Personal Inquiry Presentation

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Personal Inquiry Presentation
Michaela Andrews
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Outine of Presentation

• Essential Question
• Context and Purpose
• Supporting Questions
• Teaching Methods/Strategies
• Data/Results
• What I Learned
• Suggestions for Next Time

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My Essential Question

• How can I help my students incorporate
  descriptive and figurative language in their free
  verse poetry and personal essays?

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Context of This Inquiry Project

• Two 7th grade Language Arts classes at Community
  Preparatory School
• Three Units
• Holes by Louis Sachar
• Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
• Short stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe

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Purpose in Selecting This Project

• To Teach my students to
• Critically appreciate Hesses writing
• Develop understanding of
• descriptive writing
• various elements of figurative language
• Employ similar skills to improve their own
  free-verse poetry and personal essays

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Supporting Questions

• What are the elements of descriptive and
  figurative language that I will focus on in this
  particular unit?
• How will I teach these elements of descriptive
  and figurative language so that my students will
  understand their value and how to implement them
  in their own writing?
• How will I assess whether my students
  understanding of descriptive and figurative
  language, as well as their ability to effectively
  use it in their writing, has developed?

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Answer to First Supporting Question

• Question
• What are the elements of descriptive and
  figurative language that I will focus on in this
  particular unit?
• Answer
• Descriptive Language sensory details, specific
  nouns and verbs
• Figurative Language personification, simile, and
  metaphor

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Teaching Methods/Strategies

• Nightly creative writing in the style of Hesses
  narrator
• Mini-lessons on descriptive and figurative
  language using images as prompts
• Scaffolding modeling activities, providing
  exemplars
• Graphic organizers, brainstorming exercises
• Personal Writing Projects (Significant Setting
  Essay and I Am From Poem)
• Revision Process (peer conferences, multiple
  drafts)
• Group work daily group discussions
• Class or group presentations of final projects

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Teaching Personification

• Studying examples from Out of the Dust
• Writing examples of personification in pairs
  based on various images
• Dust Bowl PowerPoint presentation
• Dust Bowl Personification Poetry Assignment/
  Booklet
• Discussion Why do we bother to study
  personification? How can it add to a story/poem?

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Modeling Personification

• A figure of speech in which inanimate objects,
  animals, or abstractions are given human
  qualities or are represented as possessing human
  form.

Example I was reminded of my grandfathers face
when I looked down at my weary, well-traveled
boots, creased with the wrinkles of old age.
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Student Samples Dust Bowl Personification Poems
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Teaching Metaphor and Simile

• Studying examples from Out of the Dust
• Using images to inspire examples
• Creating web association charts
• Designing Simile/Metaphor posters with image to
  decorate classroom

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Modeling Metaphor/Simile Posters Simile Example
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Modeling Metaphor/Simile Posters Metaphor
Example
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Student Samples Metaphor and Simile Posters
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Student Samples Metaphor and Simile Posters
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Student Samples Metaphor and Simile Posters
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Teaching Descriptive Writing

• I Am From Poem Assignment
• Analyzing George Ella Lyons Where Im From
• Brainstorming using Sense Cube graphic organizer
• Discussing other student examples of I Am From
  poems
• Writing first drafts

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I Am From Poem Procedure (Continued)

• Revising drafts (first my draft as a whole class
  and then students first drafts on their own)
• Peer Conferences
• Revising first drafts
• Presenting poems as a whole class
• Typing
• Presenting to whole school

