Monday, June 11, 2012

Falling Up

Silverstein, Shel. (1996). Falling up. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

Shel Silverstein's Falling Up is a compilation of humorous children poems. The books consists of single illustrated poems that are math, science, social studies, and every other subject area related-- including several that are just silly poems. The poems within the book are written about subjects that children can relate to which is, I am sure, a big reason why they are so popular among children.

On any given page in the book you can turn and find rhyme-when the end of the words have the same sound, assonance- when the same vowel sound is heard repeatedly within a line or a few lines of poetry, alliteration- a pattern in which the beginning consonant sounds are heard frequently within a line, consonance- similar to alliteration except it is the final sound that is similar, and onomatopoeia- when the sound of a word imitates it real-world sound... all of which are elements that keep students interested.
On page 11 the poem Snowball is a funny little poem that is a great example of rhyme and personification; using words like be, me, head, and bed it allows the flow of the poem to go a little more smooth. It also includes personification, saying that the snowball "wet the bed"; the students have to use inferencing and realize that this meant that the snowball actually just melted because it wasn't cold enough.

The poem Spoiled Brat  on page 89 is a great example of a poem that has several pieces of alliteration in it. Within the same sentence you have hole/head, coat/cat, broke/bike/bat, and spite/salt/sage. The constant use of alliteration within the poem is something that helps keep the readers attention and makes it more fun to read.

One of my favorite poems in Falling Up is, The Monkey. I love that he uses numbers to supplement words which ties great into math! This would be a fun math activity to do with students--let them create their own poem with the same idea behind it.

Big Question- Can you name a type of figurative language (from a given poem) and explain it.

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