Many of you might recall the commencements last spring where graduates booed their speakers for mentioning AI. In the pieces I read about this trend, the general thought seemed to be that the boos originated from the graduates’ anger at AI for disrupting the labor market and making their paths into the future unclear. At the time, I remember agreeing with those factors, but I also couldn’t shake the feeling that something else was at play too. 

A few weeks ago, those booing graduates popped into my head as I was preparing lessons for this upcoming year. Specifically, I was thinking about the following quote from Kenneth Burke that I often use to help students understand how academic writing works. In it, Burke compares the endless debates of humanity to an endless dinner party: 

Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about…You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you…The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.

As I re-read the passage, I thought about how those graduates had just spent 2, 4, or more years sitting at the dinner party of ideas from across human history. Most of them probably did something similar to what Burke puts forth: They listened and took it all in, and then, after careful consideration of where they fit into the conversation, put in their oars to join the fray. 

This process of finding one’s place amongst the heated debates of humanity is not easy. That is why graduation contains so much pomp and circumstance. Graduation celebrates the completion of a long journey, one filled with trials to overcome, threshold guardians to best, and tricky currents that one must row with and against. 

Viewed in that light, it makes a lot of sense that organic boos might rain down when, at the very moment of this celebration, a potential rival who did not engage in such a journey is introduced and elevated. Making matters worse is that this rival may seem on the surface like the graduates. It too has absorbed the heated discussions and ideas of humans who have come before, but it has done so at an inhuman speed and scale. This is often given as one of Gen AI’s key value propositions. It has taken in more data than humans ever could, even if they went to college a million times. 

But at a graduation, maybe more than almost anywhere else, a somewhat ironic shortcoming of Gen AI is laid bare: While it seems to be a tool of the future, in some ways it is a tool of the past. Part of what makes graduation so special is that it is a celebration of what is next. It is a celebration of new humans bringing new perspectives and new ideas to important conversations to move those conversations (and the larger world) to somewhere novel and hopefully better.

Gen AI doesn’t work like that though. It is not introspective. It does not think about how to move a conversation forward into the future or even really know that there is a future. And it certainly doesn’t tend towards the novel. It instead is designed to predict responses to a prompt based on everything said about it in the past. 

This irony is a part of why the regular pronouncements of Gen AI being “The Future” have often struck a sour chord in me. Gen AI will undoubtedly be a part of the future. It is a powerful technological advancement and, like other powerful tools, it will play its part in the future. But to crown it as “The Future” is not correct in my opinion. If something is “The Future,” it would be those booing graduates along with the future-graduates I work with each day. 

Now I fully recognize that the notion of students being “The Future” might seem cliche. The younger generations are obviously, literally, the future, and thus to say so might feel redundant. But in recent years, I’ve heard, in one way or another, from a great many students that they worry that they are not the future. I’ve heard them fear, largely because so many messages that surround them say so, that their voices cannot and will not be able to compete against AI and the powerful algorithms operating behind the curtain of our screens. 

That is why I believe that it is deeply important this year to make clear to students that their voices matter as much as they ever did. In fact, given the pace of change and the problems we face, I plan to tell them more than a few times that we will need the new ideas and perspectives and voices they bring to the dinner party now more than ever. 

Of course, just saying something isn’t enough when that something matters. We must show it. With that in mind, I’ve revised many of the lessons in my opening narrative unit to more directly make the point that student voices really, really matter. Today I wanted to share a personal favorite of these lesson on metaphors and similes with you. Here it is and here is a link to a pdf of it:

Metaphor and Simile Lesson

Learning Objectives

• Students will understand what metaphor and simile are and how they differ
• Students will understand why authors use metaphors and similes
• Students will understand how the right metaphors/similes can add power to their writing by inviting in their unique idiolect, experiences, and perspective

The Why

Metaphor and simile often get framed as tools for poets, songwriters, and novelists from a hundred years ago. In reality though, they are one of the most effective conveyers of information available to writers. They can help a reader to rapidly understand a moment, a glance, or a thought by comparing it to something the reader already knows or feels. Further, metaphors and similes offer a powerful opportunity to help the reader get to know the author, as the analogies we use–if they are thoughtfully chosen–can say a great deal about the author’s unique idiolect, experiences, and perspective.

