Gwynne Ellen Ash

This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, re-distribution, re-selling, loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Analyzing ‘‘Inconsistencies’ ’ in Practice:

This issue's column of Unfettered Imaginations highlights children's books in which metaphors play a central role.AS CHILDREN EXPERIENCE their world, they grapple to integrate their new experiences into concepts they already understand. A small child who has a pet dog will often call the first cow she sees, "Doggie!" Young children entering school routinely create descriptions that include physical links between objects, "He's tall like a giraffe!" These early forays into metaphorical thinking predate conventional literacy, yet there is evidence that formal schooling results in diminished, rather than increased, expression of metaphor in children (Wilson, 2000/2001).This issue's column of Unfettered Imaginations looks at models of metaphor in writing for children. Metaphor is often difficult to define; some have even likened it to "pinning air to the wall" (Wilson, 2000/2001, p. 96). Linguistically, metaphor (or more specifically, conceptual metaphor) is a process of using analogies to understand our life experiences (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Colloquially, a metaphor is a figurative rather than literal description, as echoed in the common phrase, "metaphorically speaking." In the writer's craft, metaphor refers to figurative language that contrasts two unlike concepts or objects in order to further the reader's understanding of one of those objects.Metaphor as a class of figurative literary comparisons includes simple metaphor, simile, metonymy, synecdoche, and extended metaphor, or conceit.1 Although simple metaphor and simile are commonly taught as separate entities, both are actually subsets of metaphor. Both are comparisons of two objects or concepts, but one merges the comparison, and the other divides. Simple metaphors blend the objects of comparison into a single concept: "Uptown is jazz" (Collier, 2000, n.p.). Similes include the words like or as (or sometimes than), allowing the objects of comparison to remain separate, for example, "My heart is like a zoo" (Hall, 2010, n.p.). In a conceit, or extended metaphor, a comparison is made throughout the text, and extended through additional details. In the film Shrek (Warner, Williams, Adamson, & Jenson, 2001), when Shrek suggests that ogres are onions because they have many layers, other details such as ogres stink and not everyone likes them serve to extend the onion metaphor. Extended metaphors that serve as a symbol for an entire work are often referred to as a conceit. In Robert Frost's poem "The Road Less Traveled," the road serves as a metaphor for life.Teaching students about metaphorical writing can be challenging, but it is possible (Jakobson & Wickman, 2007; Wolf, 2006). Students use metaphor spontaneously, but it is not often a metacognitive practice. What teachers must do is to encourage, and extend, students' use of metaphorical language to describe what they are learning (Whitin, 2005). To help scaffold students' ongoing development of metaphorical thought, teachers can provide students an explicit definition of metaphor and its elements and examples of metaphor in writing, models for their craft. The following picture books can serve as support in explicit instruction and as mentor texts, providing examples of metaphorical language at work. I have chosen not to include pedagogical stories such as Crazy Like a Fox: A Simile Story (Leedy, 2009), preferring to focus on books where metaphor serves as the structure for, or is pertinent to, a story that moves beyond specific didactic objectives.Explicit Definitions of MetaphorSkin Like Milk, Hair of Silk: What Are Similes and Metaphors? by Brian P. Cleary, illustrated by Brian Gable Minneapolis, MN: Millbrook Press, 2011This recent publication not only defines the terms simile and metaphor, but also offers examples of both. The first half of the book focuses on similes, "Similes are phrases that compare two unlike things. As in Her hair is soft as silk. …

The article describes a semester-long project that draws on Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games as a resource and over-arching theme for preservice taking a content area literacy course. We examine how prepare preservice teachers learn to connect written texts to content area (disciplinary) literacy and consider ways to prepare them for the myriad hidden rules of teaching in today's complex public school environments. Included are examples from our students’ work, as is a detailed description of our over-arching goals for The Hunger Games Achievements project.

This work was originally produced in whole or in part by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory with funds from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), US Department of Education, under contract number ED-01-CO-0011. The content does not necessarily ...

www.ohiorc.org/adlit/ analysis, spelling, and morphology-related vocabulary knowledge (knowing words ’ meanings as a result of understanding the meaning of their component parts--roots and affixes). Orthographic knowledge affects students ’ ability to read unknown words and make informed guesses about the meanings of those words. Vocabulary knowledge is multifaceted, but it includes the ability to recognize the meaning of words in context, infer the meaning of words in context, compare the meanings of similar words, and interpret the role of word choice in the author’s point of view. Vocabulary knowledge affects students ’ comprehension of text and content-area learning. Fluency is “the ability to read smoothly, easily, and

The university’s teacher preparation program has implemented and continually refined a professional development school program, with extended university-school relationships in its middle-level certification program. This program offers dialo-gue, targeted learning activities, and intensive field-based experiences to help ease preservice teachers from student iden-tity to teacher identity. Preservice teachers spend several seme-sters working under the guidance of practicing middle-level teachers before assuming control of their own classrooms, miti-gating potential reality shock and improving middle-level teacher retention. This program has led to higher than average 5-year retention rates for middle-level teachers. Recommendations for other teacher preparation programs are included. Keywords: middle level, professional development schools, tea-cher attrition, teacher preparation, teacher retention

This essay considers 12 books of contemporary young adult fiction, published in the United States between 2000 and 2016, with plots directly related to rampage school shootings. It compares the shooters’ psychological types, ages, races, genders, roles, motives and the narrative points of view in the books with dominant cultural scripts for rampage school shootings and explains how the fic-tional texts confirm, critique, or extend these scripts.

This article suggests a pragmatic framework for reading instruction that attends to the needs of learners aged 11 to 14 years who struggle. Five practices—daily oral or shared reading, guided reading in flexible groups, word study, self-selected extended reading and writing, and ...