Sunday Drive

poem by Brian Gene Olson , illustrated by Cheryl Orsini

Learning intention:


I am learning to relate my own experiences and ideas to those presented in a text so that I can use them in my own writing when creating settings and situations.

 

Success criteria:

  • I can discuss how the situation in a text would relate to my life and location
  • I can create a poem based on the text that represents my own ideas and experiences.

 

Essential knowledge:

The School Magazine’s video about the English Textual Concept of Connotation, Imagery and Symbol can be used to assist students with recognising and using these in their reading and writing.

 

After reading the poem, discuss the imagery created by the author by using descriptions such as ‘a forest so green’, and ‘a field that is gold’. Ask students to consider what they may see on a Sunday outing. This may be a drive, a walk or a train ride. Explain that they will be writing their own poem about an outing in a similar style to the author. Discuss the local area and where a day trip may take them. Have them consider their surroundings and what sights they may see. This may include:

  • The landscape and surrounding natural elements
  • Particular buildings they are likely to see
  • The local animals they are likely to encounter
  • The density of the population in the area

Explain that they may also choose to have their outing take place somewhere else that they are familiar with, such as the area one of their relatives live or a holiday they have taken.

Have students make a plan in their book by sketching a basic map of where their outing may take them and noting what they will see along the way. They should then write a list of keywords from their map and consider how they can use rhyme to compose two stanzas from their plan.

You may wish to model an example on the board, such as:

We drive past the beaches

Around the winding bends

Where people laugh and play

And swim with their friends

 

Where seagulls squawk and squall

And fight over a chip

And on the horizon

A dolphin does a flip.