Metaphorical Expression
Self-Expressive
Self-Expressive
Students are presented with a topic, idea, or process and are asked to connect it to an unrelated topic, idea, or process. In doing so, students also justify the metaphorical expression chosen by supporting it with connections between both sides of the metaphor. For example, the three branches of government should function like an equilateral triangle, in which all sides and angles are equal and unchangeable, much like the intended distribution of power in the government.
When employing the Metaphorical Expression strategy, the teacher may provide the metaphor and have students explore the connection between the topic and metaphor, or the teacher can present the topic and have students create the metaphor themselves.
Metaphorical Expression applies the idea of dual coding to learning, in which information is process linguistically and visually. Doing so creates two perspectives on the same information for students.
Given the open-ended nature of creating metaphors, it’s best to provide students with a menu of ways to express their metaphor and their thinking behind it. What makes Metaphorical Expression so powerful is that students generate the connections on their own. One way to capture both the linguistic and visual elements of the metaphor is through a screencast in which students present their metaphor and describe the reasoning behind why they chose it. Use a screencasting tool like Screencastify with students to do this.