Personification and story endings

1. Personification and story endings

2. Can you identify the personification in the 3 examples? Highlight what is being personified? Can you suggest the intended meaning in each? • My bed hugs me as I crawl in banishing the bitter cold. • The window is always open and the sound of the wind sings me to sleep. • My lonely tops angrily stare at me wondering why they have been excluded from the warmth of the wardrobe.

3. Rank order the examples – explain your thinking. Consider: the number of times personification occurs in a sentence and how easy each example would be to draw. • My bed hugs me as I crawl in banishing the bitter cold. • The window is always open and the sound of the wind sings me to sleep. • My lonely tops angrily stare at me wondering why they have been excluded from the warmth of the wardrobe.

4. Making verbs more interesting through personification • Example of straight forward verb use: My homework lay under my bed. • Example of personified verb: My homework surrendered under my bed. • Expanded example: My abandoned homework helplessly surrendered itself to a lifetime of solitude under my bed. • Use personification to change the verbs and then make one or two of these sentences more interesting: • The bell rang for the end of school. • The trees blew in the strong wind. • The alarm clock sounded in the morning. For extra challenge, try to expand the example by extending the structure of the sentence.

5. Examples of how you might use personification in your story • My stomach cried in agony as my hunger worsened. • The rain stabbed me as I tried to build shelter. • The sun beat me with a whip of pain. • The knife in my hand laughed in vain as I tried to kill the animal.

6. What will you have to do to survive alone as an explorer? What actions will you have to perform? • Spider diagram ideas: Hunt for food To survive Find shelter

7. Peer assess against key words – considering verb use in general and particularly personification. Self assess How could you move up the descriptor ladder? Focus on applying one key word to improve your writing. 9 - 10: Original/ Impressive/ Emphasis 7 – 8: Varied and Sustained 5 – 6: Clear, showing Understanding 3 – 4: Basic, indicating Awareness 1 – 2: Simplistic/ Unclear

8. How will your story end? How will you be rescued? • Share ideas at tables as to what makes an effective story ending. • In your final paragraphs concentrate on writing with accurate punctuation and grammar. Ensure you keep to the same tense within each sentence so that meaning is clear. • Try to include one or more of the following from the next slide:

9. Start with an ‘ed’ word: Terrified, Ron ran. Start with an ‘ing’ word: Smiling happily, Ginny opened her present. Begin with an adverb: Quickly, she shut the door. Silently, she slipped into the shadows. Try some repetition: Silently, they met. Silently, they crept out into the corridor. Draw in your reader with a question: What was that lurking at the end of the corridor?

10. Review – 4 key questions Answer two of the four learning questions: • What have I learnt about story writing? • Why have I learnt it? • How have I learnt it? • How can I transfer what I’ve learnt to another area of English or another subject?