How far can you stretch a metaphor before it snaps, Bean?

As I read the eighth chapter of John Bean’s book, I thought about how effective writing could be used to teach better reading (when I wasn’t being impressed—and obviously distracted—by his ability to stretch the fishing metaphor). As a student, I have found that being forced to respond to texts through writing has helped me to engage with the texts at a deeper level, as Bean suggests. Asking students to respond to good questions about the text, I have found, is also an effective way to help students begin to notice problems with the text, leading to critical analysis. Besides requiring students to keep a journal of their responses, I plan to require that they play the “believing and doubting game” that Bean mentions (having read about in Elbow’s work)—perhaps in class. I think this activity will be especially helpful as my students look at criticism of the literature they read, encouraging them to take a similarly critical position in their papers.
For my English 1000 course, I do plan to assign my students some reading—definitely either a novel or a few short stories. Since my students will be analyzing a novel or short story of their choosing, I want them to have an opportunity to see how it is done. I also plan to assign some reading on how to analyze film, so they will have the technical vocabulary that they will need for their paper. In addition, I am considering assigning a few works of criticism or perhaps a few sample papers so that students get an idea of how others analyze literature. In class, I plan to work from students’ written responses about the reading to spark discussion.