Making comparisons II

Making comparisons II

Pencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about identifying and explaining the use of personification in a poem.
In each of the following poems an object is being described as if it is an animal. 
Next to each poem:
  1. write the name of the object and the animal that are being compared, and
  2. write down three ways each object is made to seem as if it is alive.
The first one has been done as an example.
 
a)             Asparagus
                Like a nest
                Of snakes
                Awakened, craning
                Long-necked
 
                Out of the
                Ground: to stand
                With sharp
                Scaly heads
 
                Alert, tasting
               The air,
               Taking the sun,
               Looking around.
 
i)  What object and animal are being compared?
 
                       asparagus and snakes
 
ii)  Write down three ways in which the object is made to seem as if it is alive.
  • The asparagus fronds crane their necks
  • They have sharp scaly heads
  • They look around

Question 1Change answer

b)          Tractor
              The tractor rests
              In the shed,
              Dead or asleep,
 
              But with high
              Hind wheels
              Held so still
 
              We know
              It is only waiting,
              Ready to leap -
 
              Like a heavy
              Brown
              Grasshopper              
 
i)  What object and animal are being compared?
                   and   
ii)  Write down three ways in which the object is made to seem as if it is alive.
      
      
      

Question 1Change answer

c)             Safety pin
                Closed, it sleeps
                On its side
                Quietly,
                The silver
                Image
                Of some
                Small fish;
 
                Opened, it snaps
                Its tail out
                Like a thin
                Shrimp, and looks
                At the sharp
                Point with a
                Surprised eye.  
 
i)  What object and animal are being compared?
           and 
 
ii)  Write down three ways in which the object is made to seem as if it is alive.
      
      
      

Question 1Change answer

d)     Holden Commodore
        In the early evening,
        I see a big red lion
        with its eyes shining yellow.
 
        It prowls for ages
        along the road
        and only stops
        to drink at Caltex.
 
        I can hear it roar.     
 
i)  What object and animal are being compared?
     and 
 
ii)  Write down three ways in which the object is made to seem as if it is alive.
     
      
         

Question 1Change answer

e)  What is the effect of showing how objects are like animals in poetry?
     
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pen and paper or online (without auto marking).
Copyright: 
Asparagus', 'tractor' and 'safety pin' by Valerie Worth, from 'All the Small Poems', Harper Collins Canada Ltd, 1987. Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holder of these texts. 
 
'Holden Commodore' by Ross Neal, Journal of Young Peoples' Writing, Learning Media Limited, 1999. Reproduced with permission.
Level:
4
Curriculum info: 
English, Making meaning, Reading
Key Competencies: 
Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
poem, metaphor, simile, personification, language features, analysis
Description of task: 
Students are required to read three poems, identify the animal that the object in each poem is being compared with, and identify the ways in which the look or movement of the objects are described so that they seem like these animals.
Curriculum Links: 
 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • use comprehension strategies
  • recognise and unpack figurative language
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Reading at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Making sense of text: processing system, set 5
Reading for literary experience, set 5
within the Reading Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
  Y8 (11/2002)
b) i)ii) A tractor and a grasshopper.Any 3 of:

  • It "rests/In the shed".
  • It is "Dead or asleep".
  • It holds itself/"Hind wheels" still.
  • It is "waiting".
  • It is "Ready to leap"
 very easy3 correct - easy2 correct - very easy1 correct - very easy
c) i)ii) A safety pin and a fish/shrimp.Any 3 of:

  • It "sleeps/On its side".
  • It is quiet.
  • It "snaps/Its tail out".
  • It "looks"
  • It has a "Surprised eye".
 very easy3 correct - moderate2 correct - easy1 correct - very easy
d) i)ii) A Holden Commodore/car/vehicle and a lion.Any 3 of:

  • It has ("shining yellow") "eyes".
  • It "prowls" ("for ages along the road").
  • It ("stops to") "drink"/It drinks.
  • It roars.
 very easy3 correct - easy2 correct - very easy1 correct - very easy

 
e)   Any 1 of:

  • It makes us look at/think about the objects in a new way.
  • It makes the objects seem as if they are alive.
 difficult