12/3-5 "The Street" by Ann Petry

Today we read more about figurative language from our grammar books.

 Students were to write three similes or metaphor or any combination of the two using one word from column A and one word from Column B.  They can use the words more than once.

Students read the story in pairs and then completed Exercise 4 #s 1-5.

Students then were given a worksheet on writing an essay on this article, using examples from the text.  You will find it below.  

This is how one would write an essay analyzing this text.  Students are not expected to write the Introduction and Conclusion as they are already given.  Instead, they will concentrate on the body paragraphs.  There are a few corrections for the worksheet though.  In the fourth paragraph...it mentions figurative language, specifically metaphors and similes, well, there are no metaphors or similes in this excerpt.  Instead, students will write a second paragraph using imagery.  The first imagery paragraph, I wrote...students should use this as a reference.  

     Petry uses visual imagery to describe the violent nature of the wind, “as it rattles the tops of the garbage cans.”  With the use of this imagery, the reader imagines the intense danger the pedestrians are encountering.  Further illustrating the wind’s fury, Petry makes “the wind wrap newspapers around the pedestrian’s feet” making it challenging for the people to continue with their daily lives. 

This is the first body paragraph for the essay.  Students will compose body paragraphs 3 and 4 for this essay.  The first should discuss and give two examples of personification used by the author and how each example affects the reader.  

The second body paragraph (since there are no similes and metaphors) should be another paragraph on imagery.  Students should choose different examples and different affects on the reader.