How Do I Love Thee: Abstracting

To be able to begin this activity I first had to reread the assigned chapters of Sparks of Genius. Then, I had to seek advice in order to clarify the task. Just like my students, I sometimes have difficulty thinking abstractly and identifying abstractions in everyday life. There are such a wide variety of ideas and topics related to figurative language, that it was difficult for me to narrow my options down and make a choice that would help me produce logical results. To me, the cognitive tool of abstracting deals with taking an object or idea and simplifying it down to one basic element. Furthermore, I feel that abstracting can also mean taking an object or idea and representing it in another way.

I first thought of some examples of how writers use figurative language in their work- personification, simile, metaphor, and onomatopoeia, to name a few. Which one could I chose that would fit with this activity? Writing of this type is filled with abstractions. After some careful consideration, I chose to focus on one figurative language tool that many writers often use. I chose to create two abstractions based on a metaphor. Since metaphors are abstract ideas in general, I had to really think "outside the box" to come up with my abstractions. According to Merriam-Webster, a metaphor is  "a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them". I chose to focus on a familiar metaphor I have used before in my language arts class- ideas in motion. I chose to create an abstraction representing this metaphor through the use of digital photography to represent my ideas. You can see my work below.

Ideas

Motion

Let me explain my thinking a little bit further. First, I took a photograph of a light bulb to represent "ideas". Sometimes when I am teaching my students it seems when they finally come to an understanding during the lesson, a light bulb goes off in their minds. This is something I can see on their faces as I am presenting my lesson and facilitating discussion. A lightbulb is a simple object that holds true meaning for the metaphor I have selected. The steering wheel below is used to represent "motion". For me, the steering wheel is the most basic element of the car. In working together with the wheels,it is what guides the car in the right direction. As I drive, my ideas are constantly in motion, whichever route I decide to take.

For my next medium, I chose to do something quite different. I decided to represent my metaphor through the use of poetry.I used abstract ideas to create a feeling of thinking and movement. My goal was to create simple phrases that conveyed the meaning of the metaphor "ideas in motion".

Spark of the ignition

Lights actions into motion

Travel the highway of imagination

Move through the traffic of the mind

These two different representations of the same metaphor show that there is more than one way to think about something we believe we already know about. As a teacher, it is my job to try and guide students to open their eyes to different ways of viewing a topic or idea. I think this activity helped me to practice doing this on my own. It also allowed me to experience some of the difficulty my students may have with abstracting. I was then able to reflect on the different approaches I can take to try and help them understand this concept. 

Side Note- I just visited the course website and the random cartoon that popped up happened to be Alex in Wonderland (light bulb). Needless to say, I had a good laugh! :-)