How Do I Love Thee: Final Project

The three components of my final project can be found below. Please start by clicking my message for Twitter, then review the important ideas in my elevator pitch, and finally finish by reading my white paper. Enjoy!

Twitter Message

Elevator Pitch

White Paper

How Do I Love Thee: Play

Play emerges quite frequently within my topic of figurative language, especially this semester. It is easy to simply have students sit back at their desks and read, but at what point will students become bored and disengaged with the work? As a language arts teacher, I have found it is important to include times to “play” as a means to engage students in the material in ways that are not necessarily traditional. I agree that “When rule bound work does not yield the insights or results we want to achieve, when conventional thought, behavior, and disciplinary knowledge become barriers to our goals, play provides a fun and risk-free means of seeing from a fresh perspective, learning without constraint, exploring without fear” (Sparks of Genius, pg.268). Play has emerged through center work, art projects, and role playing activities in my classroom; but I think the most important place that “play” occurs is on field trips. When students are given the chance to learn in a unique environment outside of the classroom, the possibilities for play are endless.

To me, play is about having fun while seeing things in a new way and ultimately gaining knowledge from the experience. It allows for students who are not always able to learn the traditional way to internalize the information through a means that works best for them. For my introductory activity I chose to create a Google Drive presentation derived from the annual fifth grade overnight field trip my class took this week. Each year, students visit Hard Bargain Farm in Accokeek, Maryland. It is a wonderful place to get away and learn something new on the shoreline of the Potomac River. The naturalists at the farm teach specialized classes to the students depending on the season, weather conditions, and other key factors. Lessons taught correlate with science, social studies, and math.

This year on the trip I planned to take the learning a step further. I did this by involving my students in mini lessons throughout our time spent on the farm. These short lessons focused on figurative language. According to Jean Piaget this type of play can be categorized as “symbolic play” which “fosters tools such as analogizing, modeling, play-acting, and empathizing by invoking a make-believe world where one thing stands for another” (Sparks of Genius, pg. 249). Although the farm is a real place, the examples of figurative language that were identified and used ask students to think about life on the farm in a very different way. We “played” with words as we created examples of similes, metaphors, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia and hyperbole.

As an end result, I used photographs and discussions from the trip to create a presentation to share with my colleagues as well as students who were not able to attend the trip. My students this year are already well versed in figurative language, but this activity provided students with further reinforcement. In addition, I will be able to use this presentation as a way to introduce figurative language to students next year. New fifth grade students will also get a glimpse of what awaits them on the trip! This activity is meaningful because it allowed my class to play with words and phrases through exploration of life on the farm. I developed this activity as a way to share this amazing learning experience while relating it to figurative language on the farm. My work can be viewed by following the link below.

Playful Introduction to Figurative Language

How Do I Love Thee: Modeling & Dimensional Thinking

I had some difficulty determining which route I wanted to take for this activity. Since my content area is language arts, I first had to brainstorm what types of models are already in place within this area of focus. For me, teaching language arts is all about modeling the specific skills for students to master. I do this in several ways. For example, through the use of graphic organizers students are able to break down the texts in portions that are more manageable and easier to comprehend. For the purpose of this particular activity I wanted to devise a way for students to model one area of figurative language with hopes that the model could aid in their understanding of the selected topic. It is for this reason that I decided to focus on similes.

 According to Dictionary.com, a simile is "a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared". For example, "The girl is as busy as a bee". I began to think of how my students could  physically create models within this type of figurative language. I realized that by creating graphic representations of similes, students could experience the topic on a whole new level. Furthermore, I could easily use this activity as a model to teach the importance of similes in general. The benefits of this type of model include providing struggling students with a concrete representation, while allowing my students to be as creative as they pleased. 

To me as a teacher, modeling is creating a smaller more manageable representation of something that is normally on a much larger scale. Models can be abstract in nature, or very concrete. The dimension that I chose to explore similes through is a series of images in which my students would select and choose. I will now provide some insight as to what exactly it was that I had my students do. Students were provided with a selection of several different magazines filled with images. They were then instructed to create similes based on a topic of their choice. They were allowed to chose images from the magazines to serve as models for those similes that were created. Select samples of the graphical representations of the similes created can be found below. 

 

 

 

 

 

I chose an activity of this nature in order to ignite the imaginations of my students. Students are very accustomed to writing without creating anything visual to accompany their work. I try to integrate art whenever possible, but at times this is a near impossible task. Another positive for this activity was allowing students to cross a language barrier. Since many of my students speak English as a second language, this really helped to create meaning through the use of pictures. It allowed students to truly own their similes they had composed in class. As Sparks of Genius points out, Picasso said "To model is to possess it" (pg. 230). This activity allowed my students to take ownership of their written work while creating a whole new dimension of understanding.

