The Polar Express discussion

CITATION IN APA FORMAT:
Van Allsburg, Chris. (1985). The Polar Express. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company.

GRADE LEVEL(S) OF LESSON:
Grade 2 and 3

INTROUDUCE THE TOPIC:
The teacher will introduce the topic of imagery to the class. She will explain that imagery is visually descriptive language in a literary work, like a book.

SHARE EXAMPLES:
Teacher will read aloud the first 3 stanzas of the poem, “View it From Afar” by Emile Pinet Avatar, which has rich imagery. While reading it, the teacher will tell the students to close their eyes (to picture what the poem is saying, and raise their hand every time they think that they hear imagery. At the end have the students turn and talk to a partner about what imagery they heard and explain what they imagined. During this time the teacher will be walking around and listening to conversations. Once the kids finish up sharing, the teacher will describe a few things she heard from conversations and relate it back to the topic of imagery.

PROVIDE INFORMATION:
The teacher will discuss what makes imagery effective:
• The use of similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, and personification
• Creation of a “mental picture”
• Words that appeal to the five senses
• Effective use of adjectives
The teacher will then give them guidance on how to decipher an author’s use of imagery:
• Can I picture this story in my mind?
• Does the author have any onomatopoeia, personification, similes, or metaphors?
• Does the book have illustrations? Do they align with the writing in the story?
• Do the illustrations give more description of the story? Or, are the illustrations minimal and do they depend more on the words in the story?

SUPERVISE PRACTICE:
Read The Polar Express aloud to the students, stopping at points of imagery and have them turn and talk to their partners about the strategies the author used. After finishing the book, have the writing on pages of imagery from the book printed on cards and have students pick which page they want for the assessment.

ASSESS LEARNING:
Once the students pick the line they want for the assessment, have them glue it on their graphic organizer in the blank space on the left, and draw what the imagery describes on the right. On the bottom portion of the page, in the lined spaces, have them write the effective imagery strategies that the author used on that certain page.

Resources:

Pinet, Emile. (2016). View it From Afar. Retrieved from
https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/view_...