Metaphors Are
Bridges to Learning
Janis Hill
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ESOL teacher for 4th and 5th graders
Brumby Elementary
Title I school in CCSD
Population 845 students
Approximately 20% are ELLs who qualify
through the WIDA consortium
• Inclusion service model provided in within
various content areas
• Work with four classroom teachers
Inquiry
• How can reading and writing poetry
engage ELLs in metaphorical thinking?
Food for thought:
“Shackles off, metaphors are ready to
serve any teacher of any subject in any
grade level.”
Rick Wormeli
Raw Facts
• Identifying similarities and differences have been
positively correlated with student achievement
(effect size of 1.61or 45%ile gain), the greatest
of any one instructional strategy. It is a basic
cognitive activity which deepens understanding.
• Four types of instructional activities require
students to identify similarities and differences:
classifying, comparing, creating metaphors and
creating analogies.
• Metaphor activities help students understand the
abstract features of information. The complex
becomes simple.
Grist for the mill:
• “The key to constructing metaphors is to realize
the two ideas, things, or people are connected
by an abstract non-literal relationship.” Marzano
• Unlike similes, metaphors compare without the
use of “like” or “as.”
• Metaphor means to transfer or carry over.
• Metaphors are more than figurative language,
they are conduits for understanding.
More to digest:
Certain conceptual metaphors such as
affection is warmth, importance is big,
happy is up, help is support, etc. are
universally understood.
(paraphrase) Jerome Feldman
This tendency can be used to translate
common experiences into metaphors.
Chew on this:
• ELLs remember what they truly understand.
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Explicitly teach language clues that indicate comparison: like, similar to, yet,
greater than, however, instead of, not only, which,
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Teach classification language: feature, trait, common, type, characteristic
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Teach persuasive language: evidence, equal, as a result, in order to, argue,
weak, due to, because, in my opinion, benefit
This vocabulary will become the building blocks of
academic language and written expression.
Poetry Connection
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Poetry is short text.
Poetry is fun.
Poetry is creative and can be dramatic.
Poetry develops oral language.
Poetry introduces precise vocabulary.
Poetry develops greater fluency.
Poetry makes great use of figurative language to
create images, including metaphor.
Poetry
• Poetry has questions. Questions are at the
heart of learning. Harvey and Goudvis
• Poetry is when emotion has found its
thought and the thought has found its
words. Robert Frost
• Time by Valerie Bloom
Half-baked for you ….
• Emotions and ideas are good topics
for exploring metaphors or comparisons.
• They are intangibles which you will probably
want to compare to a tangible
• How would you describe ___?
• How does it make you feel?
• What does it remind you of?
• What object, emotion, or experience could you
compare it to? Why?
Let these words simmer
awhile on your back burner--
Let’s...
Spring is:
Adj.
Noun
PrepPh
noisy
flowers
In a pond
Choose the best of each to create a 3 line poem.
Spring is___Spring is____ Prepositional Phrase
The River by Valerie Bloom
Hold Fast to Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Langston Hughes
Think Aloud
Read and listen
Ask lots of questions THINK ALOUD
Not an easy process for native speakers
Notice the imagery and sensory details
Hold fast? What kind of dreams?
No dreams are like ___ or ____ ?
Could it mean?
Granny Is by Valerie Bloom
Graphic Organizer
• Choose a person you know well. Write
whatever name s/he goes by in the
middle.
• Around the web in ray fashion list what he
looks like, feels, does, says, wishes, fears
• For now ignore spelling, grammar,
complete sentences.
• Don’t worry about rhyme.
• Choose the 3 or 4 best verbs for each
verse.
• Begin with _______is for each verse.
• Add at least three lines to each verse.
• Check to see if you have strong verbs and
good imagery.
• Look at rhyme and meter if you have time.
For Voracious Readers
(Works Cited)
Bloom, Valerie. Valerie Bloom Reading From Her Poems. The Poetry Archive, 2005. CD. Web.
Feldman, Jerome. From Molecule to Metaphor: Neural Theory of Language. Cambridge, MA:
MIT P. 2008. Print.
Gallagher, Kelly. Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
2001. Print.
Harvey, Stephanie, and Anne Goudvis. Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to
Enhance Understanding. York, ME: Stenhouse. 2000. Print.
Hughes, Langston. “All Poems of Langston Hughes”. PoetryHunter.com. N.p. n.d.
Marzano, Robert, Debra J. Pickering, and, Jane E. Pollock. Classroom Instruction That Works:
Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 2001. Print.
Marzano, Robert. Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement. Alexandria,
VA:Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 2004. Print.
Wormeli, Rick. Metaphors and Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject. Portland, ME:
Stenhouse, 2009. Print.