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A three-sentence overview of this writing prompt: Based on its title, student writers predict what Benatar's song means when it says that "love is a battlefield." After discussing Benatar's extended metaphor as a class, students will create an original extended metaphor about love in small groups. Finally, students will independently create an extended metaphor and write about it in a free-verse poem. The "Trait by Trait" emphasis from this writing prompt and lesson: The focus trait in this writing assignment is idea development; writers' final poems will depend on choosing two or three unique items to include as their poems' inspiration. The support trait in this assignment is word choice; word-play devices--similes and personification--are encouraged on the assignment's graphic organizer. |
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Writer & Student Writer Instructions: By now, you've examined at Pat Benatar's extended metaphor (Love is a Battlefield), and you've created a different extended metaphor (Love is a swimming pool). So...you should have a pretty good idea of how you create a metaphor and then build upon it. You're now going to create an original metaphor about love and then you're going to extend the metaphor. Be unusual, creative, and imaginative as you brainstorm how to extend your metaphor.
You will be taking your brainstorm and turning it
into a free-verse poem. You may imitate Pat Benatar's
lyric structure as you create your own poem, or you may create a
completely original free verse poem. |
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Interactive Button Game: If you're struggling to start, press the buttons below to give your brain a spark. |
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Love
is a...
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Teaching Instructions & Resources: This lesson was written by Corbett Harrison while taking an institute for teachers offered by the Northern Nevada Writing Project. Step one (sharing the song): Tell students you are going to share a song with them from the 80's--a song they have probably heard before. Tell them it's called "Love is a Battlefield," and that it was sung by Pat Benatar, who--interestingly enough--was a classically trained opera singer who became a rock star. Tell students, "Even if you've heard the song already, you've probably never thought about the lyrics closely. Before listening to the song today, I want you to discuss with a partner what you think the song is about, knowing the title is Love is a Battlefield. What does that title make you think the song is about? Is it going to be about a battlefield in a desert or a meadow? A battlefield moments before a battle begins? A battlefield that has recovered from a war and is now a peaceful place?" Let students generate multiple answers in pairs. Share them out loud, and celebrate ones that are different from others. Say, "A metaphor is great tool for writers, but sometimes you need to extend them so your audience knows exactly what kind of battlefield you mean, if you compare something to a battlefield." Play the song. Show its lyrics on an overhead while students listen; you can find the lyrics on-line by using the Google link underneath the picture of Pat Benatar above. After listening, have students discuss what kind of battlefield the entire song makes them see. Talk about who is fighting? Talk about who is being fought? Ask students what the battlefield looks like after hearing the song. (Information just for teachers: To me, the song is about young love fighting a battle with an older generation. Although there is no real clear picture given of the type of battlefield the "war" is happening on, encourage your students to visualize the battlefield based on this information).
Next, introduce a new metaphor about love to
your students: Love is a swimming pool. Write it where
everyone can see it.
Have students, in small groups, choose one swimming pool modifier from the class brainstorm. They should write their modified metaphor down on the top of a piece of paper. Next, have the group brainstorm four or five detail sentences that can be used as extensions to the metaphor. Insist that their sentences purposely share more specific details about the pool, but they must also be indicative of love too. To give them the idea of extending their metaphor, feel free to share the example below on the overhead.
Step two (introducing models of writing): While students are brainstorming details for their original swimming pool metaphors, keep re-reading detail sentences from the overhead above; this should help your students create quality detail sentences. When all groups have generated four or five detail sentences for their own swimming pools, have them share (only appropriate ones) with the whole class. With each shared detail, ask, "So how is that detail also like love?" If they can explain how it's also like love, tell them, "Excellent metaphor extension!" After groups have shared quality details with the whole class, explain that students will individually be writing a free-verse poem about love that extends on a different metaphor. They will not use a swimming pool or a battlefield. They will choose a different element of geography. To show them what the poem can look like, tell them that you have a "Love is a Swimming Pool" poem based on the overhead from above. Show this poem, and talk about how it's different and similar in shape and form from Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield."
Step three (thinking and pre-writing):
After students have completed their graphic organizers, ask them to create a rough draft of their poems. Refer to Croce's song and to the student examples as they compose. Encourage poetic thinking to be included in their drafts. Students don't need to use every item from the graphic organizer when they write their rough drafts, but the graphic organizer--if completed--should inspire them to think poetically about their ideas before crafting a poem. Step four (revising for specific trait language): To promote response and revision to rough draft writing, attach WritingFix's Revision and Response Post-Its to your students' drafts. Make sure the students rank their use of the trait-specific skills on the Post-Its, which means they'll only have one "1" and one "5." Have them commit to ideas for revision based on their Post-It rankings. For more ideas on WritingFix's Revision & Response Post-Its, click here.
Step five (editing for conventions): After students apply their revision ideas to their drafts and re-write neatly, require them to find an editor. If you've established a "Community of Editors" among your students, have each student exchange his/her paper with multiple peers. With yellow high-lighters in hand, each peer reads for and highlights suspected errors for just one item from the Editing Post-it. The "Community of Editors" idea is just one of dozens and dozens of inspiring ideas that is talked about in detail in the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Workbook for Teachers. Step six (publishing for the portfolio): When they are finished revising and have second drafts, invite your students to come back to this piece once more during an upcoming writer's workshop block. Their stories might become a longer story, a more detailed piece, or the beginning of a series of pieces about the story they started here. Students will probably enjoy creating an illustration for this story as they get ready to publish it for their portfolios.
Publishing on-line?
Option 1: Student writers can submit their drafts at
WritingFix's Community of Student Writers. To do this,
students will need to have an e-mail address and the ability to
remember a password. Other students can respond to their
writing at this on-line community. Option 2: WritingFix is
always looking for new student samples to publish and share on-line.
Have you used the prompt on this page to write something you're
proud of? If you are willing to share your photo, grade level,
first name, and last initial only, write to us at
publish@writingfix.com,
and we'll send you a permission slip for you and your parents to
sign and return to us. You might become a published author who
inspires other student writers! |
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With the exception of the book thumbnails, all materials found on this webpage are copyrighted by WritingFix and the Northern Nevada Writing Project. Educators have permission to print and share these materials with their students. All others need to request permission from this site's sponsor: The Northern Nevada Writing Project. Visit http://nnwp.org to request permission. Thumbnails
of book covers are included here to encourage users to purchase these
books and support the authors and illustrators who created them. |
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Ask students to brainstorm and shout out modifiers (adjectives) that could
be attached to the metaphor to give us an extended idea of what the metaphor
means. Love is an empty swimming pool. Love is a swimming
pool in winter. Love is a crowded swimming pool.
Love is a swimming pool with a bear in it. As a class, generate
twenty or so. Talk about how each modifier leaves a completely
different impression of the type of love we might be talking about.