Module 5: Zoom In

In Florida, we have lizards everywhere. They used to be interesting when I was younger and we came to Florida for vacation, now they are just annoying. I thought maybe my feelings would change a bit if I took the time to see the world from their perspective, so here goes . . . 

 

 

 

Here is his view from what looks like large cliffs from the first picture (which is really just a little fountain in our back yard, but don't tell him).

They are always hiding out in the bushes . . . thankful when our dog hasn't noticed them yet.

Here is their view from outside the window, where they like to hang out pretty much every day, all day.

One of their favorite past-times is peeping through the fence . . . "So that's what the neighbor's backyard looks like!"

My daughters are deathly afraid of them, but they are completely unsuspecting of the one peering down on them over the swing.

Again, both girls are playing carefree on the swing set with no idea what is lurking down below.

Module 4: What's the Big Idea?

Abstracting follows some of the same guidelines as patterning, in that it requires our ability to observe (with all our senses) to get to the core of our topic. I can also see patterning as an aid to identifying abstractions; it’s when we recognize the patterns that we can begin to abstract – or single out – features of importance.  

For example, when I look at similes and metaphors, I recognize a common pattern of making comparisons. So, if I were to peel back the layers even more to abstract a simplified meaning of what similes and metaphors really are, I would be left with (at least) two different objects or ideas placed side by side because of some type of connection between the two. And if we abstract even more, we can see that one of the objects or ideas actually relies upon the other to bring it meaning or clarity. By breaking it down to this level, we can teach students that similes and metaphors are useful when students are trying to express an idea that by itself will not produce any kind of emotional response or connection in the listener, but when coupled with something comparable to it that the listener will understand better, similes and metaphors allow students to express their thoughts more clearly and accurately.

 Abstracting can thus be defined as the ability to pull out hidden features, but even these hidden features can be new, unclear or completely foreign to students. Analogizing helps to make the unknown known; this is an important step in bringing clarity to students.

Personally, abstracting affects my creativity in similar ways that patterning and observing did. Each of these thinking skills has stretched me beyond seeing everything as a nice, little compact package. Instead, I find that the package actually contains pieces and parts that make up the whole – pieces and parts that are vital to understanding the whole. Presenting students with an assignment where they are required to use figurative language may be an overwhelming way to propose it to them (because the term itself can sound scary or foreign), but telling students they are going to create word pictures, or that they are going to describe a simple word like “flower” so that it connects to all five of their senses will help them explore and perfect their own creativity while at the same time, help them gain a better understanding of what figurative language is all about.

Short term, these thinking skills cause me to step back and take a deeper look at my topic, but they do something more than that as well; they give me multiple paths to approach any topic from (in my case, figurative language) in order to stimulate a connection for my students. More importantly, once students connect, they will begin to make abstractions and analogies on their own which will ultimately provide them with the greatest amount of understanding. For example, even I feel like I have a greater understanding of “irony” just by abstracting from it an image of an empty room. I now understand irony as not just being the opposite of what we expected; instead, I have a new depth of understanding for the incongruities of irony. Irony, based on the analogy of the empty room, can be interpreted as the feeling we get when all that we expected is suddenly stripped away and we are left with a dark, cold, barren, empty room. The goal is, of course, that students will connect more to this analogy than they will by just reading and memorizing a definition for “irony”. They, too, will begin to understand the “opposites” or “incongruities” of irony in a way that will capture and connect their senses; and this is where learning will ultimately take place.

Module 4: How Do I Love Thee?

I decided to look directly at figurative language, which is my content area topic. When I began to “peel the layers away” as we were asked to do for this assignment, I found at its roots “a single word” which can also be translated as a single thought or idea; in other words, something undeveloped, but full of potential. This abstraction of figurative language reminded me of how a tiny seed eventually blossoms to become a beautiful flower. I have explained this analogy below in three different ways – a diagram, pictures, and a poem.

