Aesop’s Fables offer young learners an opportunity to study figurative language. After reviewing theme, simile, alliteration, and metaphor, model for your pupils how to identify examples of these devices in the fable. Class members then...

Students use metaphors in order to see commonly experienced objects, events, and people in new and more meaningful ways.

Reinforce understanding of five literary terms with a single-slide flow chart. Learners figure out if various words and phrases are examples of simile, metaphor, hyperbole, understatement, or personification. 

This slide show on figures of speech includes definitions, images, and examples from real texts for several common terms: metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, irony, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, and imagery. The presentation is...

Similes and metaphors are the focus of a poetry lesson complete with two exercises. Scholars read poetry excerpts, underline comparative phrases, then identify whether it contains a simile or metaphor. They then write five...

Middle schoolers use context clues to find the figurative meaning of similes and metaphors in writing. They practice using figurative language to help their writing come alive. Use this activity in a instructional activity about poetry,...

Prepare your learners to identify figurative language in poetry. Tips for reading poetry and what to look for are listed on these slides. Rhetorical devices are defined and plenty of examples are given. 

While this resource was originally made to be used in conjunction with John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, it could be used for any literary text. A reference sheet for readers, the resource includes terminology related to figurative...

Illustrate the connection between using figurative language (specifically similes and metaphors) and creating poetry. First this activity reviews the definition for each, and then writers create the endings to two examples provided....

As part of a study of figurative language Avi uses in his book, Crispin, individuals define the 10 terms listed on the activity and then locate severals examples of each in the text of the novel.

Free verse poetry is often regarded as poetry without structure, but in reality, it is a poetic form that adheres to its own poet's thought and breath patterns. Delve into the rules and famous examples of free-verse poetry with a short...

Have you ever watched a political speech and felt your heart beat a little faster, and your opinion either solidify or begin to slightly change? Rhetorical devices can be a strong tool in an effective and powerful speech. A short...

Language arts learners don't need a lecture about poetry; they listen to poetry every day on the radio! Apply skills from literary analysis to famous songs and beautiful lyrics with a lesson about literary devices. As...

Poetry or prose? That is the question facing middle schoolers as they begin a month-long poetry unit by examining the characteristics that differentiate poetry and prose writing. Pupils learn about poetic devices and different types of...

Johnson C. Montgomery’s controversial plea for American social isolationism, “The Island of Plenty,” launches an in-depth study of the structure and logic of the essay. After responding to a series of questions, individuals craft a...

Ask your class to lend their ears, and eyes, to a short video that defines and offers examples of synecdoche and metonymy. Whether it be brand names like Kleenex® and Band-aids® that have come to stand for all the products in a category,...

Students investigate the role of mathematics in their everyday lives. They discover, through reading a Times article and through analyzing a specific example of art, that mathematics exists on a deeper 'metaphoric' level in art.

Class members will be as confident as prize-winning thoroughbreds after completing a worksheet on figurative language. Young writers jot down metaphors and similes for three categories: they way they look, they way...

As part of a study of comparison, kids transform similes into metaphors and metaphors into similes.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." Shakespeare provides the examples on this worksheet that asks readers to identify the two things being compared and to explain the characteristics the two share.

Combining questions about figurative language and Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, this quiz would be a good addition to your class. The majority contains questions about simile, metaphor, and personification, from...

Play this slide show and then find out how much your class has learned with the included quiz. After jotting down the definitions of each term, class members label 10 examples with one of five terms: simile, metaphor, personification,...

Colorful contemporary images contained in a PowerPoint presentation will capture the attention of class members and model for them the how to distinguish between the subject and the theme of a work. A great want to introduce this...

Readers of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings are asked to craft an essay in which they compare how Maya Angelou uses figurative language to depict herself and Mrs. Flowers.