Journal Writing Prompt to spur imaginative thinking

 This prompt is based on a process called “synectics” from Models of Teaching by Bruce Joyce and Marsh Weil.  The purpose of the writing is to look at common objects from a different perspective and spur imaginative ways of thinking.

Possible Topics:

? How is your life like an ice cream sundae?
? How is a rose like chicken soup?
? How is a prisoner like a toaster?
? How is school like a salad?
? How is your life like a day at the beach?

The sky is the limit with this one and sometimes it is fun to have students bring in their own comparisons and put them in a bowl and pick out combinations.  Sharing these can lead to interesting class discussions.

You can also pose questions like:

? What color is love?  Why
? What colors can love be?
? How is prejudice like the color red?  green?
? How are you like a piece of cheese?
? If you were a musical instrument, which would you be and why?
? If you were an automobile what kind would you be and why?
? If you were a book, which would you be and why?  [you might try a whole list of these and invite students to pick some out and use them to compose a poem about themselves]


 Create Metaphors:

Write a list of ten things that interest you down the left hand side of the page.  (Such as: a saxophone, fireflies, meringue, the blues, constellations, dandelion seeds, armadillos, moles, sparklers) For each item, write a sentence beginning with that item and then using the words “is like” to make a comparison.  For example:  A saxophone is like a lonely voice wailing in the dark.  or Fireflies are like cold explosions of light in the universe of a summer night.  Try to work quickly and don’t edit.  Choose a sentence from your list that you particularly like to expand into a paragraph or use as the basis for a free-write.


  The aim of the exercise is to get students playing with language and metaphor which will enrich their writing.