How Do I Love Thee: Embodied Thinking

To me, embodied thinking means experiencing the world through your senses while also being able to experience the world through other individuals' perspectives as well.  This happens on a regular basis, with even the simplest everyday activities. The difference is that some people are more aware of this happening than others. It is important to take the time to practice the cognitive tool of embodied thinking because it allows for a different way in which we can observe the world. This leads to new insights and an increase in creativity.

 

I would group the majority of the students in my language arts class this year into the category of kinesthetic learners. These students are often labeled as overactive or hyper, but this is not necessarily true. These types of students simply learn in a different way. They really enjoy hands-on/minds-on lessons in which they can actually manipulate materials or even engage in role play. Sometimes it is difficult to always incorporate an element of activeness within my language arts lessons, but I sure do try. With this learning style in mind, I immediately thought of my class and how I could get them involved in embodied thinking. For this assignment, I wanted to try and engage my class in an activity to aid in the creation of my visual.

I chose to focus on a type of figurative language called onomatopoeia. According to Wikipedia, an Onomatopoeia is defined as "a word that imitates or suggests the source of the sound that it describes". For example, slap--slam--fizz--bop are all words that sound like their action. Their action? Yes, these words can be acted out (in a sense). This is where my students come in. This week I decided to teach mini lesson on figurative language and specifically included the use of onomatopoeia. After the mini lesson came the small group rotations which includes the independent work period, reinforcement with the teacher, and centers. Centers are areas where the students can engage in fun activities to practice the skills we are learning about in class. The "Mystery Center" is where I chose to have my students act out select onomatopoeia terms throughout the classroom. To document, I took photographs of my students in action. The results are below! 

Knock, Knock

 

Crunch!

 

Stomping Away

 

Drip, Drip, Drip

 

The Click of the Keyboard

 

As one can see, my students were enjoying themselves and really experiencing the learning. As part of my closing for the lesson I had a brief discussion on embodied thinking and how it related to what we did in class. I made sure to take the ideas down to a fifth grade level. I value student input and gauge overall success on class assignments as well as through the content of the discussions that stem from the lessons I teach. To me, the feedback from the kids is just as important as the input from my principal. Overall, the students really enjoyed the activity and wanted to do more. I will definitely be looking for a variety of new ways to engage students in embodied thinking throughout my language arts lessons this year.

How Do I Love Thee: Abstracting

To be able to begin this activity I first had to reread the assigned chapters of Sparks of Genius. Then, I had to seek advice in order to clarify the task. Just like my students, I sometimes have difficulty thinking abstractly and identifying abstractions in everyday life. There are such a wide variety of ideas and topics related to figurative language, that it was difficult for me to narrow my options down and make a choice that would help me produce logical results. To me, the cognitive tool of abstracting deals with taking an object or idea and simplifying it down to one basic element. Furthermore, I feel that abstracting can also mean taking an object or idea and representing it in another way.

I first thought of some examples of how writers use figurative language in their work- personification, simile, metaphor, and onomatopoeia, to name a few. Which one could I chose that would fit with this activity? Writing of this type is filled with abstractions. After some careful consideration, I chose to focus on one figurative language tool that many writers often use. I chose to create two abstractions based on a metaphor. Since metaphors are abstract ideas in general, I had to really think "outside the box" to come up with my abstractions. According to Merriam-Webster, a metaphor is  "a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them". I chose to focus on a familiar metaphor I have used before in my language arts class- ideas in motion. I chose to create an abstraction representing this metaphor through the use of digital photography to represent my ideas. You can see my work below.

Ideas

Motion

Let me explain my thinking a little bit further. First, I took a photograph of a light bulb to represent "ideas". Sometimes when I am teaching my students it seems when they finally come to an understanding during the lesson, a light bulb goes off in their minds. This is something I can see on their faces as I am presenting my lesson and facilitating discussion. A lightbulb is a simple object that holds true meaning for the metaphor I have selected. The steering wheel below is used to represent "motion". For me, the steering wheel is the most basic element of the car. In working together with the wheels,it is what guides the car in the right direction. As I drive, my ideas are constantly in motion, whichever route I decide to take.

For my next medium, I chose to do something quite different. I decided to represent my metaphor through the use of poetry.I used abstract ideas to create a feeling of thinking and movement. My goal was to create simple phrases that conveyed the meaning of the metaphor "ideas in motion".

Spark of the ignition

Lights actions into motion

Travel the highway of imagination

Move through the traffic of the mind

These two different representations of the same metaphor show that there is more than one way to think about something we believe we already know about. As a teacher, it is my job to try and guide students to open their eyes to different ways of viewing a topic or idea. I think this activity helped me to practice doing this on my own. It also allowed me to experience some of the difficulty my students may have with abstracting. I was then able to reflect on the different approaches I can take to try and help them understand this concept. 

