Native American Landform Poems: Man in Nature in Man i

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Native American Landform Poems

• Man in Nature in Man in Nature
• Littleleaf

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Goals of the Unit

• Use sensory details to bring a landform to life
• Use personification as a literary technique
• Select specific nouns, adjectives, and verbs

• Research a landform and its history
• Apply knowledge of a Native American tribe to an
  original product
• Apply knowledge of grammatical structure to an
  original product

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Task Description

• Select a landform in the region of the Native
  American tribe youve studied. Imagine that you
  have become the landform you have selected. In
  doing this, you will be personifying that
  landform. Over the course of your long life, what
  have you seen? Heard? Smelled? Tasted? Felt?
  Use sensory details from your research and your
  imagination to bring this landform to life
  through the animistic magic of language.

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Landform Poem Format

• 5 stanzas
• Each stanza is a sentence
• 1st stanza tells where you are
• 2nd stanza tells what youve SEEN

• 3rd stanza tells what youve HEARD
• 4th stanza tells what youve TASTED, SMELLED,
• TOUCHED, or FELT
• Last stanza tells how you are known and by whom
• See FORMAT

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Stanza 1 Location

• Your first stanza tells exactly where you are on
  the continent
• The first 2 lines tell WHAT YOU DO
• (Examples of VIVID ACTION VERBS flow, dominate,
  reside, meander, rest)
• The last 3 lines tell WHERE YOU DO IT
• Examples of PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
• Past the Grand Canyon
• Into the Gulf of Mexico
• Through major cities
• Read PREPOSITIONS LIST
• Read student SAMPLE

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Stanza 2 Sight

• Your 2nd stanza tells about WHAT YOUVE SEEN
• This stanza has one subject (I), one verb
  (have seen) and three direct objects (3 unique
  and different sights youve witnessed)
• Use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and
  adverbs to create detailed and colorful mental
  pictures!
• Read student SAMPLES

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Stanza 3 Sound

• Your 3rd stanza tells about WHAT YOUVE HEARD
• Like stanzas 2 and 3, this one has one subject
  (I), one verb (have heard), and three direct
  objects (3 unique and different sounds youve
  heard)
• Again, use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and
  adverbs to create natural sounds in your readers
  imagination!
• Read student SAMPLES

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Stanza 4 Taste, Smell, Touch, or Feel

• Choose one of the four sense verbs above for the
  4th stanza
• This stanza has one subject (I), one verb
  (have tasted, smelled, touched, or felt), and
  three direct objects (3 unique and different
  tastes, smells, or things touched and felt)
• Use specific nouns, adjectives, verbs, and
  adverbs to create vivid sensory impressions!
• Read student SAMPLES

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Stanza 5 Identity

• The last stanza tells how some group of people,
  animals, or plants know you.
• For example, do you have a nickname?
• Are you known in both a positive and a negative
  way?
• Try to choose two very different ways of
  identifying yourself.
• Read student samples

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Student sample Location Stanza

• I am the Colorado River.
• I flow swiftly and strongly
• And gurgle and foam over the rocky bottoms of my
  banks
• From the massive Rocky Mountains
• Through dry Arizona
• Into the cool waters of the Gulf of California.
• Back to Location Stanza directions

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Student samples Sight Stanza

• (Sample 1 Grand Canyon)
• I have seen one million visitors each year come
  to see my fiery beauty
• And river riders rafting through my veins
• And even Navajo Indians ghost dancing around me.
• (Sample 2 Snake River)
• I have seen young elks playing with their caring
  mothers
• And busy beavers building their dams with
  branches from the land
• And even the mysterious and colorful Sun Dance of
  the Blackfoot tribe.
• Back to Sight Stanza directions

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Student samples Sound Stanza

• (Sample 1 Salmon River)
• I have heard the swishing of the slowly-swaying
  grasses
• And the ripping of my rushing rapids over the
  rocky banks
• And even the quiet whisper of the winds above.
• (Sample 2 Grand Canyon)
• I have heard the rattles of the pink Grand Canyon
  rattlesnakes
• And the splashing of the babbling river
• And even the faraway beat of the Navajo drums.
• Back to Sound Stanza directions

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Student Sample Smell

• I am the Snake River
• I have smelled the overpowering, fresh fragrance
  of the monstrous pine trees lining my banks
• And the earthy scent of red clay baking under a
  burning orange sun on my left and right banks
• And even the distasteful perfume of an agitated
  skunk that takes hours to fade
• away.
• Back to Taste Stanza (Stanza 4) Directions

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Student samples Identity Stanza

• (Sample 1 Snake River)
• The Blackfoot Indian tribe know me
• As the twisting river
• And a place of danger because of the poisonous
  black water snakes that hide beneath my ripples.
• (Sample 2 Canyon de Chelly)
• Hikers and mountain bikers know me
• As a challenging rust-colored place to explore
• And the spiritual home of the Navaho.
• Back to Identity Stanza directions

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Figurative Language Personification

• Personification is a form of figurative language
  in which an idea, object, or animal is given the
  characteristics of a person.
• You are personifying your chosen landform when
  you give it the ability to see, hear, taste,
  touch, and feelall actions only living beings
  can do!!!
• Back to Directions