Similarities+&+Differences

Read and Reflect
How do you currently apply this strategy with(out) technology?

Teaching figures of speech can be difficult for students to learn because of the abstractness of the wording. In addition, it is just as difficult for students to understand the concept of metaphors and similes as well as what is the difference between the two. To tackle this problem, I have tried several different strategies to help students understand what the figure of speech is really saying and what it might look like in their minds. To start, I give the metaphor example, “My dad is a bear when he wakes up in the morning.” As a class, we list all of the similarities between a bear and “My dad”. Students list characteristics such as grouchy, smelly, hairy, and loud. Then we talk about how metaphors and similes are different, and I give them the simile, “My dad is like a bear when he wakes up in the morning.” The next step in this process is to have students visualize what the metaphor looks like in action. So, students are told to draw the metaphor in a series of actions that include the characteristics we listed much like a storyboard. An example illustration of a section of the storyboard might show the bear with gas fumes radiating from it to represent that it has a foul odor. The subject of the drawings must be a bear. Students do the same thing with the simile; however, the subject must be part human and part bear to show that dad is like a bear as oppose to being a bear. Once we have done this as a class, students are directed to use the activities on their own when working with in class practice. Using these strategies employ several cognitive actions. Students use prior knowledge of a “dad” figure and a bear to make comparisons. Then students use nonlinguistic representations to show their understanding of the comparisons as well as the differences between the two figures of speech.

Apply and Reflect
Provide evidence of the tool you learned The Venn diagram example I created would be used through out the reading of Huck Finn as a way of gathering information for a writing piece and to review the story. Before the class would start reading, I would present the diagram to the entire class to get them thinking that they are going to be looking for differences and similarities between the two characters. I would also give them a copy of the diagram to chart as we read. Periodically as the class reads the book, we would come back to the diagram to complete the sections when new information was gathered. At the same time, we would also review information that was added previously to reflect on the characters and make connections to new events. When the diagram has enough information, students will delete characteristics that are weak or difficult to make connection with other information. The final product will then be used to organize a compare and contrast writing sample. []