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Interactive LessonGrades 6-8

Figurative Language Lesson

Skill: Figurative Language Poems

This lesson explains simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and understatement. Students learn these techniques and then practice identifying and distinguishing between them with a practice activity. This lesson is adaptable for grades 3-12.

What is Figurative Language?

Language that one has to "figure" out...

Literal Language
Words mean exactly what they say
Ex: The bees were busy flying around the garden.
Figurative Language
Readers have to FIGURE out the meaning of the expression.
Ex: The students working on their projects were as busy as bees.
Were the students working hard or not? The reader has to FIGURE this out.

Figurative Language Techniques

What This Lesson Covers...

Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Hyperbole
Understatement
Let's look at each of these a little more closely...

Simile

Comparing two different things using "like" or "as"

Examples
The telephone wires hung like a musical score.
Those faces, sour as vinegar, watched us leave.
A flag wags like a fishhook there in the sky.

WARNING!

The speaker must actually compare two things.

Just using the word LIKE or AS does NOT make it a simile.
THESE ARE NOT SIMILES
I washed the dishes as she dried them.
I like Taco Tuesdays.
She looks like her mom.

Metaphor

Comparing two different things without using "like" or "as"

Examples
Flowers of thought blossom while reading.
The painted leaves are strewn along the winding way.
Fame is a bee — it has a song, it has a sting.

Personification

Giving human traits or abilities to things or ideas

Examples
Trees that whisper in some far, small town.
The wise trees stand motionless in the cold.
The brooks laugh louder when I come, the breezes madder play.

Hyperbole

Exaggeration to express a strong feeling or for effect

Examples
Oh never, if I live to a million, shall I feel such a grievous pain.
The lunch line stretched all the way to the moon.
My book bag weighs a million pounds.

Understatement

An expression making something smaller than it seems, minimizing the effect of something

Examples
Alex acknowledged he may have parked a little too close to the house, after he smashed through the garage door.
Professor Plum admitted that the test may have been a little tricky after half the class failed.
The firefighter who rescued six people from a burning building said that she just did what needed doing.

Review

Practice Review

The dancer moved across the stage like water flowing over stones.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimileMetaphorPersonificationHyperbole

The wind whispered secrets through the broken window.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimilePersonificationHyperboleUnderstatement

She has heard that excuse a billion times and she's not buying it anymore.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimilePersonificationHyperboleUnderstatement

The fog was a thick curtain draped across the harbor.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimileMetaphorPersonificationHyperbole

Mr. Blair felt that maybe the science experiment went a little off course after the fire department arrived at the school.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimilePersonificationHyperboleUnderstatement

The abandoned building stood as still as a photograph.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimileMetaphorPersonificationHyperbole

Lightning danced across the sky and thunder answered back.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimileMetaphorPersonificationHyperbole

The hallway smelled so bad after gym class that it should have been declared a hazardous zone.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimileMetaphorHyperboleUnderstatement

She noticed the burning fire in his eyes whenever he spoke about this plan.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimileMetaphorPersonificationUnderstatement

After landing the plane with only one wing, the pilot agreed that the flight had been a little bumpy.

Choose one answer, then add your follow-up response.

SimileMetaphorHyperboleUnderstatement