Poland
Hearing the colours, tasting the music
Aims of this lesson Students will know the terms synesthesia, metaphor the language structure of the poetic description Student will understand mechanisms of the metaphorical description of emotions in poetry Students will engage in reading and interpreting two texts writing their own texts
by Kinga Białek
Lesson plan (90 minutes) Engagement: students taste chocolate, lemon juice and paprika crisps with their eyes closed. They are not supposed to talk. Then the teacher asks them to describe the tastes using colours (e.g. “the first taste was bright orange”, “the third was black” etc.) Teacher introduces the term “synesthesia”, basing on the works of Oliver Sacks (they are written in a very easy way so that the students can understand rather complicated neurological ideas).
 Short exercise: Which one is Bubba and which one is Kikki?
Students try to explain their choices. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouba/kiki_effect#/media/File:Booba-Kiki.svg
Colours in poetry. Students individually read the poem by Kazimierz Przerwa‑Tetmajer WIDOK ZE ŚWINICY DO DOLINY WIERCHCICHEJ (poetic description of a mountain view). Their task is to draw the described view using the colour stains (abstract art). Then in pairs they share their drawing to find out WHAT ARE THE EMOTIONS DESCRIBED BY THE POET? How do you know?
Students listen to the two pieces of music “The Moonlight Sonata” and “Rondo alla Turca” and are supposed to describe the music using associations connected with tastes. Their share in pairs and then in the forum. Now they are going to write their own pieces of poetry using metaphors basing on the synesthesia phenomenon. They share their work.