Supplies: White paper; crayons, colored pencils, or markers
Time Allotment: 90-100 minutes if you want the students to complete in class, half that if you want them to finish as homework.
Procedures:
- Write the following quotation on the board: “Telling a story…is like seeing a great uprooted tree: the nobility of its trunk, the grandeur of its branches, the strength of its naked roots.” (Dai Sijie, Balzac & The Little Chinese Seamstress)
- Make a list of parts of a tree: roots, trunk, branches, leaves, fruits
- Ask students to match the following literary elements to a part of the tree: cultural/historical inspirations (roots); key plot events (trunk), characters & their characteristics (branches); figurative language, symbolism, word choice (leaves); overall meaning (fruits)
- Focus students on a novel or short story you have read in class. Ask them to draw a tree for that story, labeling each part of the tree with appropriate language or quotations from the story.
- A Powerpoint explaining the project, including a completed example, can be downloaded from http://tulsagrad.ou.edu/japanresources/new%20curriculum.htm (Scroll down to "high school" section and select the last link on the list, "The Strory Tree: Using Metaphor to Understand Literature.")
As an art teacher, I think this is an interesting concept. I especially like the quote as a conversation starter.
ReplyDeleteI also thought of Toni Morrison's Beloved and the tree shape formed by scars on the protagonist's back too.
I like this idea a lot, as I am always looking for ways to be more visual in my classroom. This would work really well when students are doing book clubs, independent reading or choice novels since it can be a whole class or individual project. And I love the author/novel the opening quote comes from.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a neat, new way to teach story elements! My only concern, really, is whether or not students will get the metaphor (I'm not sure they would understand how the cultural background of the story should be placed at the root of the tree, and so on). It would seem to me that it would take a lot more explanation than one class would allow.
ReplyDeleteStill... I really love it. It makes a lot of sense, and I think - at least in my class - once properly gone through it can be a very valuable connection to understanding metaphor as well as recalling parts of a story.
Great job!