Now that many of my students have moved beyond a focus on Language Conventions and into Language Usage, I'm finding the content to be more integration friendly.
Today, I finished developing a unit part about figurative language, primarily simile and metaphor. I've always enjoyed teaching students this content. Perhaps one reason is that it highlights the connections between reading, writing, and language usage.
The first portion of the unit part focused on the nuts and bolts of simile and metaphor, but it was the latter portion of that unit part that brought the content to life. Students tend to enjoy describing emotions using figurative language and the Emotion Poem activity will allow them the chance to do just that. Allowing students to choose an emotion to describe figuratively has a powerful motivational effect. I often get a kick out of students who choose dark, unpleasant emotions (to match their temporary demeanors) only to wind up bringing smiles of satisfaction to us all after they use language effectively.
At this point, students are usually ready to dig into some short poems loaded with simile and metaphor. It seems to help students engage with poetry if the task at hand is not just about what a poem "means" but to also seek out uses of familiar figurative language. The task becomes more of a scavenger hunt. The bonus is that embedded within these similes and metaphors are hints at any number of interpretations students might claim as their own.
In this way reading, writing, and language usage work together as they always have.
