A good metaphor lesson should involve direct experience. Teachers can start by asking students to find examples in a poem or story, but it’s better to start with a game. The game involves creating lists of things in nature and inside a house, as well as interesting verbs and adjectives. The teacher then gives examples of metaphors and asks for volunteers to create their own. This not only teaches the literary device but also builds vocabulary.
Almost any schoolboy can recite the definition of a metaphor, but too often memorizing what something means falls short of truly understanding it. A metaphor directly compares two different things. It is related to a simile, which compares two different things using the words “like” or “like”. The best metaphor lesson will be one that teaches students through the vehicle of their own direct experience.
Children learn by doing and also learn by imitation. Teachers can start a metaphor lesson by asking students to find some examples in a poem or story the class is reading. There’s nothing wrong with that, but when children are asked to come up with their own metaphors later in the lesson, they may struggle.
Instead, the teacher can start the lesson with a game. Children know that games are fun and are eager to play against each other in an attempt to win. Introducing the lesson as a game will help the children understand the concept and make the lesson enjoyable.
This game forms the class into two teams. Each team has five minutes to make a list of things in nature and things inside a house, like a river, an old boot, or a spoon. Each team puts their list on the board.
Next, with the help of the students, the teacher leading the metaphor class creates a long list of interesting verbs, such as trudge, ripple, and crawl, and another list of adjectives, such as rusty, faded, or wobbly. Words like cool, fun, cool, and the like shouldn’t be used in this second list because while they’re grammatical adjectives, they don’t conjure up images.
Next, the teacher gives examples of metaphors based on the formula “X is not X, X is Y, where Y is a sentence metaphorically describing X: “A river is not a river, it is a silver snake that slithers and twists”. Next, the teacher should ask for a volunteer who can select any item from the opposing team’s list and pair it with any verb and any adjective. New objects, verbs and adjectives can be added as they arise. Not only will students gain the basic concept of literary device with this metaphor lesson, but they will also build vocabulary.
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