Similes and Outcomes (Outcomes Advanced p.105-107)

 

In this post I want to share an idea and a story you can use with Outcomes Advanced p.105-107 (and with many other text books if you adapt it). Both are aimed at practicing similes. Your students will first work with my story and then write their own. I will tell you what we did, but you feel free to adapt the activity as you see fit.

1. 

I was quite inspired by the photo and the task on p.104-105, but the discussion in ex.2 didn’t seem to be enough. So I asked my students to write that story. To make it easier and trigger their imagination even further, I gave them the following questions to think about:

- Start from the content. Imagine the character and his motives. Why did he do it? Was he decisive or indecisive about it? What happened after - did it ruin his career or did it help him become a politician? What lessons does he want to teach us?

- Choose your form. Do you want to tell it in the first person or third person? If it's a third-person story, who is telling it? The photographer? His girlfriend? A police officer? Or is it a dialog between a grandfather and a grandson? Is it perhaps his diary entry?

This is a creative writing task, so your students can have a lot of freedom here.  

2. 

Since I was inspired, I wrote a story too, but it didn’t seem to be enough either. I wanted to add practice with similes (p.107) as these are really good in writing and are always a source of creativity in my Creative Writing Club. So I added blank spaces in my story for similes and asked students to fill in the gaps in class. Here it is with blanks:

“You don’t really know if you are going to do it until the very last minute, the minute you have to put on your shoes. The shoes make all the difference. If the shoes are on, you’re going, you don’t back out.

I didn’t know if I was going to do it. Honestly. I was watching TV. But then I would go to the window to look out. And back to the TV. And back to the window. I was pacing back and forth like 1________________. The sun was blinding. My umbrella from the day before was still on the balcony, dry, but do you really fold it and put it away when it’s dry? One rib was hanging helplessly like 2________________.

So one excuse was off the table - it was not raining cats and dogs. I wouldn’t get my feet wet and wouldn’t get sick. You know the feeling - when you hate rain, but you almost want it to rain. The ultimate excuse to yourself. The sky was as clear as 3________________.

It’s funny how the most unexpected thing can make all the difference. It was the kitchen sink, full to the brims with yesterday’s dishes. It looked like 4________________. So when I looked at it, I thought, “This... this I can do any day. That... that is once-in-a-lifetime.”

So my shoes were on. I was standing there at the door and thinking, “Do I need a hammer? Do I need a hammer? I am just going to look. I am just going to look.” My mind was racing like 5________________. I knew I was going then, but what was I going to do there? But I tucked the hammer into my new studded leather belt. I bet I looked like 6________________.

What was I shouting? I honestly don’t remember.”

There are no right or wrong answers here. Encourage creativity and variety. 

3. 

I put all the stories my students wrote on our group doc and asked each one to add at least three similes to their fellow students’ stories. I can't share their full stories, but I want to share some similes they came up with: 

• as effortlessly as a spider crawling up its web
• as fresh as a drop of dew on an emerging bean sprout
• come down like a house of cards
• like a jellyfish in a tidal wave
• like a boiling pan about to tip over

What I love about this activity is, of course, that it involves creative writing, but also that it is effortless for the teacher - no need to spend three hours on a lengthy worksheet. Well, granted, I spent some time on writing the story, but you don’t have to. Feel free to use it (and I will be grateful if you cite me as the source too).