Transcript The Story Tree

The Story Tree
Using Metaphor to
Understand Literature
Meredith Deaton – Booker T. Washington H.S. – Tulsa Public Schools
The Metaphor
“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
Objectives & Supplies
• Students will use the metaphor of a tree to
understand, catalog and analyze the literary
elements of a novel or a short story
• Supplies to have on hand:
– Enough copies of the included matching game for
each group of pair/students in your class
– Chart paper or large white paper
– Crayons, markers or colored pencils
Introducing the Project
• Write Dai Sijie’s metaphor on the board. Ask
students to list any parts of the tree that are
missing.
• Here is the final list you will need for the project
–
–
–
–
–
Roots
Trunk
Branches
Leaves
Fruits/Acorns
Matching Game
ROOTS
TRUNK
BRANCHES
LEAVES
FRUITS
Cultural & Historical
Context
Key plot events
Characters & their
characteristics
Word Choice, Symbolism &
Figurative Language
Themes & meaning – what the
writer hopes readers will take
away from the story
Matching Game, Continued
• Divide students into pairs or small groups
• Cut up one set of cards from the table above
for each group. Don’t forget to scramble them
up!
• Ask students to match each part of the tree
with the corresponding part of the story.
Discuss & share answers.
Using the Metaphor
• Tell students that they will use this metaphor to
understand the literary elements of a short story or
novel.
• Distribute chart paper & art supplies to each pair or
group and ask them to draw a tree that includes all
the parts from the matching game.
• Direct them to read the short story linked in this
power point (or another one of your choosing) and
fill in the tree while they read
“The Pomegranate” by Yasunari
Kawabata
• Access the story through this clickable link:
A S I A for E D U C A T O R S
• Click on Literature
• Click on “Teaching Units” in the Japan section
• Click on “Modern Literature”
• Click on the “Short story” link - this will take
you to the text of “The Pomegranate”
Expansion & Additional Resources
• The last 2 slides include a sample of the finished product
and an alternative graphic organizer for less artistic
students
• It’s a good idea to show students a sample of the blank
or completed organizer, but have them draw it
themselves. That way they can make the number of
boxes they need for each part of the story.
• Consider having students draw bonsai trees to fit a
Japanese story
• If you have access to a computer lab, students enjoy
drawing their trees by computer
Alternative Graphic Organizer
Blank Copy