On Illness
In this activity, students will compose a personal essay addressing the impact of metaphoric thinking on illness.
ILLNESS LESSON 1: ESSAY
1 class period (45-60 min) + written assignment
VIDEOS:
Illness as Metaphor Video and Transcript
HANDOUTS:
Handout 1 (as needed)
Handout 2 (as needed)
WORKSHEET:
TEACHING PLAN:
- Art and Culture
Subject Matter > Philosophy
- History and Social Studies
Themes > Culture
Themes > History of Science and Technology
Themes > Modern World
- Literature and Language Arts
Genre > Biography
Genre > Essay
Place > American
Place > Modern World
- Analysis
- Creative writing
- Critical thinking
- Cultural analysis
- Discussion
- Expository writing
- Historical analysis
- Interpretation
- Making inferences and drawing conclusions
- Persuasive writing and speaking
- Representing ideas and information in writing
- Synthesis
- Writing skills
- ELA Reading: 4, 7
- ELA Writing: 1, 3-6, 10
- ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2
- ELA Language: 5
- HSS Reading: 4, 7-8
- HSS Writing: 1, 4-6, 10
- Allow additional time for peer review, editing, and revision of work, or for students to evaluate the use of perspective, structure, style, and tone in their finished pieces.
- Add a visual requirement, such as the use of images or artwork in the finished essays.
- Increase the minimum length requirement for the essays, asking students to support their personal experiences of an illness with research on its medical facts, history, and cultural misconceptions (see Illness Unit Research handout for a list of resources).
- Publish class excerpts in the school newspaper or literary/art journal, coordinate a class blog, radio segment,
or podcast, or encourage students to submit their final pieces independently.