Diagram:

Figurative language --> Verbal image --> Descriptive words --> A single word

 

A beautiful flower -----------------------------------------------> A single seed

Pictures:

a single seed

a beautiful flower

hands (a single word)

Hands, that with each new line and each new wrinkle, have a story to tell. (figurative language)

Poem:

                FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

                                               

One does not plant a field of sunflower seeds

For the pleasure of looking at the seeds.

They want to experience the beauty of the flower –

See it sprouting,

     Blossoming,

          Dancing,

               Fragrant.

One does not voice an idea or a thought

For the pleasure of speaking mere words.

They want to convey the splendor of the thought –

Make it sprout,

     Blossom,

          Dance,

               Entice every sense.

Life originates in the seed;

It twitches with modest words.

But both express beauty and worth

When they begin to flower.

Module 4: Zoom In

Since my content area is Figurative Language, I felt Frost's poem was perfect for pulling out "metaphorical" abstractions. 

"Birches"

by Robert Frost

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
As ice storms do. Often you must have seen them 5
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells 10
Shattering and avalanching on the snow crust—
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed 15
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. 20
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter of fact about the ice storm,
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows—
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, 25
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father’s trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them, 30
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise 35
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. 40
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs 45
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May not fate willfully misunderstand me 50
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk 55
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

The swing in this picture is abstracted from the author's portrayal of swinging on birch trees:

 The chain of the swing is the force that pulls the "swinger" back at each attempt "to get away from earth awhile":

The bolt which holds the swing is a reminder of that which holds us to "Truth" even as our imagination begins to take off. (Notice the sky just ahead and how close "freedom" is. Even the tree is trying to reach it but its trunk is a reminder that it will remain grounded as well.):

Module 3: What's the Big Idea?

Once we have learned to really observe, as defined in chapter three of Sparks, then our chances of recognizing the patterns that surround us in every area of our life increases. While imaging helps us to re-envision the common into something unique, patterning helps us see how even the unique, complex things are ultimately formed by starting from that which is simple or common. Personally, I have grown so accustomed to looking at things as a whole—incorporating all of a thing’s complexity at once—that many times patterns go unrecognized. The examples from chapters six and seven show over and over that even the most complex music, formulas, paintings, literature, etc.  grow from a combination of simple patterns that intertwine into something that the untrained senses cannot separate into parts. Understanding that patterns can be recognized by breaking down complexities is a key to helping us in learning how to form patterns and teach students how to form patterns.

The example of the Aka Pygmy music, found on pages 119-120, which shows how the simple, separated beats come together to form a complex sound, reminded me of an example of a Tuvan Throat Singer that I encountered at a Bella Fleck and the Flecktones concert. What was fascinating about his was song was his ability to sing two notes at once at different octaves. If you listen closely, you can hear the separate patterns which sung simultaneously can baffle your sense of hearing.

Poetry also opens the door for many types of pattern examples to be recognized. Some of the more playful ones can be found in haikus, acrostics, ballades, cinquains, diamantes, etc. One of my favorite is the diamante poem which displays the pattern of a diamond shape as well as specific word patterns. Having students create their own shape-patterned poetry while at the same time playing with word patterns would be a fun way to creatively teach figurative language; not only would they gain understanding of the topic, but they would be expressing their creativity as they play with the possibilities of new types of poems.

The “Zoom In” project for this module forced me to take a closer look at my surroundings. I found myself looking closely at brush strokes in paintings, ceiling textures, wood grains, etc. This was a good exercise, personally, because it forced me to look past the obvious. I kept thinking of the artwork called autostereograms, where you have to look past the surface in order to see the hidden picture. The examples given in chapters 6 and 7 were similar to this artwork; if we can train ourselves and our students to look past the surface, then we will be able to identify patterns that will not only bring about clarity for some, but new perspectives and new methods of understanding. This chapter proved important to me as a Language Arts teacher because recognizing word patterns is a tremendous part of understanding literature. If students can see these patterns and be given the freedom to create their own, then, I really believe, it will only increase their own love of language and literature.

