Aim: How does a writer create effects through the connotations of words and images?
Do Now: WHOLE CLASS DISCUSSION
Describe an event in your life that at first seemed like fun, yet after the incident concluded you were ashamed or disappointed with yourself. Why do you believe you felt that way?
For our “Do Now”, Ms. Peterson asked us to think of something we did in our lives that seemed harmless or fun but turned out to be the opposite after we did it. It started off a little slow, as I couldn’t specifically think of anything in my life that made me feel ashamed or disappointed, but I said that I’ve definitely had an experience like that before. Some of my friends and classmates volunteered with their own stories. For instance, Eleanor mentioned that she once ate a whole container of sugar, which, of course, seemed like a fabulous idea at first and later revealed itself to be a not-so-good idea, as stomachaches aren’t the most enjoyable. This actually reminded me of earlier in the school year, when I thought it would’ve been great to eat a spoonful of green sprinkles, and ended up disappointed when my mouth was stained green. Julianna also mentioned a time when she hula-hooped around her ankle and ended up with a scar, and Ms. Peterson shared a time when she got into the flour bag as a child and accidentally made a mess in the kitchen. Nevertheless, we could all agree that regret was an emotion that everyone had felt at least once in their lives.
After our “Do Now”, the class participated in a review Kahoot! to test our understanding of the knowledge of the text we had to read and annotate for homework the cycle before, “Marigolds”. Going into the Kahoot!, I felt confident that I’d answer most, if not all of the questions correctly. While reading the passage for homework, I’d found that it was enticing, and I related to the narrator (Lizabeth) as I enjoyed reading her story. I ended up answering fourteen out of fifteen questions correctly, which would have been fifteen out of fifteen if I hadn’t accidentally clicked the wrong answer for one of the questions (that bummed me out)! I managed to get fourth place, with Eleanor, Annie, and Joel in first, second, and third respectively, and Julianna in fifth.
We were quizzed on both ideas related to the story (like setting, plot, and hidden meanings), as well as general literary ideas (such as theme and the meaning of “nostalgia”). I think the quiz effectively summed up the main takeaways and points of the story and our lesson from the previous cycle, especially since it had a slight emphasis on word choice.
TEAM COLLABORATION
For our team collaboration time, we were given six questions about “Marigolds” to answer together.
Team collaboration is always effective, but I think it was especially helpful in this lesson. Multiple teammates of mine brought up some really interesting points that I hadn’t considered before. For instance, the first question asked:
“In Paragraph 22, why are the marigolds so important to Miss Lottie, and why do the children hate them? What stands out about the imagery in paragraphs 22 and 27?”
Initially, I only considered the concept of difference. The flowers were different, a bright splotch of yellow in the children’s otherwise desolate gray lives, just as Miss Lottie was old and quiet, unlike the young and raucous children. However, Emily mentioned that the marigolds were something for Miss Lottie to care for, and the imagery of iron bars in paragraph 27 was symbolic of the cage of innocence that the children were trapped in.
We also discussed the internal conflict that occurred for Lizabeth and decided that throughout the story, the child in her and the woman in her were in a rough battle for dominance, and the more mature side prevailed in the end. This was especially evident in the line: “one cannot have both compassion and innocence.” We continued to the next question, which asked about Lizabeth’s emotions towards overhearing her parents’ conversation. I brought up the point that Lizabeth’s reaction to hearing her father cry, something that she wasn’t in the least used to, reiterated the theme of reluctance to change. Emily and Ben also introduced the idea that her father’s crying made everything more real, and that was where her grip on innocence and childhood started to slip away. I found the fourth question interesting: it asked us what we thought the reasoning for Lizabeth’s “final act of destruction” was. We decided that Lizabeth’s father’s strength was like the marigolds - brightness and hope in a time and place of despair - and once it was crushed, she wanted to crush the flowers. When we came together after breakout rooms, our class also brought up some interesting examples of juxtaposition and literal/figurative meanings.
JUXTAPOSITION: the placement of two or more things side by side, often in order to bring out their differences. This literary term calls attention to two distinctly different things by placing them right beside one another.
Ex. Imagine a man walking a well-groomed dog on a pink leash on one hand and a rough Rottweiler on a spiked collar on the other hand. The juxtaposition could be shocking, humorous, or just plain strange.
INDEPENDENT WORK
Try to describe the narrator’s voice.
Think of ways to explain how the writer’s diction and imagery create this voice.
You might also mention other literary elements, such as juxtaposition, that contribute to the narrator’s voice or point of view.
The narrator’s voice was very reflective. Throughout the entire story, Lizabeth was looking back on her past and her growth over time. She seemed slightly ashamed of her actions, yet proud of her development, and she was nostalgic of her childhood. This was especially evident in the line, “ Joy and rage and wild animal gladness and shame become tangled together in the multicolored skein of fourteen-going-on-fifteen…” Through descriptive words like these, Lizabeth communicated her story and the emotions she felt as she lost her innocence.
REFLECTION
There was a lot to learn from this lesson. The “Do Now” helped us connect to Lizabeth’s actions toward the end of “Marigolds”, the Kahoot! helped highlight key takeaways from the story, and the independent work summed up the lesson, but I think the teamwork was most effective for me. Especially in this lesson, a lot of new ideas were brought to my attention that I hadn’t considered at all before. This lesson zeroed in on diction, connotation, figurative language, imagery, and juxtaposition, and I think a full lesson on such topics was incredibly beneficial. Not only did it teach me to keep an open mind when reading, but it also helped me with my own writing. I enjoy creative writing, and the discussions about imagery and hidden meanings helped me make progress on my skill. I think it was incredibly important to learn about these topics, as we use them in everyday life, not just in writing and literature. Even when talking to others, the words we choose can completely change the meaning we put into them. I would surely recommend this lesson to anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of word choice and imagery, as it definitely helped me in that aspect.
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