Metaphor

Oct 28, 2009 by Annemarie

Writing Trait/Strategy:

Word choice; metaphor

Mentor Text Suggestions:

• all the small poems and fourteen more by Valerie Worth
• Water Music by Jane Yolen
• Color Me a Rhyme by Jane Yolen
• Snow, Snow by Jane Yolen
• Do Not Feed the Table by Dee Lillegard
• Little Night by Yuri Morales
• Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreae
• Miracle Tree by Christobel Mattingley
• Odes to Common Things by Pablo Neruda
• Once I Was Scared by Helena Pittman
• Ordinary Things by Ralph Fletcher
• Say Something by Mary Stolz
• Silver Seeds by Paul Paolilli and Dan Brewer
• The Patchwork Cat by William Mayne
• The Ocean Is… by Kathleen Kranking

Description:

Metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two things but does not use the words “like” or “as” (e.g., Ann is a walking encyclopedia). Metaphor is a little trickier to explain than simile, but with lots of exposure to mentor text examples, they get it and are so excited to begin using it in their writing.

Student Samples:

“I love the way the fish glide across the shiny water as it is a giant glass mural.”

Sky The sky is the umbrella of the earth.