Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson on creative writing in poetry with me, Miss.

Krzebietka.

Today we're going to focus on how we can use personification effectively in our writing with a view to eventually use it in some poetry of our own.

Before we get started, please can you make sure that you've got rid of any distractions, so if you've got a mobile phone, please make sure it's turned off or in another room, and please also make sure that you're somewhere quiet, so that you can focus really well.

You're also going to need a pen and something to write on, so that you can make a note of all the amazing things that you're going to learn and do in this lesson.

All right, then.

Let's get started.

So, first of all, we're going to start with a recap task, and we're going to think about poetry.

Then we're going to explore personification.

Next, we're going to think about how we use personification, and then finally, you're going to review your knowledge of personification with a quiz.

So, first of all, I would like you to read through the statements on the screen and to decide which of them you think are true and which of them you think are false about poetry.

Okay? So there are a list of true and false statements, and I want you to find the ones that are true about poetry.

Pause now, read them very carefully, and then we'll go through the answers.

Brilliant job if you said that number one, number three, and number four are all true statements about poetry.

A poem is a piece of writing that expresses thoughts and feelings.

Poems normally contain figurative language, and structure is a very important part of poetry.

If you said number two and number five are false, poetry is not organised into patterns, and poems are organised into paragraphs, then you are correct.

They are false, okay? We know that poetry is organised into patterns, and we also know that poems are organised into something that we call stanzas, and in our introduction to poetry unit, we talked about what stanzas are, so we know that they are not organised into paragraphs.

They are organised into something that we call stanzas.

So what is personification? If we're doing a lesson based on personification, then we need to know what personification is.

So personification is a figure of speech giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals.

Now, inanimate just means things that aren't alive, okay? Things that aren't human, that don't have human feelings or emotions.

So when we personify something, we give it human feelings or emotions or actions, okay? We make it do human things to create a clear picture of it for our reader.

So for example, we can see in the following sentence that the sun has been personified.

It's been given human qualities, okay, in order to help us understand more about it and understand more about what the writer wants us to imagine about the sun.

So listen carefully.

The sun smiled warmly down on us as we wandered slowly down the dusty lane.

So the sun cannot smile, because it's inanimate.

It's not human.

It doesn't have the ability to smile, but by giving it that human quality, the writer has helped us to understand that this is a really pleasant scene that we're picturing, and that the people are really enjoying the sun.

Okay? So that's how clever personification is.

It can create those clearer pictures in our minds.

Okay, quick pause point, then.

I want you to read through the following four options and I want you to decide which of them you think is the correct definition of personification.

Read through them very carefully, decide which one you think is the correct definition, and then we'll go through the answer, okay? Pause now, and off you go.

Amazing job if you said option three, personification is the process of giving human qualities to inanimate objects or animals, is the correct definition of personification.

Now, the other three are all figurative techniques, okay? They are all techniques that writers use to help create clear and powerful pictures for their readers.

However, option three is the only one which is personification, and we'll go through what the other three options are in a moment.

Okay? So let's think carefully then about why writers use personification.

Well, it's a type of figurative language, which means that it helps to create more powerful pictures in our minds, okay? We've just mentioned that, with the techniques that I was talking about, the options on the previous screen, but they are using personification in order to help us understand exactly what it is that they're trying to describe.

So for example, when I talked about the sun smiling warmly down, we've seen this sentence before, and what that writer is doing is helping us to understand more about the setting in the scene, that it's clearly a very pleasant and a very enjoyable scene that is being described.

Okay? So that's the power of personification right there for you.

Okay.

What I'd like you to do now then to see what you've learned about personification is to pause and to read through the sentences that are on the screen.

In each of the sentences, something has been personified.

Okay? Sometimes it's been personified in more than one way.

It's been given more of a more human feature.

What I'd like you to do is to write down the sentences and underline the human qualities that have been given to the non-human things in the sentences.

The first two have been done for you, but I would still like you to write those down so that you've got those examples and know exactly what you should be doing, and then you can do the following three on your own, reading them very carefully, and underlining the human qualities that have been given to the non-human things.

Okay.

Off you go.

So let's now talk through your responses and see which human qualities you found in the sentences that are given to non-human things.

So number one, "The shadow of the moon danced on the lake." The shadow of the moon has been given the human quality of being able to dance.

