Ripe for the Picking

Learning intention

I am learning to analyse the use of idioms and personification and to experiment with using them in my writing.

Success criteria

I can:

• locate examples of personification
• analyse idioms in a poem
• reflect on the impact of using idioms and personification
• compose examples of idioms to describe an animal
• compose examples of personification to describe the animal
• include my ideas in a poem

Essential knowledge

View the video Connotation, Imagery and Symbolungroup from the English Textual Concepts. After the lesson introduction and prior to reading the version of Ripe for the Picking in the magazine, inform students that the original version poem includes a number of idioms. View the English K-10 Syllabus Glossaryungroup for the definitions of the term idiom, personification and imagery.

Introduction

Display the following edited version of the poem, Ripe for the Picking, and read it aloud to students:

At the edge of the park, where it’s nearly dark, I walk

They squawk in the trees

Their wings wrapped around themselves; they hang from the trees

in a large group

they make lots of noise

they hang from their feet 

the flying fox

Instruct students to sketch a brief image of what they imagine, based on the poem. Discuss how easy/difficult students found sketching their image. Use the following questions to guide the discussion:

• What information in the poem did you use when creating your sketch? (Sample responses include, the edge of the park, nearly dark, in the trees, wings wrapped around themselves, hang from the trees by their feet, in a large group)
• Can you visualise their personalities and behaviour? (Only that they are making lots of noise)
• Did you use prior knowledge to help you with creating your sketch? (Yes, I used prior knowledge)

Teacher modelling – 10 minutes

Read the original version of the poem aloud to the students or listen to the audio version. For now, avoid the students viewing the illustration in the magazine. Instruct students to make changes or to adapt their sketches based on the information provided in this version of the poem. Reflect on the same three questions as previously, using the think aloud strategy, and emphasise the following:

• This version of the poem provides far more vivid descriptions which enables readers to form a clearer picture of the scene. Vocabulary that helps create a clear mental image of the flying foxes’ appearance includes: like shells, they hang, peas in a pod, swollen and plump and ready to fall, while upside-down they hang nice and neat.
• The vocabulary used in this version provides a clearer description of their personalities and behaviour. Vocabulary that does this includes: they squabble and squawk, full of themselves, bursting with life they chatter and call, they swing from their feet, rather bizarre—one out of the box.
• You require less prior knowledge to create a sketch using this version, as the vocabulary creates a far clearer mental image of the scene.

Guided practice – 10 minutes

Inform students that the author has used a number of literary devices, including idioms and personification. Ensure students understand the meanings of the following idioms:

• Peas in a pod (two things that are alike or similar)
• Bursting with life (full of energy, excitement or vitality)
• Full of themselves (excessively pleased with themselves or conceited)
• Out of the box (thinks creatively or unconventionally)
• Ripe for the picking (something easy to take/take advantage of)

Remind students that personification means attributing human-like characteristics to inanimate objects or animals. Draw students' attention to the following example:

they squabble (line 2)

Place students with a partner. Divide the remaining lines of the poem (lines 3 to 10) into couplets (pairs of lines) and allocate each pair one of the couplets. Note: more than one pair of students can be allocated the same couplet. Instruct students to identify an example of personification in the couplet they have been allocated. Students can record their examples on a shared slide deck or copy it onto the board once.

Discuss responses. Examples include:

• Lines 3 and 4: wrapped up in themselves, peas in a pod, odd sort of gang
• Lines 5 and 6: bursting with life, chatter and call
• Lines 7 and 8: neat, full of themselves
• Lines 9 and 10: one out of the box, ripe for the picking

Discuss what the use of idioms reveals about the author’s impression of the flying foxes:

• That they are all alike
• They are a gang that work as a pack
• They are full of life and vitality
• They are excessively pleased with themselves/conceited
• They are creative and unconventional
• They are easy to take

Emphasise that the descriptions include information about the flying foxes’ appearance and their personalities/behaviour. Emphasise that the use of idioms and personification makes the descriptions vivid and provides motives and explanations for the flying foxes’ behaviour. Discuss idioms students are familiar with and display these for students to refer to. Sample responses include:

• Bite the bullet
• Break the ice
• Barking up the wrong tree
• Costs an arm and a leg
• At the drop of a hat
• Don’t give up your day job
• Cutting corners
• Go back to the drawing board

Independent activity - 15 minutes

Inform students that they will be experimenting with using idioms and personification to describe an animal. Tell students that first you will plan an example together first. View the images on the webpage, Wacky Weekend: Aussie Animals,ungroup from National Geographic Kids. Select one of the images, for example the image of the dugong foraging for food on the ocean floor. Discuss idioms and examples of personification that might be used to describe the dugong in the image. Sample responses include:

Idioms

• Barking up the wrong tree when it searches for food in the sand
• Perhaps it should go back to the drawing board and find food more easily
• Maybe it should bite the bullet and look for larger food items out at sea

Personification

• It diligently searches for food
• Tirelessly dredges the ocean floor
• A gentle giant dancing along the seabed

Discuss how these might be used in a poem about the dugong. Remind students that Ripe for the Picking included both descriptions of what the flying foxes look like and their personality/behaviour. Inform students that they should aim to do the same in the poem they construct. Collaboratively compose an example. Refer back to Ripe for the Picking to emphasise that it is written using rhyming couplets. Inform students that they can follow the same rhyme scheme or choose to make their poem not rhyme if they prefer. A sample response is:

A gentle giant, the dugong, with its long head,

Floating and dancing its way across the seabed,

It tirelessly searches for food, foraging here and there,

If it’s barking up the wrong tree, it doesn’t seem to care.

Instruct students to work with the same pairs as previously and to complete the following steps:

• Select an animal from the images on the webpage, Wacky Weekend: Aussie Animals,ungroup from National Geographic Kids
• Identify idioms to describe it
• Compose examples of personification
• Include your ideas in a poem

Allow time for students to compose their poems, before displaying them around the room.

Differentiation

Instruct students requiring support to use the following scaffold for composing their responses:

• The animal I have chosen is:
• Its appearance is:
• One idiom to describe it is:
• Its personality/behaviour appears to be:
• This reminds me of the following human trait:
• Extension: use the human trait you have identified to compose a sentence about the animal’s behaviour/personality, that features personification.

Remind students to use the list of idioms on the board as a word bank when responding. Instruct students requiring extension to select another poem from this issue of the magazine. Tell students to edit the poem, to include at least one example of personification and one idiom.

Assessment

Conduct a gallery walk with the students, walking around the classroom and reading poems. Provide students with post-it-notes and instruct them to use them for the following:

• Note where you particularly like the idioms or personification on particular poems by either writing personification or idiom and placing a tick next to it
• Record suggestions for how students might improve
• Attach the post-it-notes to the appropriate poems

Ensure all poems receive at least two pieces of feedback. Allow time for students to view the feedback provided by their peers. Students may choose to edit their work based on the feedback if they wish. Mark the work samples, using the success criteria to guide feedback.