Create a metaphor
A "metaphor" is a concrete scenario with a group of people, a virtual situation that is concrete enough for students to interpret.
Include a set of characters the your audience can identify with in some way. Give them names and make them feel like concrete, real people. Make them represent all the different kinds of people you are writing for.
Define the problem faced as a range of realistic concrete cases. They should cover all the kinds of situations that students will need to be able to cope with.
Create a story line, so it's easy to follow, or perhaps a set of steps to get them through the materials.
- Give them a set of realistic activities that they need to do.
- Offer a range of strategies to solve the problem.
A public safety metaphor
Four friends have a regular meeting as the city community work subcommittee. For some reason it is called "Public Safety." All but one are volunteers, and they need to liaise with the local city council and community organizations.
Introduce them:
- Nathan is a farmer outside town and a volunteer fireman. His main concern is fire risks, although he needs to look at other kinds of problems. The river floods badly every few years, and stock theft is of increasing concern.
- Lisa is a part-time community worker in the inner city with homeless people. She has several children and has decided not to work full-time.
- Brian is a suburban retiree who is mainly concerned about a chemical factory not far from his house. Trucks come and go all day though the residential area, and he thinks it is dangerous.
- Amy comes from a plush beachside suburb. She wants to see improvements in the community, but doesn't understand much about how the less prosperous live.
- Councilor Joanne Brown is the ex officio chairperson of the committee, who reports to Council. The Councilor's position is honorary; in her day job she is a criminal lawyer and sees the city's social problems.
Explanatory notes:
- Nathan is alert to the special kinds of risks that affect farmers, and he has specialist fire knowledge.
- Brian brings a special case to the mix. He is also older and looks at things from an older person's viewpoint.
- Lisa has special awareness of inner city problems and homeless people.
- Amy doesn't know much about the topic, so others will need to explain things to her. In other words, they'll explain things to the students.
- Joanne is aware of social problems, but also sees issues from a government perspective and perhaps from the viewpoint of the upper class. A background in law will also come in handy.
- Notice the gender mix. Apart from the councilor, there are two men and two women.
- As part of their brief from the council, they need to look at all major risks.
- At the first meeting, they introduce themselves and each expresses their own particular interest.
- They need to do a more complete risk assessment. The risk management sequence covers six meetings and what they do in between to identify risks in their community.
- However, as part of their brief from the council, they need to look at all major risks.
- The sequence then shows how they identify and manage a wide range of risks, and are held accountable by the Chairperson. The stages divide the process into distinct steps.]
A community sport metaphor
A presenter comperes a TV program of roving reporter footage of reports from different communities. Most are short video clips, and a few are still photos with sound clips.
The interviewees are mainly a peer group of people who are already running sports programs.
Links to clips are arranged in a framework of a set of steps on how to set up and run a successful after-school community sports program in a remote community. The set of steps is the learning cycle.
It is like a click-through TV show. However, students can click though it in any order. Besides, it provides more information than a TV show so that:
- students can‘t "do it all" in one sitting
- it allows them to explore.
- it covers a wide range of units