In number two, "There was a heavy thunderstorm, the wind snorted outside, rattling my window panes," the wind has been given the human quality of being able to snort, and also of being able to rattle something.

We know that the wind can't physically rattle something and do that on purpose, but it's been given that human quality in order to make it seem like it is doing it on purpose, and it has almost like a reason for doing it and it wants to do it.

Really helps to create mood and atmosphere in that sentence.

Number three, which is the first one that you did on your own.

"The flowers were blooming, and the bees kissed them every now and then." The human quality has been given to the bees there, of being able to kiss something, okay? They don't kiss the flowers, but they've been given that human quality almost to make them seem gentle and to make the flowers seem like something that they really love and value and cherish.

Number four, "The flood raged over the entire village." A flood can't rage, because rage is a human emotion, okay? However, what the human quality that has been given to the flood there helps to do is to show us almost that this flood is angry and that is causing chaos, okay? So that really helps us to understand the devastation and destruction this flood is causing.

And finally, number five, "Time is so ruthless that it tramples even kings under his feet." Obviously, time doesn't have a human ability to be ruthless, to be cruel, to have no mercy, or to trample anything.

However, those human qualities have been given to time in order to help us understand sort of its continuous presence and how it keeps going and going and going, no matter what, and we can't stop time.

We can't do anything about it, and it can trample even the most powerful person, such as a king, okay? So it's been given those human qualities to help us understand how the person that's written the sentence views time.

Okay? So soon we're going to have a go at using personification in our own poetry, which is very exciting, and you will use other figurative techniques, too.

So earlier, I mentioned some of these figurative techniques, and you read through them and the options that we had, in thinking about the definition of personification, but I'm just going to go through these again for you to remind you of exactly what they are.

So a simile is a figure of speech where one thing is compared to another using like or as.

A metaphor is a figure of speech where something is described as being something else or something that it can't be.

And onomatopoeia are words that sound like the noise they describe, and we will go over these things in more detail in lessons to come.

Okay? So just remember all of those figurative techniques.

All are used to help create those powerful pictures in our minds.

Okay, a little test for you now, then.

I want you to read through the following six sentences, and I want you to label the sentences that use personification with P, and the ones that don't use personification, I want you to label as N.

So write them down, and then just at the end of the sentence, I want you to write down P if the sentence uses personification, or N if the sentence does not use personification.

If you say that it is not personification, then my challenge for you is to write down which figurative technique it is, okay? So that is a challenge, but if you can have a go at that, then please do.

So write them down.

Write a P at the end of the sentence if you think it is using personification, and N if you think it isn't, and then if you can work out which figurative technique is being used if it's not personification, then write that down, too.

Okay, off you go.

Well done if you said that number one, "The hills watched him as he walked," is an example of personification.

We know that hills don't have the ability to watch somebody, but the writer is using that personification, giving the hills that human quality, in order to make us understand that the person probably feels quite paranoid and like they are being sort of watched.

He feels maybe stalked almost by these hills.

Number two, "Jane watched Jim like a hawk." That is not an example of personification, so it should have got N at the end, and well done if you said that that's an example of a simile, 'cause we've got a comparison of one thing to another.

"Jane watched Jim like a hawk," okay? Jane watching Jim is being compared to a hawk watching something, okay? "The plant reached for the sun." Well done if you said yes, that's personification.

Great job there.

And number four, "James was feeling blue." No, that's not personification.

No human qualities have been given to non-human things, but it is an example of a metaphor.

James can't literally feel blue, but the idea of feeling blue is when we feel sad or upset, okay? So it's metaphorical.

It's a metaphor.

Number five, "The daffodils danced in the breeze." Well done if you said yes, that's personification.

Daffodils can't dance, but they've been given that human quality here.

And number six, "The bus had a broken face." That is a metaphor, because although it is something, it is giving a sort of non-human quality to a human thing, we're saying that it has a broken face, which makes it metaphorical, okay? It's a metaphor.

It can't have a broken face, but we're saying that it does, and that makes it metaphorical, and actually don't worry if you said that is personification because personification does come under that bigger umbrella term of metaphor, okay? So don't worry if you got confused with that, because often, metaphor and personification are interchangeable, okay? And personification is a type of sort of metaphorical writing, okay? All right, so can you identify what non-human object has been personified in this stanza of poetry? Hopefully you'll recognise it from the earlier unit on poetry.

