Students need to be able to identify and to explain personification on many reading achievement tests. This poetic technique adds interest to poetry or to any writing.
Before students can use personification in their writing, they need to have a firm understanding of the technique.
Preparation for Lesson on Personification
1. Know and be able to teach basics of personification.
Personification: Giving human-like attributes or personal nature to inanimate or non-human things
Example: The trees danced in the wind.
A tree is an inanimate object that may sway in the wind, but it cannot get up and dance.
Example poem: Personification is used in lines 1, 3, 5, and 7.
Monday Morning
The alarm clock bellows
Five o’clock is too early for any human to be stirring
The warm sheets wrap
My tired body does not want releasing
The mirror screams
I see a zit and a wild hair that needs plucking
Monday mornings prod
The bed is near and in it I am crawling
2. Find poetry or song lyrics that have good examples of personification.
Classic poems that use personification are as follows:“Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room” by William Blake, “XVII. The Railway Train” and “ XXXVII. A Thunder-Storm" by Emily Dickinson, "November Song" by Vernon Scannell and "The Cat and the Fiddle" by Mother Goose.
3. Design handouts for the students that explain personification and offer practice.
Example Items for Personification Lesson Handout
Directions: Identify which lines show personification. Write yes or no by each line, and tell why it is or is not personification.
- Her silky hair moved with the breeze
- My shower is jealous because it thinks I like my bed better in the morning
- The knot on Jan’s leg looked like a golf ball
- My computer growled at me when I hit the wrong button
- The chair stood straight like a soldier on guard by the door
- Carrying my book bag was like dragging around a 10 pound sack of flour
- Michael was the alpha dog of his group
- Hot flames from the fire licked my hands as I put on another log
- Under Sarah’s bed, there were more dust bunnies than boxes and dirty clothes
- The fiery red vase screamed to be recognized in the all white room
Teaching the Lesson on Personification
- Discuss the definition of personification.
- Read three-to-five poems that have great examples of personification with enthusiasm to the class. Point out the examples of personification and discuss what they mean.
- Give the hand out on personification to the students. When they have completed the handout, go over the answers.
- Ask students to write two examples of personification on a topic they love. Have students share them.
- Direct students to write a poem using at least two examples of personification. Students can begin writing the poem in class.
- Assign students to write a final copy of the poem and illustrate it. Assess the poem using a rubric. Criteria for the rubric could be use of personification, creativity, color and neatness.
The next day post all of the personification poems around the room. Prizes could be given for the most unique or creative use of personification.
