Teacher Instructions & Lesson Resources :
Step one (sharing the song): Tell students you are going to share a song with them from the 80's--a song they have probably heard before. Tell them it's called "Love is a Battlefield," and that it was sung by Pat Benatar, who--interestingly enough--was a classically trained opera singer who became a popular rock star.
Tell students, "Even if you've heard the song already, you've probably never thought about the lyrics closely. Before listening to the song today, I want you to discuss with a partner what you think the song is about, knowing the title is Love is a Battlefield. What does that title make you think the song might talk about? Is it going to be about a battlefield in a desert or a meadow or somewhere else? A battlefield moments before a battle begins? A battlefield that has recovered from a war and is now a peaceful place?"
Let students generate multiple answers in pairs. Share them out loud, and celebrate ones that are different from others. Say, "A metaphor is great tool for writers, but sometimes you need to extend them so your audience knows exactly what kind of battlefield you mean, if you compare something to a battlefield."
Play the song. Show its lyrics on an overhead while students listen; you can find the lyrics on-line by using the Google link underneath the picture of Pat Benatar above. After listening, have students discuss what kind of battlefield the entire song makes them see. Talk about who is fighting? Talk about who is being fought? Ask students to visualize what the battlefield looks like after hearing the song. (Information just for teachers: To me, the song is about young love fighting a battle with an older generation. Although there is no real clear picture given of the type of battlefield the "war" is happening on, encourage your students to visualize the battlefield based on this information).
Next, introduce a new metaphor about love to your students: Love is a swimming pool. Write it where everyone can see it.  Ask students to brainstorm and shout out modifiers (adjectives: single-word ones or adjectives in the form of prepositional phrases) that could be attached to the metaphor to give us an extended idea of what the metaphor means. Love is an empty swimming pool. Love is a swimming pool in winter. Love is a crowded swimming pool. Love is a swimming pool with a bear in it. As a class, generate twenty or so. Talk about how each modifier leaves a completely different impression of the type of love we might be talking about.
Have students, in small groups, choose one swimming pool modifier from the class brainstorm. They should write their modified metaphor down on the top of a piece of paper. Next, have the group brainstorm four or five detail sentences that might be used as extensions to the original metaphor. Insist that their sentences purposely share more specific details about the type of pool they have chosen, but they must also be indicative of love too.
To give them the idea of how detail sentences can extend their swimming pool metaphors, feel free to share the example below on your overhead projector. Challenge your students to come up with three additional, interesting details that could be added to this overhead; then, have them do the same to their original metaphors:
Step two (introducing models of writing): While students are brainstorming details for their original swimming pool metaphors, keep re-reading detail sentences from the overhead above; this should help your students create quality detail sentences. When all groups have generated four or five detail sentences for their own swimming pools, have them share (only appropriate ones) with the whole class. With each shared detail, ask, "So how is that detail also like love?" If they can explain how it's also like love, tell them, "Excellent metaphor extension!"
After groups have shared quality details with the whole class, explain that students will individually be writing a poem about love that extends on a different metaphor. They will not use a swimming pool or a battlefield. They will choose a different element to compare to love.
To show them what the poem can look like, tell them that you have a "Love is a Swimming Pool" poem based on the overhead from above. Show this poem, and talk about how it's so close to the original poem that it could almost be sung to "Love is a Battlefield."
Step three…thinking and pre-writing: After looking at the example poem, have students re-visit their detail sentences for revision ideas, and have them create as many new sentences as they can.
Once students have created a good list of high quality detail sentences, challenge them to create an original poem about love that uses just their best ideas from their group's thinking and pre-writing, or uses an original brainstorm the students create on their own.
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