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.
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.
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Teaching approaches
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1 approach
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.
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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
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.
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Before you openAsk the learner one fact they learned and one question they still have.
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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