1. AusVELS Levels: 5&6 Year: 2014 Term: 3 Duration of Unit: Lessons 7 2 of 7: Visualizing Using Poetry

2. I understand how to use visualizing through poetry to understand the meaning of the poem and to understand about metaphors.

3. Matthew Sweeney’s “While I Practise My Piano” (http://www.poetryarchive.org/)http://www.poetryarchive.org/

4. I’m going to read you a poem. I’ll be revealing it line by line, reading and visualizing one line at a time. By doing this, I aim to show you how to predict what you think the poem might be about, then visualize through the poem to refute or confirm their predictions.

5. Smoke curls from the sidewalk

6. Smoke curls from the sidewalk A thunder of feet

7. Smoke curls from the sidewalk A thunder of feet Home time in the city

8. Smoke curls from the sidewalk A thunder of feet Home time in the city Grace McQuilten (2004)

9. Smoke curls from the sidewalk A thunder of feet Home time in the city Grace McQuilten (2004) Turn and Talk: Visualize the whole poem and describe your images to a partner.

10. Here is another poem for you to use and practice with. You can follow the same process as with the one before to explore the meaning of this poem and the use of metaphors. Don’t forget to compare and contrast the visual images you make.

11. Sea of white Shadow of black Dog plays in the snow Grace McQuilten (2004)

12. Reflect on the way visualizing helps you to understand what you read — how visualizing helps you to understand poetry. How can metaphors help you to understand ideas and help you to describe objects and feelings? How do metaphors help you to visualize and make mental pictures to further your understandings? How does visualizing help you to use your background knowledge to predict what the poem is about, and how does visualizing help you to summarize the ideas in the poem?