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
Teaching approaches
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1 approach
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?
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
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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