Side Note- I just visited the course website and the random cartoon that popped up happened to be Alex in Wonderland (light bulb). Needless to say, I had a good laugh! :-)

 

How Do I Love Thee: Patterning

     Patterns are the essence of figurative language. They are what make figurative language so unique and special. Various patterns can be formed and found through working with words. Poetry, for example, is filled with patterns. Some are more difficult to decipher than others. One concrete and common example of a pattern in this content area related to language arts is alliteration. This is a popular type of language used quite frequently by writers, and for many different reasons. After some careful consideration and time spent interacting with the course readings, I chose to focus on alliteration for my work on this module.

     Alliteration is best defined as the repetition of the same beginning letter, sound, or group of sounds in a series of words. Common ways alliteration can be used is within works of poetry, jokes, riddles, and tongue twisters. My original thoughts about patterns had me thinking of all of the various examples of alliteration that I knew. I considered what I have taught in my classroom throughout the years. I then started to think of a different way to represent my view of alliteration, one that my students could appreciate and understand. At first I had some trouble with this, and I was stumped. How could I re-pattern an already existing pattern to make it more interesting, yet still meaningful for the classroom? After taking some time to revisit the readings and brainstorm some more I had a plan in mind. I needed to create a tangible visual, so I turned to Prezi for help with representing my ideas.

     The presentation of my re-patterned topic is simply a new way to look at alliteration and some of its key uses in writing. I used appropriate images and engaging examples of phrases related to alliteration in my work. Even though the presentation may seem simple enough, it took time to compose my thoughts and arrange them in a way that made sense. I made sure to be careful about my word choices, and I also revisited and edited my work. I think these new ideas could aid my students in a better understanding of how this type of figurative language can be utilized for creative purposes in their own writing.  

     Patterns really are everywhere. Some are more apparent than others, for example, in math, where they may be more obvious when it comes to solving a problem.  Through my work on this module, I have noticed that some patterns may be more difficult to detect, even though they are there. I have come to find that it does take significant time and practice to notice them. Maybe I have grown accustomed to these repeating patterns in everyday life. I am still applying the ideas I have gained through the readings and using these thoughts to learn the best way to recognize and form patterns. Recognizing a pattern can be valuable because it can allow you to see things in a whole new light. It is not an easy task, so we must challenge ourselves to think differently. In regards to patterns, “Like a good riddle, each nonsense at any age may be a nuisance that reveals a new sense” (Sparks of Creativity, pg. 114). I agree!

Click the link to visit my work:  Re-patterned Topic

How Do I Love Thee: Perceiving

I am teaching language arts this year and as previously mentioned, the topic within the area I have chosen to focus on is figurative language. For this assignment I have chosen a familiar poem to examine.

Travel

The railroad track is miles away,

And the day is loud with voices speaking,

Yet there isn't a train goes by all day

But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,

Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,

But I see its cinders red on the sky,

And I hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with the friends I make,

And better friends I'll not be knowing;

Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,

No matter where it's going.

                                  - Edna St. Vincent Millay

Click the link below to discover my new view....

 Re-Imagined Representation

To me, the cognitive tool of perceiving is useful at opening up a new world of exploration. Practicing this tool gives us a chance to think outside of the box as we move into another realm of thought, beyond the usual. For this to happen we must first be willing to take the opportunity to examine things through various different lenses. This is the only way to allow for diverse views and unique observations of everyday images and objects in the world around us. 

My original observation of the poem I selected simply led me to read and then reread the text again and again. I repeated this process several times. I tried different strategies. I found myself closing my eyes. I then took several minutes to visualize the sights and sounds the language of the poem helped to create. I felt myself sitting on a train, daydreaming about my next great adventure. I then took off on a jet plane, destination unknown to me. Finally, I envisioned myself packing my bags to embark on a journey to a new and exciting place somewhere in the vast world of my mind. 

After taking some time to reflect on this process, I was unsure of how I could get others to see these wonderful visuals I had created for myself. For the re-imagination piece of this assignment, I wanted to represent a concrete visual of the variety of images I saw in my mind. I used Glogster as a tool to create a unique collage of ideas related to the poem, Travel. I made my work public so I could share my view with the world. The link to my work can be found above.

This new understanding of the poem through the creation of my visual piece gave me greater insight as to why the author may have chosen to write it in the first place. Maybe she just wished she could get away, escape the daily routine and simply explore her surroundings. I know that once I finished reading the poem I longed for a vacation myself. On another note, this assignment made me realize that there are many ways one can perceive figurative language. There are several choices as to how to use simple words in our writing. We have the potential to use our words as dynamic tools to express ourselves within our poetry and prose. With this said, it is clear that there is a lot of room for creativity within my topic. I believe that as long as I keep an open mind while interacting with the course content and assignments, I can discover new and interesting ways for my students to view this topic as well.