Mar
3
Rationale:
The magic of writing comes when an author and an audience harmonize–the author anticipates what the reader needs, and the reader feels like the author “gets” them. Mastery of this art means we can commune(icate) over centuries, across cultures and past other chasms that would divide us.
It’s not so unusual to feel this in conversation (in dialogue) because there are so many more channels besides our words carrying meaning. If we notice the discussion going awry, we can change our posture; the tone, pace, pitch & volume of our words; or our facial, hand & eye gestures. Let’s face it, the interaction changes the very words we choose to use & when we use them. None of this seems to be available to the writer…at first.
Students need to see that meaning can be borne by many channels in writing, just as it is in talking. All sorts of figurative language, sound devices, connotations, forms/genre, sentence/paragraph construction and organization can be manipulated. Which grammatical rules are broken or preserved, the layout & media, and images depicted by the words all subtly nudge and coax the reader wherever the author wishes to go.
Objective: Know how imagery can affect the reader & influence meaning.
Warm-up:
Write a quick sketch-in-words about your room. Make sure to describe it well enough that we get a sense of who you are.
Mini Lesson:
Discuss a couple of examples from student warm-ups–focus on a couple of meaningful depictions.
Explain that the following song is somewhat vague, in a literal sense–that much of what is meant could be up to individual interpretation.
Eventhough it’s literal meaning might remain elusive, it’s use of imagery is quite vivid.
Pass-out the lyrics (suggested), and ask them to focus on the guiding questions:
- What images did you find interesting?
- What do you think the author might achieve by using these images?
Play “Cast a Hook in Me”Cast a Hook in Me by Laura Veirs.
Other songs that might work well:
- “Strange Fruit” especially performed by Billie Holiday
- “Maybe Sparrow” by Neko Case
- “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone
Application: (according to your classroom/curricular needs)
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License & Sharing
Breathe life to the street from the mouth
Those ruby red lips have much to give
Pull life from the land with your capable hands
Those life loving beautiful broken hands
Oh, I’ll stand with you and marvel
At the cosmos pink and bright
All the pages flipping backwards
Til time is gone and wrong is right
Rivers running up the hills and to the sky and down to the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me
Sing me a salty blue song, I’ll be gone
With watery cheeks down flowered lanes
Tattered sails on a ramshakle ship, I’ll go pale
Staring straight in the face looming tempest waves
Otherwise I’ll wither and die here
On this reach of rubble rambling
With two years filled up with sand, dear
In a broken daze I’ll be scrambling
Like rivers running up the hills and to the sky and down to the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me
Summer sky falling into the sea, taking part of me
See the bones on the sand in the light
All the heards of the sea rushing by, pay no mind
To the dancing reflections gone wild
And at night a fractured star fell
And pierced right through the thick of me
I cried out in pain and joy, yes
I’m not dead, not numb, not withering
Like a falling leaf who keeps her green, I’m turning bright in the sea
Where a merman with a twinkle casts a hook in me