Shrek’s Poetic World

Overview

Across five 30-minute sessions, students explore how poets create vivid images and effects through similes, metaphors and personification. Using fairy-tale characters and settings inspired by Shrek, students read short mentor poems, experiment with figurative language, and independently write and refine a character poem for an audience.

Learning intentions

• WALT identify imagery and figurative language in poems.
• WALT use similes, metaphors and personification purposefully.
• WALT select language that shows a character’s appearance, feelings and personality.
• WALT draft, revise and perform a character poem.

Success criteria

• I can explain how figurative language creates an image or feeling.
• I can write effective similes, metaphors and examples of personification.
• I can choose precise words to reveal a fairy-tale character.
• I can revise my poem so it is clear, interesting and engaging for a reader or listener.

Curriculum links

• English Writing: Composition — audience, purpose and language choice; deliberately selecting literary devices to create vivid images and effects.
• English Writing: Composition — using figurative language, including similes and metaphors, to engage the reader.
• English Reading: Comprehension — recognising how poems use figurative language to evoke feelings and create strong images.
• English competencies: thinking critically, using language to communicate ideas, and managing self-directed writing.

Lesson structure (5 × 30 minutes)

Day 1 — Meet the poems: imagery

1. 0–5 min · Hook. Display a striking image of a fairy-tale swamp and ask, “How can words make us see a place we cannot visit?” Students share sensory details and imaginative comparisons. Open with the imagery hook and fairy-tale setting slides.
2. 5–12 min · Read mentor poems. Teacher reads two short, age-appropriate poems about a character or setting, pausing to model how particular words create pictures and feelings. Students listen for words that appeal to sight, sound, touch, smell or taste.
3. 12–25 min · Independent reading task. Distribute the five-day poetry exploration and character poem worksheet. Students reread the mentor poems, underline vivid words, and record the image or feeling each word creates. They may choose Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, a dragon or another fairy-tale character.
4. 25–30 min · Share and assess. Students read one favourite phrase to a partner and explain the image it creates. Teacher collects examples for a class imagery display.

Day 2 — Similes

1. 0–5 min · Recall. Revisit the imagery examples using the imagery recap and simile introduction slides. Students improve the plain sentence “The ogre was angry” with sensory vocabulary.
2. 5–12 min · Direct teach. Model similes using like or as, such as “His roar rolled like thunder.” Discuss that a strong comparison should fit the character and create a clear image, rather than simply use a familiar phrase.
3. 12–25 min · Independent simile task. Students complete the simile section of the five-day poetry exploration and character poem worksheet. They write comparisons for a character’s appearance, movement, voice, feelings and actions, then star their two most effective examples.
4. 25–30 min · Quick check. Students read one simile aloud in pairs. Partners identify the picture or feeling it creates; teacher notes students who need support making comparisons specific.

Day 3 — Metaphors and personification

1. 0–5 min · Compare. Show examples on the simile, metaphor and personification comparison slides. Students decide whether each is a simile, metaphor or literal statement and justify their choice.
2. 5–13 min · Model meaning. Explain that a metaphor says one thing is another to suggest a shared quality, while personification gives human actions or feelings to something non-human. Model: “The swamp is a sleepy giant” and “The wind whispered secrets.”
3. 13–25 min · Independent exploration. Students complete the metaphor and personification tasks on the five-day poetry exploration and character poem worksheet. They create at least two metaphors about their character and two examples of personification for a setting, object, animal or weather feature.
4. 25–30 min · Select language. Students circle the lines that best match their character’s personality. Teacher conferences with students, asking, “What do you want your reader to feel or imagine?”

Day 4 — Draft a character poem

1. 0–5 min · Study structure. Use the character poem model and drafting instructions to read a short original model poem. Identify its character focus, line breaks, imagery and figurative language.
2. 5–9 min · Plan. Teacher explains that students may write a free-verse poem of 8–12 lines about a fairy-tale character inspired by Shrek. Students choose an audience and decide whether their poem will make readers laugh, feel sympathy, feel surprised or feel curious.
3. 9–25 min · Independent writing. Students draft their character poem on the five-day poetry exploration and character poem worksheet, including imagery and at least three purposeful examples of figurative language. Encourage precise verbs and adjectives rather than a list of facts.
4. 25–30 min · Author check. Students reread quietly and use the worksheet checklist to mark their strongest image, figurative language, and line that reveals character.

Day 5 — Revise, perform and reflect

1. 0–5 min · Revision focus. Revisit the revision, performance and reflection slides. Teacher models changing a weak line, such as “The dragon was scary,” to a more vivid line using a metaphor or personification.
2. 5–15 min · Independent revision. Students improve their poems for clarity, rhythm and effect. They check that comparisons make sense, figurative language is purposeful, and the poem reveals something about the character.
3. 15–24 min · Partner performance. In pairs, students practise reading their poems with suitable pace, volume and expression. Partners give one warm comment and one specific suggestion.
4. 24–28 min · Share. Invite several students to perform to the class. Listeners identify one vivid image or figurative device they heard.
5. 28–30 min · Exit reflection. Students complete the final reflection on the five-day poetry exploration and character poem worksheet: “The line I am most proud of is…” and “I used figurative language to make my reader feel or imagine…”

Resources

• the five-day imagery, figurative language and poetry workshop deck
• the five-day poetry exploration and character poem worksheet
• Two or three teacher-selected short mentor poems
• Fairy-tale or Shrek-inspired character and setting images
• Whiteboard and pens
• Highlighters or coloured pencils
• Writing books or devices, if available

Assessment

• Listen to partner explanations and check whether students can distinguish literal language, similes, metaphors and personification.
• Review worksheet responses and conferences for purposeful, character-specific language rather than random comparisons.
• Assess the final poem for vivid imagery, at least three appropriate figurative devices, evidence of revision, and an intentional effect on the audience.

Differentiation

• Support students with a choice of characters, sensory word banks, model lines and oral rehearsal before writing. Provide the sentence frames “The character is like…” and “The ___ is a ___.”
• Allow students to dictate ideas, use speech-to-text, or scribe key ideas before independently selecting and writing lines.
• Provide mentor poems with clear layout, accessible vocabulary and optional audio reading for students needing reading support or learning English.
• Extend confident writers by creating a deliberate shift in mood, using repeated imagery, or writing from an unexpected character’s point of view.