Metaphors and Similes

It has been awhile since I've posted but even though I haven't been here much, issues of composition and teaching have not been far from my mind. In particular, I've been thinking a lot about the use of similes and metaphors in the classroom. In particular, I've been toying with ways to get students to think of writing as a process. Often times it seems like envisioning writing as progressive is something that we give lip service to but don't actually enforce. Sure, outlines are helpful and freewrites can be great tools when used responsibly, but at the end of the day, students are left staring at a blank paper thinking a final draft must somehow magically appear before class. And, when papers are handed back with suggestions, students still feel as though they've been criticized, not enlightened. I think part of this has to do with the way we as teachers often frame writing projects as terminal - stressing process while assigning a grade is always difficult. But even more than the A,C, or - heaven forbid - E, that lands on a student draft, it is the way that students conceptualize writing even before they get to college that makes process such a difficult idea to teach. All of this is to say, I've been thinking about ways to jar students and to challenge their expectations about what it means to write a college paper.

One idea I'm particularly excited to try out involves clay. I often think of my writing process like sculpting. I'll start with a big blob - of clay, of ideas - and slowly it will take shape. I'll have to patch up mistakes and I may find that I even need to completely restructure. It will be messy. There will be stages where what is in front of me will look nothing like what I hope to end up with - and that is okay. In fact, it is my favorite part of the process! But, eventually, the blob will take shape. I'll make my sculpture. I'll communicate my ideas. Explaining this to students doesn't seem like enough though. The analogy works for me because I love to work with clay - but this won't be the case for many students and the imagery that encourages and guides me will only be confusing and irrelevant to them....so, I've decided to try a different approach. I haven't had the chance to do this yet, but I plan to in the near future. I want to actually bring clay or play-dough into the classroom and ask students to replicate a particular image. I'm hoping that this will lead to a discussion about the nature of process - the need to do and redo, even re-envision.

My second analogy isn't at all a new one. I've been working with some students on an assignment that requires them to frame their ideas - to take an idea and read it through a context. It's a complicated skill - one that often leads to student frustration. Framing was taught to me using the analogy of a picture frame. Your idea is the picture, the context is the frame. This is all well and good, but when it comes to actually writing a paper using the technique, there can be a disconnect. Next time I teach framing, I'm going to actually have students write out their quote or idea and then literally create a frame around it using context information.

I'm excited about my ideas, but they haven't been tested in the classroom yet. I'm wondering if anyone has done anything similar to either of these activities. If you have, I'd love to hear from you and find out how it went. I'd also love to hear from anyone who uses metaphors, similes, and analogies in other ways.

For those interested, I've recently read an article about the importance of metaphor use in the classroom. You can check it out at radical pedagogy.