1. QW: WHO ARE YOU? In 20 words or less, describe yourself. (I know, it’s hard. Do your best!)

2. QW: WHO ARE YOU? Share with a partner. Choose one to share out with class.

3. Inside Outside An Extended Metaphor Assignment Introduction: This assignment has been adapted through the years to address my changing student populations. Having worked mostly with at risk populations and small classroom numbers I had the opportunity to make connections and build relationships as a foundation for teaching…

4. Inside Outside An Extended Metaphor Assignment This year, I joined a traditional high school and couldn’t figure out how to “build relationships” will all 170 of them…so I developed some year long plans for getting to know my students.

5. The WHO ARE YOU Survey I always start the year with students doing a survey to tell me about themselves. This helps me to find out what their ideas are about who they are and gives me a gauge of their interest in school, their triggers, patterns, and personalities. I decided after this survey, that I needed to check in with them periodically and maybe even track their growth/changing self concepts throughout the year.

6. Letters to Self – Letters to Me They also write 2 letters at the beginning of the year. One to themselves, and one to me. The Letter to Self never gets opened by me. I give it back to them at the semester. They get an envelope and write their address on the front, in case they aren’t there at the semester – I mail it. I tell them “You get out of this whatever you put in.”

7. Letters to Me In the Letter to Me, I ask them to discuss three things: 1.Tell me where you have come from…this can be at school, at home, whatever…just any background I should know about who you are. 2.Tell me where you are going…what do you expect at school, at home…what are your goals/what does your future hold? 3.Anything else I should know – these are confidential, only my eyes will see these.

8. The Opportunity – Grapes of Wrath While reading chapter 5 of Grapes of Wrath, we started talking about extended metaphors and similes…which provided the perfect platform for the Inside Outside Project.

9. We can't depend on it. The bank-the monster has to have profits all the time. It can't wait. It'll die. No, taxes go on. When the monster stops growing, it dies. It can't stay one size. …he was a part of the monster, a robot in the seat… …Snob-nosed monsters, raiding the dust and sticking their snouts into it… …The thunder of the cylinders sounded through the country, became one with the air and the earth… …The tractors came over the roads and into the fields, great crawlers moving like insects…

10. Discussing Extended Metaphors One lesson segment I found was from writingfix.com called “A Monster of a Metaphor” It provided us with some visual metaphors to discuss. **Jot down notes on what you see

11. http://www.flickr.com/photos/55 542402@N00/ We discussed these three things as a class: 1. What is being compared? 2. Why do you think they used this comparison? 3. Is it effective? Why or why not? What do you think????

12. Writing Extended Metaphors From there, students wrote extended metaphors for something, anything…

13. Inside Outside An Extended Metaphor Assignment Often the differences between who we are and what we share with others are very great. We have to ask ourselves how hiding our true self adds to or takes away from the quality of our life. This artistic work allows you to be introspective about yourselves by using extended metaphors to explain your inner and outer selves. You will have some visual representation, with a written explanation (either a poem or a short essay) of your metaphor(s).

14. In this work you will examine and express… 1.Outside: What metaphor can you use to explain how you want other people see you? What different roles do you play in your life? How do you think others actually see you? 2.Inside: What metaphor can you use to describe who you feel you are? Give an honest representation of what other people don’t see. Include the parts of yourself you try to hide.

15. A Crash Course – Trinket Metaphors In the interest of time, you get a short-cut of the inside outside. Choose a “trinket” from the box – make sure the trinket has some qualities, abilities, uses, etc. that you can compare to your own. Write an extended metaphor to explain how this trinket compares to you. You will be asked to share!!

16. Student Work Questions/Comments?