Okay, things are a bit slow, and Wombat hasn't been by lately, so here's a thirsty that incorporates a pretext for posting a cute rodent picture:I've got two of my classes doing a big group writing project this semester, and, as is often the case with such assignments, they're finding the task of combining individually written sections into a whole with a single voice a challenge. I've used the Frankenstein's monster metaphor a few times ("the seams shouldn't show"), but, just before Spring Break, it occurred to me to show them a picture of a chinchilla: a luxuriously furry rodent, native to the Andes, that, thanks to my earlier familiarity with North American critters such as the squirrel, mouse, and rabbit, has always struck me as looking like it is made up of spare rodent parts (a friend breeds them, so I've had the opportunity for close inspection). Most of my students seem to have the same reaction, and the metaphor has caught on; as they work on their drafts, I'm hearing scattered references to a section "looking like a chinchilla," or plans to agree on structure, key words, etc., "so we won't end up with a chinchilla." So,
Q What metaphors do you call on regularly in your teaching, and for what purpose? Do they work, or do the students stare at you blankly? I seem to remember that we assembled a nice collection of metaphors for why paying tuition doesn't entitle one to a passing grade (gym memberships, admission tickets, etc.) a while ago, though unfortunately I can't find the post; additional metaphors related to that subject, or any other, are welcome.
Fun question!
ReplyDeleteBecause I teach literature in my writing classes, I'm often struggling with helping students figure out what's going on in a poem or a story.
But there's usually one "key" element that "unlocks" a story in some way, so that one essential idea can be discussed and written about.
It really is, sometimes, just a line or a word that a student suddenly understands, and that unlocks the entire piece in the same way.
When they think that they're trying to break into the poem somehow by finding the right key, they seem to have the right kind of proactive mindset I think they need.
XOXOXO
DK
We often took class votes on various issues. I found that several students just weren't voting, so I created a separate category just for those who wanted to refrain from having their vote matter. I called it "voting for Nader."
ReplyDeleteAnd this isn't a metaphor, but I also introduced and popularized the term "HDYKT" within the class. I found myself writing "How do you know that?" on so many evidence-free sentences that I switched to the acronym, and I had students ask things like, "Oh, is this an 'HDYKT' sentence in my paper?"
I teach science students in humanities courses a lot, so I say things like "you need to participate in classroom discussion because this is our lab," or "marking up a poem is like gathering your data before analyzing it."
ReplyDelete@F&T, I like that! I will tell my non-science majors in science courses, gathering data is like collecting beautiful flowers and writing a poem. But if you stick your finger in the wrong flower, the acid compound will eat you...
ReplyDeleteThe endomembrane system is like Vegas. What happens there stays there.
ReplyDeleteDNA= Library book, mRNA=photocopy of needed page, protein= translation of page into local language
I've got a million, because if I can't relate the new idea to something in everyday life, I don't really understand it.
College students are like a box of Raisinettes.
ReplyDeleteSweet on the outside, but chewy in the middle.
anonymous is like every other tired troll on the internet: annoying, omnipresent, smug, frequently wrong.
ReplyDeleteh_p, however, is making fun of me in an interesting way and so I support him.
As much as I thought your technique was funny, I also recognized that it works! Odd how the little things are so effective in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteAnd where would we be without anonymous reminding us that we are done, over, finished.
I get annoyed when students ask how long their exam essays should be. When I tell them to be thorough and answer the question, they frown.
ReplyDeleteSo, now I tell them they can write two or three paragraphs-- as long as they are "chunky Manwich" paragraphs. For some reason, that works.
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"Sweet on the outside, but chewy in the middle." I don't get it.
Once, when discussing resonance (mechanical, not poetic), I described an unpleasant noise as 'like putting a kitten into a blender'. Every studious head shot up at that one.
ReplyDeleteWhen giving a talk about sexual selection (as the subset of a talk on natural selection and evolution), such as advertising traits that attract a mate, or managing to fake certain traits, etc., I end with "so, while all the examples I've given you involved various bird species, you can also see all this happen at the campus bar every Friday night."
ReplyDeleteIs that a metaphor? I don't know.
@Paddington: Blender-based metaphors work especially well.
ReplyDeleteThough not a philosophy professor, I frequently have occasion to explain to my students in shorthand Aristotle's principles of form and matter. For that, I draw on an old friend's illustration, that the difference between form and matter, and just matter, is the difference between a frog, and a frog in a blender.
As I teach comp, a major point I try to get across is that a paper needs to keep like things together instead of just bringing up a point whenever you think of it. Stream of consciousness writing doesn't work too well in an argument paper.
ReplyDeleteThe metaphor I was originally going for was umbrellas -- big one for the thesis, then smaller ones underneath to represent each body paragraph,etc. That was until my marvelous drawing skills came into play. A student decided they looked more like bats, so now every time we have the discussion it's bats and the various points under each are the kind of bug they like to eat...
I have a few, all pertaining to my field (see my username).
ReplyDeleteThe library is the historian's lab, all the messy work happens there.
The way you approach history is like slicing an apple, you can slice it different ways and get different shapes. So you get a different view if you are in a standard chronological survey or a thematic course.
Citations in history work is the same as the procedures you write out at the beginning of you lab reports. They are not just there to "keep you from cheating."
And finally, not a metaphor, but something I find myself having to say as students wince and try to avoid dealing with "depressing" history such as slave trade or the Holocaust: "You can't be a wimp in this field, no cowards do well in history, you have to be able to look right at the ugliness of human nature." Since my school is dominated by men (and a woman is telling them this) this can often stop considerable whining.
"Bitches ain't nothin' but hos and tricks."
ReplyDeleteAlso "If there's a dead cow in your well, you, my friend, are fucked. Unless you dig another well." (Sometimes you have to just start over.)
Lastly "This paper looks like you kinda...um...like the big o' Jenga pile of knowledge fell on it."
Intro statistics
ReplyDeleteA big pot of chili according to the best available recipe (sometimes contains rattlesnake, sometimes it's veggie) is my metaphor for multiple regression.
A main effect is the cheese on a sandwich but the eggs in a cake illustrates interactions.