Date: April 21, 1999

Grade Level(s): 12, Higher education

Subject(s):

• Language Arts/Literature

Description: The lesson uses the Synectics II Model to analyze the themes of Kafka's writings. The Synectics II Model makes use of analogy and metaphor to help students comprehend and understand new or complex concepts. The model intends to "make the strange familiar."

See Gunter, Estes, & Schwab (2002).  Instruction: A Models Approach (4th Edition); Joyce & Weil (1999).  Models of Teaching (6th Edition.).

Goals: Students will use analogies to make creative comparisons that express new ways of approaching and comprehending the themes in the writings of author Franz Kafka.

Objectives: Presented by the teacher with information on the themes of Kafka's writings, with excerpted passages, and with a direct analogy, students will:

1) describe the direct analogy;
2) "become" the direct analogy using a personal analogy;
3) identify and compare similarities between the analogies and the themes;
4) explain differences between the analogies and the themes;
5) re-explore the themes on their own terms;
6) generate original direct analogies for the themes, exploring similarities and differences.

Materials: Hand-outs of excerpted passages from the fiction of Franz Kafka:

1) The Trial (opening passage of first chapter),
2) The Metamorphosis (opening passage of story),
3) The Burrow (opening passage of story), and
4) The Castle (passage from first chapter, beginning: "But very shortly he was awakened. A young man dressed like a townsman, with the face of an actor, his eyes narrow and his eyebrows strongly marked, was standing beside him along with the landlord.").

Procedure:

I. Providing substantive input:

1) Teacher distributes hand-outs of the opening passage from The Trial.
2) Teacher reads aloud as students read along.
3) Teacher asks for student responses to the passage (e.g., What is happening? Why is it happening? How does the character of Joseph K. feel? How would you feel?)
4) Teacher provides information on three major themes of Kafka's writings: 1) paranoid vision, 2) grotesque vision, 3)expressionistic vision.
5. Teacher distributes hand-outs of opening passage from The Metamorphosis.

II. Direct Analogy:

1) Teacher writes on board a direct analogy for themes: a "nightmare."
2) Students describe analogy, teacher writes on board in their own words.

III. Personal Analogy:

1) Teacher asks students to "become" analogy, and describe characteristics of themselves from point of view of "being" a nightmare.
2) Teacher writes student descriptions on board, in their own words.

IV. Comparing Analogies:

1) Teacher asks students to identify and explain similarities between descriptions of direct and personal analogies and Kafka's themes.

V. Explain Differences:

1) Teacher asks student to identify and explain differences between descriptions of analogies and Kafka's themes (where characteristics do not fit).

VI. Exploration:

1) Teacher distributes hand-outs of opening passage from The Burrow and a passage from opening of The Castle.
2) Student volunteers read aloud.
3) Teacher asks students to relate themes to new passages.
4) Teacher asks students to identify those characteristics of analogies that fit the new passages, and those that do not fit.

VII. Generating Analogies:

Student provides own direct analogies, explore similarities and differences between analogies and themes.