Planning a Metaphorical Expression Lesson
To plan a Metaphorical Expression lesson, follow these five steps:
1. Determine the content and purpose of the lesson. What content do you want students to explore metaphorically? What will students get out of this lesson? Are you using the strategy to help students learn new information; spur creativity; foster empathy; develop a new perspective; explore interdisciplinary connections?
One way to think about the lesson you are planning is to ask yourself: Do I want to make the familiar strange, or do I want to make the strange familiar? Making the familiar strange means taking content students have already learned and having them develop new and deeper perspectives on it through metaphorical thinking. Making the strange familiar means relying on something students already know well and using it to make a link to new content.
To understand the difference better, think about this question: How is a colony like a child? Imagine first that students have already studied colonies and how they work. For these students, the metaphor will help them develop a new take on colonies, a way of thinking they hadn’t considered before. The familiar (colony) is being made strange, being reconsidered through the metaphor. Now imagine students have not yet studied colonies. By having students make their initial contact with this new content through the well-known concept of a child, the teacher is taking away the strangeness, making it familiar and, therefore, easier to learn.