I'll read through it for you, and then I want you to decide which non-human object has been personified, okay? Here we go.

"Daffodils" by William Wordsworth.

"I wander'd lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils, Beside the lake, beneath the trees Fluttering and dancing in the breeze." So take a moment, read through it again, and decide if you can identify what non-human object has been personified.

Great job if you said that the daffodils have been personified, because they are referred to as being a crowd and described as dancing in the breeze.

Okay? So daffodils can't be a crowd, and also daffodils can't dance, okay? "I wander'd lonely as a cloud" is not to example of personification because the poet is comparing their lonely wandering to a cloud through a simile.

They're not giving the cloud human qualities, okay? So that's something that might have tripped you up slightly, but there is the explanation as to why it is not an example of personification, but is in fact a simile, and well done if you spotted that simile as well.

Okay, then, so what we're going to do now is we're going to think about how we would describe some objects, and that's going to lead us to being able to use personification in our own writing, okay? So how would we describe the following objects? A house plant, a mobile phone, a football, a bus and a book? What I'd like you to do is to pause to copy down the table and to write down as many words or phrases as you can think of to describe each of the five objects.

You might include words that maybe sound human, if you can think of some, because eventually we are going to be trying to personify these objects.

So if you can think of some words that would describe these objects that make them sound human, then that would be great to get some of those in.

As you can see, some of them have been started for you, so you just need to add to those, and the only one that hasn't got an idea in there is football.

So let's see what amazing ideas you can come up with for that.

Okay, off you go.

So let's go through some ideas.

We'll start with house plant.

See if you can spot the descriptive words that have been used that give the normal objects, the non-human objects human qualities as we go through.

So, green, upright, tall, friendly, fresh, alive, and dancing.

So within there, we've got friendly and dancing as words that we might use in the description of a house plant, and they are obviously our human words, the human actions and qualities that we're giving to something non-human.

And mobile phone.

We might have singing, flashing, buzzing, annoying, demanding, slim, sophisticated, so within there we've got singing, we've got annoying, we've got demanding, which are all human qualities that we are using to describe a mobile phone.

A football, speeding, mocking, slippery, cheeky, so mocking and cheeky are our human qualities that we're giving to the football.

A bus, hurrying, darting, scurrying, chuntering, rusted, shiny.

So there, hurrying, darting, scurrying are all human actions that we might give to the bus to help describe its movement.

And finally, a book.

Fascinating, friendly, comforting, and warm.

Friendly and comforting are both human qualities that we might give to a book in order to help describe it.

So well done if you've got any of those words, and I'm sure that even if you didn't, you got some amazing descriptive words of your own.

So we're going to use those shortly, so make sure you keep referring to them.

Okay, so for the main task in a moment, you're going to write some of your own sentences personifying the different objects that we've looked at already.

So here are some ideas that I had come up with that you might want to take inspiration from, so I'll read through them, and then you're going to have a go in a moment at writing your own sentences personifying these things.

So, my happy house plant winked at me.

My phone flashed a wicked smile.

The football giggled and mocked me as my foot missed it.

The bus was hurrying away from me.

The book gave me a comforting hug as I read his pages.

So within those sentences, I'm sure by now you can all work out where the personification is happening.

For example, in the first sentence, a house plant can't wink, but what that writer is doing is giving the house plant that human characteristic and quality to help us understand perhaps its movement or how the character feels about it.

Okay, then, so to finish the lesson, what I'd like you to do is to complete the main task on your worksheet by using personification in your own sentences, ready to have a go at your own poems very soon.

Okay? If you need to refer back to these sentences and these words, then please do that, because they will help you, all right? So if you need to do that, that's absolutely fine.

Okay.

Pause and have a go, and then make sure that you resume.

Brilliant work.

I'm sure that you came up with some fantastic sentences using personification.

If you would like to share them, please ask your parent or carer to do so.

We'd love to see what you've been doing.

So share them on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

If you would just like your parent or carer to share them with your teacher, then that's also brilliant, because I'm sure they'd love to see what you've been doing, so please ask them to send that across to your teacher so that they'll be able to see the great things you've been doing.

And finally, there is a quiz attached to this lesson we'd like you to complete now in order to do a final check of all the things that you've learned about personification and how it's used.

Okay, thank you very much for your hard work, and goodbye.