Intro

This lesson begins by introducing what a metaphor and a simile are and how they are different:

Similes are comparisons that use “like” or “as.” → “Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude…and it pricks like thorn.” -William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Metaphors are comparisons that don’t use “like” or “as.” → “What light through yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.” -William Shakespeare

Then the students are given key questions to discuss with a shoulder partner and then the group: A lot of attention gets paid to metaphors and similes in writing. Why is this? Why are they so important to know? And what kind of effect can they have on the reader?

Lesson Plan

1. Hand out a metaphor/simile-rich text. One of my favorites is Clint Smith’s “My Father Is an Oyster.” As the class reads (or in the case of Clint Smith, he reads it from the video), have the students underline similes and metaphors.

2. Once the poem is done, put a copy of the text under a document camera or on the screen and have students share out metaphors and similes they see. Make sure to ask them to differentiate between the two while the teacher marks them as either metaphor or simile. The students should mark them as the class does.

3. Then revisit the opening question about the importance of metaphors and similes and put the student answers on the board about why they are so important. Be open to what they say first, and then share the following if it doesn’t come up:

Metaphors/Similes are one of the most efficient and effective conveyors of what a given thing feels/looks/smells/sounds/is like because they show instead of tell and connect to things we already have strong feelings about.

4. To bring this point home, show this video from the New York Times Learning Network of Varya Kluev discussing how she uses metaphors and similes in her contest-winning narrative “Pants on Fire.” Then share a copy of her essay and have the students once again underline metaphors and similes.

5. Next, tell the class that metaphors/similes have another superpower though: The metaphors/similes that an author choses can also help us to quickly get to know an author’s background, personality, and perspective. This is essential when it comes to building connection between the author and reader and separating our writing from Gen AI writing. To understand this, have them look at the metaphors/similes that both Smith and Kluev use and discuss the following questions with a partner and then the class:

• What trends and themes can we see in the metaphors/similes they chose?
• What do their metaphors/similes show us about each author’s specific interests and background?
• What do their metaphors/similes say about who each author is?

6. Tell the students that we are going to practice using metaphors and similes that express us. This can be hard to do on the spot, so to help, have the students take two minutes to write as many interests/experiences/details about themselves as they can. The teacher can demonstrate this.

7. Then tell the class that we will be playing a game where the teacher will give a situation that everyone will know about and the students will seek to explain how that situation feels to them using thoughtful and personal metaphors and similes. As they do this, they should seek to use metaphors and similes that are unique and based upon the unique interests, experiences, and details that make up who they are. Once again, it is probably a good idea for the teacher to model this.

8. Next, share a series of situations with the class and ask the students to create personal metaphors and similes for each. I often use PearDeck for anonymously sharing these in real-time, but one could also share them this using personal whiteboards, poster paper and a gallery walk, or even with a Google Form. Some of the questions I normally ask of my 9^th graders are the following:

• What is the best simile/metaphor for what high school is like so far?
• What is the best simile/metaphor for how you feel on the first/last day of summer?
• What is the best simile/metaphor for how you feel after 6th period (the end of our day)?

(Optional): If the teacher wants to bring in a discussion of Gen AI and the importance of our idiolects and perspectives, one way to do that is to open an LLM and put the questions into it first. Having done this, its answers unsurprisingly tend towards cliches, which can open up a great conversation about why it tends towards cliches and why that makes leaning into our idiolects/unique perspectives so important.

9. Lastly, have the students showcase their knowledge by writing a short piece where they describe a location they know well through the use of at least two metaphors and two similes (all labeled) to help the reader to understand that location as well as possible. Here is a copy of the assignment sheet I use for this.

Extension and Assessment

Metaphors and similes seem simple, but using them well or unpacking what an author’s metaphors/similes use says about the author and/or the story is hard. I find that if we want students to use and discuss them well, we need to bring them up regularly–so regularly that students get that voice in the back of their heads reminding them to not forget metaphors/similes when writing or reading the writing of others.

Thanks for reading and yours in teaching,

Matt