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Metaphorical Expression
Lesson Plan
Social Studies
6
50-75 Minutes (1- 1 class periods)
Kristin Evans

Instructional Unit Content

Standard(s)/Element(s)
Content Area Standard
SS6H1 The student will describe the impact of European contact on Latin America.
b. Explain the impact of the Columbian Exchange on Latin America and Europe in terms of
the decline of the indigenous population, agricultural change, and the introduction of the
horse.
TAG Standard
Creative Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Skills
7. The student uses analogies, metaphors, and/or models to explain complex concepts.

Summary/Overview
The focus of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to develop new insights and
provide powerful explanations of the impact of European exploration and colonization on
Latin America in terms of cultural characteristics ie food, clothing, language, religion, etc.

Enduring Understanding(s)
By the end of this lesson, students should be able to understand that when groups of people
meet, they exchange goods and ideas. This exchange can be both positive and negative, and
the consequences of the exchange can have a great impact on later generations.

Essential Question(s)
What happens when different groups of people collide?

Concept(s) to Maintain
1

Evidence of Learning
What students should know:
a. The Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors came to the New World with one objective- to
conquer and rule the land and people.
b. They were able to conquer due to superior weapons and military strategy, but also because of
the things they brought with themie horses, diseases, crops.
c. The exchange of goods (crops and animals), diseases, and ideas between the Spanish and
Portugeuse and the groups they ruled over is known as the Columbian Exchange as both
sides received things they hadnt before.
d. The Columbian Exchange fundamentally changed the lives of people both in the Americas
and across Europe, shaping cultural characteristics that exist even today.
What students should understand:
a. While the Columbian Exchange saw trade between both the indigenous populations and their
European conquerors, the trade wasnt necessarily equal. European conquest brought many
negative consequences to Latin America, especially with regards to disease and forced
religious conversion.
What students should be able to do:
a.
Think abstractly about a concrete concept.
b.
Use a metaphor to explain the consequences of the Columbian Exchange

Suggested Vocabulary

Columbian Exchange

indigenous

cultural diffusion

Procedure(s)
Phase 1: Hook
1.

Students will participate in a Carousel Brainstorming Activity. Students will inspect the question
posed at each station, develop/record all ideas, and rotate to expand ideas at another station.
Review the three types of metaphorical expressions experienced by the students: direct analogies,
personal analogies, and compressed conflicts. Explain to the students that metaphors allow people
to see concepts in a different way. Students will be investigating the Columbian Exchange using
metaphorical expression to view different angles than they may have previously noticed.

Phase 2: Examine the Content

Set the Scene: The instructor will pass out the Set the Scene handout which asks students various
questions as to how they have interacted with different cultures in the pastwhats their favorite
type of food, what country is their left shoe from, etc.
3. Pose the Essential Question. What happens when different groups of people collide? How is
2.

our essential question connected to our discussions from the Set the Scene handout?
4.

Students will work individually to read a description of the Columbian Exchange and complete the
Content Organizer. Each student will pair up with another to compare their answers and verify
their understanding of the concept of the Columbian Exchange.

Phase 3: Analogies
Direct Analogy: Students will identify the similarities and differences between the Columbian
Exchange and the poem Smart by Shel Silverstein. In the poem, the little boy makes a series of
bad trades to end up losing money. Students should begin to make the connection that the
Columbian Exchange was a series of bad trades for the indigenous peoples of Latin America,
particularly in the case of diseases that were brought over from Europe. In groups of 4, students
will record how they are alike and different using the Visual Organizer.
6. Personal Analogy: Students will compare themselves to a horse owned by a conquistador.
Individually record the answers to the following questions:
Why are you in the New World?
What do you see in this New World?
How do you feel about your Spanish owners?
How do you feel when you see an indigenous person?
5.

Students will write a paragraph, poem, or song in the first person about their life as a horse.
7.

Compressed Conflict: Students will brainstorm antonyms of exchange in order to create

compressed conflict phrases. REMEDIATION: Teacher may anticipate that there will be several
students who struggle with this part of the lesson, so the handout already has an example of a
compressed conflict for teacher to discuss. If needed, a small group can be pulled to do more I
do, we do compressed conflicts before students create their own.

Phase 4: Synthesis Activity

8.

Candidates will generate another direct analogy by completing the following sentence: The
Columbian Exchange is like ________. Give at least 5 reasons why or how the Columbian
Exchange is like the item in your sentence. DIFFERENTIATION: The product here isnt
particularly importanttheyre thinking about the metaphor is. A picture/graph/chart/diagram
could work just as well.

Summarizing Activity
Exit Ticket: In your Think Pad, record each question and then answer in 3-4 complete
sentences. You may use evidence from todays lesson as part of your answer. Feel free to also
include other historical, literary, or world evidence to support your answer.
3

What happens when different groups of people collide?

How do you think the interactions between the groups could change when one group is
more powerful than the other? EXTENSION: This is a great place to offer students
the opportunity to continue/expand their learning on this subject. The Think
Differently board will give options for students to compare Spanish/Portuguese
conquest of the Americas with British conquest of Africa and Indiathey can find
political cartoons, write a short research paper, etc.

Resource(s)
Technology:
Teacher may use the website Kahoot! for the exit ticket section (instead of Think Pad),
particularly if shed like to use the data for later groupings/extension activities because it
exports data to an Excel spreadsheet, even on open-ended questions.
Handouts:
Handout 1: Carousel Brainstorming Activity Handouts (on poster paper)
Handout 2: Set the Scene Handout
Handout 3: Columbian Exchange Reading
Handout 4: Content Organizer
Handout 5: Smart by Shel Silverstein
Handout 6: Direct Analogy Organizer
Handout 7: Personal Analogy Organizer
Handout 8: Compressed Conflict Organizer
Handout 9: Synthesis Activity Handout
Handout 10: Exit Ticket questions (to be completed in student Think Pad)