Figurative language is one of the many patterns that can be seen when we look past the surface of literary text—poetry or prose. When we look closely, we can see everything from patterns of metaphors, symbols and allegory to patterns of alliteration, hyperbole and personification interwoven into the language. These patterns are what bring life to the text. One way to get students to recognize the importance of figurative language and to become familiar with how it is used and how they can use it, is to present students with a text where the patterns of figurative language have been removed. The text becomes dry and less engaging. A discussion with students about what could be added to make the text more appealing will most likely result in adding descriptive, figurative language. Once they understand what they are adding (a pattern of figurative language) they can then look at the original text, find these patterns more easily and recognize how figurative language patterns in literature create a text that is richer and more stimulating.

Module 3: How do I love thee?

Existing Patterns in Figurative Language:

When we talk about patterns in language, the examples really become endless. We develop patterns in everything from the way we structure our sentences (subject – predicate word order) to where we place accents, stresses and even voice inflections. Figurative language also consists of endless patterns. More specifically, examples of figurative language are recognized because of their identifiable patterns. Alliteration is formed with patterns of repetitious consonant sounds and similarly, assonance is formed with patterns of repetitious vowel sounds:

           

            Alliteration—While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping

(The Raven, Edgar Allan Poe)

            Assonance—Upon the west beach sits the West Beast.

          Each beach beast thinks he's the best beast.

(Oh Say Can You Say? – West Beast East Beast, Dr. Suess)

Likewise, the pattern of attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects has become known as personification and the pattern of making comparisons connected with the words like or as has been labeled as similes:

            Personification—                    Trees

 I THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.        

 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 

Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;     

 

A tree that looks at God all day,                 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;        

 

A tree that may in summer wear      

A nest of robins in her hair;   

 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;    

Who intimately lives with rain.           

 

Poems are made by fools like me,    

But only God can make a tree.

                                                                 --Joyce Kilmer

                Simile—     My love is like a red red rose 

                                    That’s newly sprung in June;

                                    My love is like the melodie

                                    That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

(“My Love is Like a Red Red Rose “, Robert Burns)

The patterns found in figurative language produce images within the students’ minds and engages them with the text, whether poetry or prose. For example, saying “The sun rose over the mountain like a blazing ball of fire,” is much more effective imagery than simply stating “The sun came up.” Students are able to see the connection between the sun and the blazing ball of fire and they are not only visually stimulated, but they can more clearly see how figurative language enhances the way they talk and write. The type of pattern connections used in similes and metaphors help students identify and associate meaning to concepts they may otherwise not understand through simply using basic, common wording. For example, people who have never experienced a migraine may not associate any type of meaning or connection to this word outside of its literal definition. But if we use figurative language to compare a migraine to something more familiar, a sensory connection can be made. (i.e. The grinding pain of the migraine made my head feel as though nails were being hammered in one by one.)

Forming New Patterns Using Figurative Language:

One way for students to better understand how figurative language enhances their perception of a given topic is for them to use a pattern of figurative language examples to form a poem centered on a topic of their choice. For example, instead of using the simple word rain, students will use figurative language to develop the word “rain” in such a way that enhances imagery and understanding of the characteristics of rain:

Example:

1   Rain

2   Drip, Drop

3   Like a symphony of hands clapping

4   Singing with the wind

5   Splish, splash

6   Puddle

This example was created using the following figurative language pattern:

1   topic

2   two onomatopoeias describing line 1

3   simile or metaphor

4   personification

5   two onomatopoeias describing line 6

6   related word or topic

With this example, students will not only become familiar with different types of figurative language, but they will also see the effect figurative language has on connecting their senses to the words they speak. In other words, making language and ideas stick rather than become lost in a sea of forgotten thoughts. Once students become familiar with how the above example of a figurative language poem works, they can begin to brainstorm other pattern combinations for their own poems using as many different examples of figurative languages as possible and then seeing how complex they can make them. The possibilities are endless.