Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools For Teaching Any Subject

Metaphors &Analogies Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject Rick Wormeli Stenhouse Publishers Portland, Maine Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject by Rick Wormeli. © 2009 Stenhouse Publishers. No reproduction without written permission from the publisher. Stenhouse Publishers www.stenhouse.com Copyright © 2009 by Rick Wormeli All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders and students for permission to reproduce borrowed material. We regret any oversights that may have occurred and will be pleased to rectify them in subsequent reprints of the work. Credits page 59: Figure 5.2 adapted from “Emancipating the English Language Learner” by Rick Wormeli, in the April 2009 issue of Middle Ground (pp. 41–42). Adapted with permission from National Middle School Association. page 70: Figure 6.1a and b appears courtesy of Charlene Lam (www.charlenelam .com). Reprinted with permission. page 79: Figure 7.1 appears courtesy of Norm Blumenthal. Reprinted with permission. page 91: Figure 7.3 from A Visual Approach to Algebra by Frances Van Dyke, © 1998 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. Used by permission. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wormeli, Rick. Metaphors & analogies : power tools for teaching any subject / Rick Wormeli. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-57110-758-9 (alk. paper) 1. Teaching. 2. Metaphor—Study and teaching. I. Title. II. Title: Metaphors and analogies. LB1025.3.W725 2009 371.39—dc22 2009019943 Cover design, interior design, and typesetting by Martha Drury Manufactured in the United States of America 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject by Rick Wormeli. © 2009 Stenhouse Publishers. No reproduction without written permission from the publisher. For educators who seek meaningful metaphors to improve instruction, create new metaphors when the current ones don’t serve, and inspire others to do the same Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject by Rick Wormeli. © 2009 Stenhouse Publishers. No reproduction without written permission from the publisher. This page intentionally left blank Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject by Rick Wormeli. © 2009 Stenhouse Publishers. No reproduction without written permission from the publisher. Contents Acknowledgments vii Chapter 1 Events Create Ripples and Equations Are Balances: Metaphors in Every Subject 1 Chapter 2 Familiarity Breeds Content 9 Chapter 3 Archimedes’ Metaphorical Legacy: The Right Tools for the Job 23 Chapter 4 Walking in Our Students’ Shoes, and Sometimes Making the Shoes Ourselves 33 Chapter 5 Focusing the Lens on English Language Learners 49 Chapter 6 Metaphor in Motion: The Physics of Comprehension 61 Chapter 7 Seeing Is Believing: Developing Visual Metaphors 77 Chapter 8 The Incubation Stage: Hatching New Metaphors and Analogies 97 Metaphors & Analogies: Power Tools for Teaching Any Subject by Rick Wormeli. © 2009 Stenhouse Publishers. No reproduction without written permission from the publisher. v vi Metaphors & Analogies Chapter 9 Cleaning Out the Metaphorical Carburetor: Teaching Students What