use of unusual comparisons for effect, interest, or to make things clearer. The result of using this technique is the creation of interesting images.
- Write the following example on chart paper or on the board “…there were roads like spaghetti that could get a person just about anywhere.”
- Have a class discussion about the quote and the picture it helps form in the reader’s mind. How does this picture help the reader better understand the story?
- Students could also sketch the visual image on the board/chart paper/notebook that they see when they read the quote.
- Using the text, have students identify other figurative language passages from the story. Discuss how these passages help them understand the story better. What picture does it form in their minds? See Figurative Language Chart for suggestions from text.
- In pairs or independently, have students draw a picture for a particular passage and explain how that passage helped the reader form a mental picture.
Have A Go
- Have students select a piece of their own writing and highlight an area that includes figurative language.
- Have students rework a piece of their own writing to add figurative language.
- Have students read a peer’s piece of writing and make suggestions of how to add figurative language.
- Give students a piece of writing for them to rewrite in order to add figurative language.