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EnglishReading ComprehensionAges 11–14

Figurative Language and Literary Devices

Determine the meaning of figurative and connotative language in context, analyse the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, and identify literary devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, allusion, and irony

Lesson

Set out your lesson

Explain a figurative phrase, its meaning in context and a supported effect on tone. Use a supplied companion story to explain an allusion.

Before teaching

Use this short check, then start teaching.

Activity

Ask what 'Her bag was a mountain' could mean when someone struggles to lift it. Expect very heavy or difficult to carry, not a real mountain. Ask which words support that reading. If the learner only repeats the phrase, model one comparison and try 'The queue was a river of people'. Revisit language choices if literal and figurative meanings remain confused.

Policy

Check readiness directly. Prerequisite availability is not attainment.

Printer, credit, and teaching notes

Check readiness directly. Prerequisite availability is not attainment.

Use the supplied sheets and plain paper or a keyboard. Begin with the readiness check. Then use Show, Guided and Try in order, over more than one session if useful. There is no speed or word-count target. Read the active sheet on screen and write on plain paper, or use a keyboard. No printer, cutting, purchase or internet is needed. The adult may read the text exactly without adding an interpretation. Record read-aloud help, prompts, spelling help and scribing. Oral explanation can show reasoning; it does not show independent reading, composition or handwriting. Pause or split the lesson as needed. Adult-only: keep scripts and keys away from learner sheets. Share the current Show model. Put Show and Guided work aside before Try. Keep the fresh source text available; this is not a memory test. Give no target label, wording or interpretation during the first attempt. If help is needed, give it and mark the work supported. After the attempt, discuss the private criteria. Do not invent a learner result. Use only these invented people and situations. No personal disclosure, real contact, sending, uploading or public performance is required. No real source research or experiment is claimed.

Use the complete materials on screen or print only the current sheet. Keep adult guidance out of learner view.

Next: Show

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Teaching approaches

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1 approach

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Explain a figurative phrase, its meaning in context and a supported effect on tone. Use a supplied companion story to explain an allusion.

Explain a figurative phrase, its meaning in context and a supported effect on tone. Use a supplied companion story to explain an allusion.

Family records and proof options

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Learning resources

Extra practice links — they do not replace Gakuva’s teaching approach.

Library of Congress · Practice link — not the full lesson

Aesop's Fables

Open practice (new tab)
Before you open · source notes

Aesop's Fables supports Figurative Language and Literary Devices. An adult previews and guides; this is a learning page, not a scored quiz.

Free educational page, no sign-in required for the tested path.

Before you open

Ask the learner one fact they learned and one question they still have.

Opening this link does not save learning or assess mastery.

Source, access and review notes

Public Library of Congress page. An anonymous GET on 2026-11-12 returned HTTP 200 with no login or payment prompt for this URL. Opening the link does not save practice or assess mastery. An adult should preview and guide the learner.

Library of Congress. “Aesop's Fables.” External page; Gakuva does not copy, host, embed, or redistribute materials.

Unknown — link only

Check understanding

  • Identify a metaphor or simile in a passage and explain its effect on the reader
  • Explain how an author's word choice creates a particular tone (e.g., menacing, humorous, melancholic)
  • Recognise an allusion to a myth, the Bible, or another text and explain what it adds to the meaning
“When your child reads a passage containing a metaphor, irony, or allusion, can they explain what the author really meant — going beyond the literal words to describe the effect that device creates for the reader?”

Curriculum record

Type
Conceptual
Subject
English
Domain
Reading Comprehension
Age range
Ages 11–14

Standards

ccss-ela:RI.6.4ccss-ela:RI.7.4ccss-ela:RI.8.4ccss-ela:RL.6.4ccss-ela:RL.7.4ccss-ela:RL.8.4uk-nc-2013:KS3-ENG-R-3a