Explorin G Allego Ry: 9 Grade English: Kayla Ja Merson Longwo Od Univ Ersity
Explorin G Allego Ry: 9 Grade English: Kayla Ja Merson Longwo Od Univ Ersity
Explorin G Allego Ry: 9 Grade English: Kayla Ja Merson Longwo Od Univ Ersity
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Rationale:
Allegory can be a very hard concept to grasp and the best way to guide students
towards understanding is to expose them to a wide variety of different genres of
allegoryclassical and modern. Many people use allegory to understand politics,
the economy, ethics, etc. Allegory has two different levels of meaning that
students are already familiar withliteral and figurative. There are also many
different types of allegory, such as fables and parables and allegory is present all
around us in movies, on posters, in childrens rhymes, music, comedy, and many
other types of genre. For this reason students should be learn about allegory and
how to interpret it.
Allegorical literature is meant to teach a moralistic lesson or comment on a
specific time in history (past and present) that may be difficult to understand.
Furthermore, allegory allows the author to express themselves and their opinions
through a creative medium.
Guided Concepts:
Students will understand the purpose and use of allegory and be able to
recognize different types of allegorical literature. They will be able to move
beyond the literal meaning of a textallegorical in nature or notand provide a
constructive oral or written response that represents their understanding of the
figurative meaning. Students will also be able to explore the authors purpose for
writing the allegorical literature and specifically suggest relevant reasons for the
authors intentions.
Ring Around a
RosieChildrens
Rhyme
Humpty Dumpty
Aesops Fables
Daily, D. (2007). The classic treasury of
Aesop's fables. Philadelphia, PA: Running
Press.
Level: 3rd or higher
Fiction
Room 237
This video blog was selected from the ever-popular TED seminar series. Larry Lessig is a
professor of law at Harvard, an American academic, and political activist. In this episode, Lessig
is trying to explain how politics is corrupted and how this corruption is contributing to our
countrys failing economy. In order to ensure that everyone understands what he is going to be
discussing, he opens with a story about a fictional country called Lesterland, which of course
represents America. This video would be great for modeling for students how you can use
allegory to help others understand something that may otherwise be difficult to understand. In
this situation, Lessig was explaining how certain elections are conducted--many people may
have difficulty understanding especially if they were not familiar with how things work in politics
or the technical terms that go along with it.
In the 1960s the song was used as a war protest song (the war did not inspire the song)
for the Vietnam War in which all of the soldiers were drafted into the war against their
will. Also there were so many young men killed in the war, so of course all of the flowers
were gone because of the fact that the girls picked them because they need to place
them on the graves of the fallen soldiers. However, there is also the thought that maybe
the flowers represent the soldiers absence. The former is most likely the closest. Almost
all students love music and it also gives them a break from reading, although the
teacher should distribute a copy of the lyrics. The students have the opportunity to
listen to the song, read the lyrics, and then apply their own interpretation to the song by
having a group discussion or writing a response in which they also state how the song
could be an allegory. They do not have to be correct, but the teacher would be able to
check to see if the students are grasping the concept behind allegory.
James Camerons
Avatar (2009)
Many students would be vaguely familiar, if not very familiar, with the movie
and its plot line. The teacher could activate students prior knowledge by
showing pictures from the movie and asking the students if they recognize
them. Most likely they will say yes and the teacher could then have them read
the article. However, before reading the article, the teacher would ask the
students to think about the term allegory and what it meanshopefully by the
time this is introduced they will have an understanding of what it is. Then the
teacher could have them think about any connections (text-text, text-self, textworld) they could possibly make to the movie (this may even be a great time to
use a K-W-L Plus chart). After they read the article, they would be able to discuss
the connections and how the movie is in fact a historical allegory for the effects
that colonization had on the Native Americans.