Hyperbole, alliteration and more!

Today, I used more pictures to have the students work through hyperbole, alliteration (and consonance and assonance). The last three are pretty tough, but the students were able to work their way through them. The pictures are starting to get a little old, though (for the students, that is), and they’re becoming a little difficult to find–in selecting the images I have to think of several possibilities for what can be written and have to plan out which picture can be used for hyperbole, alliteration, and so on.

Here are a few examples (from students) with the comments I gave in creating more expressive writing:

Hyperbole
“That’s the biggest cat in the world!” (Lame! Sure it’s the biggest cat in the world, but tall me how big that is)

“That cat is as big as a whale!” (Much better! But add a little something–remember, a sentence full of figurative language is a cheeseburger with the works. You’ve only given me a hamburger, a bun, and maybe some ketchup.)

“The cat is as big as a pregnant whale!” (There you go! That’s much more explicit. I know a whale is big, right? But what about a pregnant whale? If I’m calling the cat a pregnant whale, then I’ve got a much clearer image that, not only is this cat big, it’s gigantic.)

Keep in mind, when teaching hyperbole that most hyperboles allow the writer to enter into the realm of simile and metaphor. This helps to create a nice reflexive lesson.

Alliteration

“It’s a metal scorpion!” (Good! What you’ve just done is make a sentence stating what’s going on in the picture. That’s the first step. Now I want you to remember that Alliteration requires you to make a sentence using the same consonant sound several times in the sentence. Tell me, what kind of metal begins with a sound that’s similar to the ’s’ sound in scorpion?)

“Steel!” (Yep. Roll with that, and then try to make a sentence that continues with that ’s’ sound.)

“The steel scorpion stings the snake in the sand!” (Wow! Great! Excellent! Listen to all those ’s’ sounds! Anyone else?)

“The metal monster makes meat out of its prey!” (Perfect! And I’m glad you were able to move away from the ’s’ sound. It’s so easy to stick to that ’s’ sound just because it’s a scorpion. Good job.)

Consonance

“What is that?” (It’s a cat.)

“Oh, I thought it was a rat or something.” (Nope, it’s a cat. A kitten, even. Tell me, what’s it look like this kitten is doing?)

“It’s doing karate!” (Excellent! It’s a karate kitten! Now, remember, when writing sentences that show consonance, you have to have that ‘k’ sound in several different places. While alliteration only asks you to have the same sound that the beginning of the words, consonance says you have to have those sounds at the beginning, the middle, and even the ends of the words. Tell, me, what’s this karate kitten doing with its skills?)

“It’s kicking!” (Good. Now, make a whole sentence about the kicking karate kitten.)

“The kicking karate kitten clobbers kids!” (Aaaaaalllmost…..very very close. Almost all of those ‘k’ sounds came at the beginning. Try tofind some words, like ‘kicking,’ that have that ‘k’ sound in the middle or the end of the word.)

“The kicking karate kitten attacks kids!” (AWESOME!)

Assonance
“Tee hee!” (Yes, I know. Tee hee.)

“But it’s funny!” (Yes, I know. Assonance. haha. Let’s move on.)

“I’m gonna kick you in the assonance!” (Ok. ok.)

“Pull your head out of your assonance!” (I hate to admit it, but I laughed at this one.)

(Try to write a sentence, using assonance, on this picture. Keep in mind that assonance is like consonance. You can have the VOWEL sounds come from anywhere in the word–the beginning, the end, or the middle.)

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!?!?”

(Now, this one will be a tough one. Remember, vowel sounds only. I’ll give you an example: “My migraine causes pain. It feels like my face is ripped out of place.” What are the vowel sounds I’m using there?)

“A” (That’s right. The long ‘a’ sound in ‘pain’ and ‘face’ and ‘migrAine’. What else?)

“I” (That’s right, in ‘my’ and ‘mIgraine.’ Good job!)
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Today’s assignment was a tough one. These types of writing are never produced by asking the students to produce them, and I told the students this. It’s hard because no one will ever ask you to write a sentence using assonance. No one will ever ask you to write a sentence using alliteration. The reason I had them do this assignment (and, again, I told them this) was so they can recognize these types of writing in the future; so that this type of writing satands out when they encounter it.