Native American Landform Poems: Man in Nature in Man in Nature… Littleleaf

Goals of the Unit:  Research a landform and its history  Apply knowledge of a Native American tribe to an original product  Apply knowledge of grammatical structure to an original product  Use sensory details to bring a landform to life  Use personification as a literary technique personification  Select specific nouns, adjectives, and verbs

personifying personifying Select a landform in the region of the Native American tribe you’ve studied. Imagine that you have become the landform you have selected. In doing this, you will be personifying that landform. Over the course of your long life, what have you seen? Heard? Smelled? Tasted? Felt? Use sensory details from your research and your imagination to bring this landform to life through the animistic magic of language. personifying Task Description:

Landform Poem Format:  5 stanzas  Each stanza is a sentence  1 st stanza tells where you are  2 nd stanza tells what you’ve SEEN  3 rd stanza tells what you’ve HEARD  4 th stanza tells what you’ve TASTED, SMELLED, TOUCHED, or FELT  Last stanza tells how you are known and by whom  See FORMAT See FORMAT

Stanza 1: Location  Your first stanza tells exactly where you are on the continent…  The first 2 lines tell WHAT YOU DO…  (Examples of VIVID ACTION VERBS: flow, dominate, reside, meander, rest)  The last 3 lines tell WHERE YOU DO IT…  Examples of PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES:  Past the Grand Canyon  Into the Gulf of Mexico  Through major cities  Read PREPOSITIONS LIST Read PREPOSITIONS LIST  Read student SAMPLE… Read student SAMPLE…

Stanza 2: Sight  Your 2 nd stanza tells about WHAT YOU’VE SEEN…  This stanza has one subject (“I”), one verb (“have seen”) and three direct objects (3 unique and different sights you’ve witnessed)  Use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to create detailed and colorful mental pictures!  Read student SAMPLES… Read student SAMPLES…

Stanza 3: Sound  Your 3 rd stanza tells about WHAT YOU’VE HEARD…  Like stanzas #2 and #3, this one has one subject (“I”), one verb (“have heard”), and three direct objects (3 unique and different sounds you’ve heard)  Again, use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to create natural sounds in your reader’s imagination!  Read student SAMPLES… Read student SAMPLES…

Stanza 4: Taste, Smell, Touch, or Feel  Choose one of the four sense verbs above for the 4 th stanza…  This stanza has one subject (“I”), one verb (“have tasted, smelled, touched, or felt”), and three direct objects (3 unique and different tastes, smells, or things touched and felt)  Use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs to create vivid sensory impressions!  Read student SAMPLES…

Stanza 5: Identity  The last stanza tells how some group of people, animals, or plants know you….  For example, do you have a nickname?  Are you known in both a positive and a negative way?  Try to choose two very different ways of identifying yourself.  Read student samples…

Student sample: Location Stanza  I am the Colorado River.  I flow swiftly and strongly  And gurgle and foam over the rocky bottoms of my banks  From the massive Rocky Mountains  Through dry Arizona  Into the cool waters of the Gulf of California.  Back to Location Stanza directions… Back to Location Stanza directions…

Student samples: Sight Stanza  (Sample #1: Grand Canyon)  I have seen one million visitors each year come to see my fiery beauty  And river riders rafting through my veins  And even Navajo Indians ghost dancing around me.  (Sample #2: Snake River)  I have seen young elks playing with their caring mothers  And busy beavers building their dams with branches from the land  And even the mysterious and colorful Sun Dance of the Blackfoot tribe.  Back to Sight Stanza directions… Back to Sight Stanza directions…

Student samples: Sound Stanza  (Sample #1: Salmon River)  I have heard the swishing of the slowly-swaying grasses  And the ripping of my rushing rapids over the rocky banks  And even the quiet whisper of the winds above.  (Sample #2: Grand Canyon)  I have heard the rattles of the pink Grand Canyon rattlesnakes  And the splashing of the babbling river  And even the faraway beat of the Navajo drums.  Back to Sound Stanza directions… Back to Sound Stanza directions…

Student Sample: Smell  I am the Snake River  I have smelled the overpowering, fresh fragrance of the monstrous pine trees lining my banks  And the earthy scent of red clay baking under a burning orange sun on my left and right banks  And even the distasteful perfume of an agitated skunk that takes hours to fade  away.  Back to Taste Stanza (Stanza #4) Directions

Student samples: Identity Stanza (Sample #1: Snake River) The Blackfoot Indian tribe know me As the “twisting river” And a place of danger because of the poisonous black water snakes that hide beneath my ripples. (Sample #2: Canyon de Chelly) Hikers and mountain bikers know me As a challenging rust-colored place to explore And the spiritual home of the Navaho. Back to Identity Stanza directions…

Figurative Language: Personification  Personification is a form of figurative language in which an idea, object, or animal is given the characteristics of a person.  You are personifying your chosen landform when you give it the ability to see, hear, taste, touch, and feel…all actions only living beings can do!!!  Back to Directions… Back to Directions…