Writing stories with person-ality

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of adding figurative language to their narrative writing. Through teacher modeling and sharing of appropriate picture books, students will learn to recognize and create personifications for their stories.

A lesson plan for grade 4 English Language Arts

By Janice Lane

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Related topics

• Learn more about figurative language, language arts, personification, read-alouds, and word choice.

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Learning outcomes

Students will be able to understand that personification is a figure of speech that applies human qualities such as feelings and behavior to inanimate objects. They will begin to appreciate its use to enrich the imagery in writing and will be able to add personification to their stories.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1 hours

Materials/resources

• Several children’s picture books that show effective use of personification. Some suggested titles are:
  • Dark and Full of Secrets by Carol Carrick
  • Flossie and the Fox by Patricia McKissack
  • The Winter Wren by Brock Cole
  • Song of the Horse by Richard Kennedy
  • Winter Barn by Peter Parnall
  • Apple Tree by Peter Parnall
  • All Wet! All Wet! by James Skofield
• Students will need pencils, paper, and one copy of Independent Practice
• Teacher will need a transparency of Personification Samples

Technology resources

Overhead projector (or some other projection device)

Pre-activities

Prior to this lesson, students should have experience writing both personal and imaginative narratives. They should have several pieces in their portfolio that could be used for revision.

Activities

1. Begin by writing the word “personification” boldly on the board or overhead. Ask students to look at the word carefully and see if they notice a familiar word embedded in the word. Tell them that this smaller word is a clue to the meaning of the larger word. Ask them to guess what they think the word “personification” means and how it would relate to their writing.
2. After allowing them to discuss their theories for a few moments, tell them that personification is a technique used by writers to make their writing more interesting and colorful. It involves giving human characteristics to things that are not human. This can be done in two ways. One way is to use human emotions to describe an object. For example: The lonely house felt abandoned after the happy family moved out. Another way to personify an object is to describe it using a human action. For example: The angry clouds announced the coming storm. Point out to the children that personification adds vivid imagery and enriches the meaning of their writing. It adds variety to your sentences and gives the story extra punch. At this time also point out that it is not helpful to use personification in every sentence. It is best if they limit its use to once or twice in each story.
3. Next read aloud a book of your choice that has excellent examples of personification. As you read, stop and point out each example and allow discussion. You may read more than one book, progressing to having the students point out the examples without you telling them.
4. After most students seem to be fairly capable of recognizing personification in the picture books, have them take out a sheet of notebook paper and fold it in half so that they have two columns. At the top of one column they will write “Feelings.” At the top of the other column they are to write “Actions.” On the overhead, you create a transparency with the same column headings. As a group discussion, brainstorm a list of feelings that a person might experience. You write the suggested words on your overhead list and the students copy the list on their papers. Guide and suggest when necessary.
   

   happy	sad	nervous
   afraid	worried	excited
   angry	unhappy	impatient
   lonely	proud	sleepy
   hungry	tired	disappointed

5. When you think you have a good list, follow the same procedure for verbs. Make a list of verbs that are actions that are unique to human beings. Again, each child writes the words on his list as you write them on the overhead. Again, guide and suggest when appropriate.
   

   cry	laugh	moan
   clear throat	sing	tickle
   write	groan	sigh
   work	beckon	cry out
   shout	dare	play
   play tag	appear	disappear
   dance	scold	beg
   nag	invite	call
   wink	smile	devour
   eat	sleep	run

6. It is a good idea to point out that animals can be personified, but careful selection of verbs is necessary. For example: “The dog begged for his supper.” This is not a personification because it describes a dog’s natural behavior pattern. However, “The ocean begged me to jump in” is a personification of the word “ocean” because an ocean does not literally “beg.”
7. Place your transparency of “Personification Samples” on the overhead with all of the examples covered. Explain to the students that you will be revising some sentences to create personification but you will need their help. They may use their brainstormed lists of “feelings” and “actions” to help them. Uncover the first sentence. Discuss feelings that might be appropriate and verbs that will fit with that feeling. After the students generate several examples, uncover the revision on the transparency. It is amazing how many different examples the students can generate. Follow this procedure for as many samples on the transparency as you deem necessary. Have the students copy any examples of personification that they find particularly interesting. They might want to create a “bank” for use in their own writing.
8. Students should be ready for “Independent Practice” at this time. You can vary this assignment according to student ability. Students can either record just a verb and a feeling for each word, or they can be required to actually produce a complete sentence. This will provide practice in creating personification while also choosing feelings and actions that accentuate a particular mood.
9. In closing, remind the students that giving human qualities (actions or feelings) to objects adds interest to your story.

Assessment

I assess the students learning in several ways after this lesson. During the writing lesson immediately following this lesson, I first review what we learned. Then I either select a piece for each child or ask each child to select a completed piece for revision. The students are to go back through their stories and look for places where they have described an object or scene. They must try to make the object “come alive” by adding a verb and/or a feeling that makes it seem human. Students may be allowed to use the previously generated list of “actions” and “feelings.” After their revision, I conference individually with each student to discuss his/her use of personification.

Another assessment tool could be to make a transparency of a teacher-created “model” story and have the students create personifications for that story. Completion of Attachment 2 can also be used as an assessment.

After this lesson, students are required to have at least one personification in each new piece of writing.

Supplemental information

Comments

This can be a difficult concept for some students to master. For those students, I have created a list of examples of personification that could be used in describing the setting of many of the stories they will be writing during the year. The students are allowed to refer to the list when writing rough drafts or editing.