When working with student writing, it is often useful to have a short 
prompt to get them going.  Very often teachers will use a question that will 
spur a journal entry...What good thing happened to you last weekend?  How 
did you meet your best friend?


	But when trying to get students to understand the difference between
concrete and abstract words, or to introduce poetry into the classroom, 
beginning with sensory language is critical.  What is the difference between 
the Valentine heart and the one that beats inside our body? may be helpful 
to introduce the concept of both abstract/concrete and proceed to 
understanding the use of symbolism.  But first...metaphor making and sensory 
language come very naturally to children.  Try to think of a way they can 
start by making lists.

	Below is an alliterative writing prompt.  Students could choose one 
or they could make a list of five sounds for each.  This would provide 
material that could show students how writers re-create a moment so a reader
can not only picture it...but hear it as well.    Words like chanting, 
thumping,screeching, twanging, and swooshing are words they might know but 
not usually use in their writing. Some students might naturally use dialogue 
or metaphor.
	Often it is better to have their examples before you introduce the 
concept because they have already created them and will know that they can 
do it.


Heart Sounds

Hate Sounds

Hope Sounds

Heavy Sounds

Holy Sounds



	Then you might expand a lesson by using the idea of making the abstract
concrete....such as reinforcing the difference between emotion and the
sensation of it...the physicalization of it, since feeling is the one that
might confuse students when dealing with the sensory because it sounds
emotional.

A lie feels like_______________________________

Memory feels like ___________________________

Anticipation _______________________