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Excerpts of Students I Am From Poems
I am from lots of white sand and palm trees. I
come from lots of machetes and guns. I also come
from seeing little boys and girls running around
naked playing tag I come from salsa, bachata,
and most of all, reggaeton. I am from horns
blaring at two in the morning, to the sound of
horseshoes clicking on the road. Were just like
New Yorkers, partiers, dancers, and noise makers
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Excerpts of Students I Am From Poems
I am from the sweet smell of cookies on a cold
winter day, From the bittersweet taste of curry
chicken, and the yummy sour taste of blue
raspberry bubblegum. I am from the beautiful
sound of Arabic in the mosque on a Saturday
night in the month of Ramadan. From questions and
questions like Why do you wear that thing on
your head? and Are you from Iraq?
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Excerpts of Students I Am From Poems
I am from the sun-beaten fields of cotton, where
droplets of sweat fell from her brow as she
worked. I am from a legacy that has passed its
faith from generation to generation. I am from
the quiver that my Indian ancestor carried with
pride. He placed me on his bow and set me
soaring through time to reach a place where I
could begin my destiny
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Excerpts of Students I Am From Poems
I am from adoption papers and Shojo Beat
subscriptions
I am from frizzy hair wild as static and nappy
heads thick as blood
From newly brewed coffee. A black and white
mix of cream and of coffee. From Each
ripple erupting in silence. From each scent that
is released and freed into the unexpected whirl
of the world
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Self-Assessment Questionaire

• Four types of questions
• I understand what sensory details are.
• I know how to recognize sensory details and
  descriptive writing in the books that I read.
• I know how to use sensory details and descriptive
  language to enhance my own writing.
• Compared to what I knew before this year, my
  understanding of descriptive writing and my
  ability to use it effectively in my own writing
  has improved based on what Ive learned in
  Language Arts this trimester.

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Average of Students Responses to Questionaire
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Frequency of Students Rankings
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Exit Ticket

• The Prompt
• What have you learned about descriptive writing
  and figurative language throughout our study of
  Out of the Dust?
• Do you feel like you have improved as a writer in
  the past few weeks?

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Exit Ticket Responses

• I feel like I did not improve at all. First
  because we did the exact journal entry everyday.
  The only thing that changed was the vocab word.

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Exit Ticket Responses

• I think that I did improve. Because I used more
  description. But I could still do better on the
  personification though. I also feel that I did
  good. And I could still get more better at it.

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Exit Ticket Responses

• Descriptive language uses sensory detail like
  hear, see, smell, taste, and feel. Figurative
  language has similes, metaphors, and
  personification. I think my writing is the same
  as how Ive always written it. I just use more
  figurative language.

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Exit Ticket Responses

• I learned that similes use like or as. I also
  learned that metaphors and similes are used very
  often in life. I feel like I improved a little
  in similes and descriptive writing. But not
  anything else. OH also I improved my poem
  writing ability, ex the I am poem and the
  picture things about the car.

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Exit Ticket Responses

• Ive learned that adding one or two words to a
  sentence can change a lot about its description.
  Just saying what you feel based off of a sense
  can really make your writing better and more
  alive. I think I really have improved as a
  writer because now I know different ways of
  description. Its easier for me to write a story
  or a poem since I have had so many tips and
  lessons on it.

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Exit Ticket Responses

• Ive learned how to put deeper thought into my
  poems. Not just to write about a topic, but
  write about certain things and personify
  non-living things. I think Ive improved on my
  writing skills. Ive had the chance to write
  about me, which I dont often do.

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Answer to Third Supporting Question

• Question
• How will I assess whether my students
  understanding of descriptive and figurative
  language, as well as their ability to effectively
  use it in their writing, has developed?
• Answer

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Data I Collected

• Initial Writing Sample Significant Setting
• Daily journal assignments
• Notes on their discussions
• Personification poems of Dust Bowl images
• Simile and Metaphor webs and image-based posters
• Student I Am From Poems
• Significant Setting Essay
• Exit Ticket
• Self-Assessment Questionaire

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What I Learned

• What worked
• Creating routines that require daily creative
  writing both in class and for homework
• Using images and video clips to inspire writing
• Scaffolding mini-lessons with clear directions,
  multiple models, and group work
• Assigning projects that are for a larger audience
• Assigning Personal Writing Projects
• allows students to define, reflect on, and share
  with each other who they are, where they come
  from, significant experiences, etc.
• Builds atmosphere of openness, respect, and trust

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Suggestions for Next Time

• Explore conventional uses of figurative language
• Discuss the ways in which our thinking and
  understanding of the world is shaped by our
  language and, hence, the conventional metaphors
  we use
• Analyze how conventional metaphors vary from one
  culture to another
• Compile students I Am From poems into a
  booklet for each student to keep
• Find resources for publishing student writing and
  encourage students to attempt to publish their
  work for other audiences

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Questions or Comments?