Introducing Pathetic Fallacy - PowerPoint

The educational resource introduces the concept of pathetic fallacy to Year 5 and 6 students, focusing on enhancing their writing and composition skills. Pathetic fallacy is a literary device where human emotions are attributed to elements of nature or inanimate objects, creating a vivid atmosphere or mirroring a character's inner feelings. The PowerPoint presentation outlines the objectives of understanding what pathetic fallacy is, learning why writers use it, and practicing its application in writing. A clear distinction is made between pathetic fallacy and personification; the former relates specifically to the attribution of human emotions, while the latter involves giving any human characteristic to non-human entities.

Students are encouraged to engage with examples that demonstrate how different weather conditions can be described using pathetic fallacy to reflect a character's mood or the overall tone of a scene. Sunny weather might convey happiness, rainy weather sadness, stormy weather anger, and foggy weather confusion or mystery. After exploring these examples, students are tasked with creating their own sentences using provided sentence starters, applying pathetic fallacy to convey specific emotions or moods. The lesson concludes with a plenary where volunteers share their sentences, and the class participates in offering feedback, focusing on the strengths of the examples and suggesting areas for improvement. This interactive approach not only teaches the literary device but also fosters critical thinking and peer review skills.