Standard 3: Critical Reading and Writing

Students will apply critical thinking skills to reading and writing.

4.3.R.4 Students will find examples of literary devices:

• simile

• metaphor

• personification

• onomatopoeia

• hyperbole

• imagery

• symbolism*

• tone*

*Students will find textual evidence when provided with examples. 

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will find examples of comparisons using like or as (similes) in a text.
• Students will find examples of comparisons that do not use like or as (metaphors) in a text.
• Students will find examples of human characteristics given to animals, ideas, or inanimate objects (personification) in a text.
• Students will find examples of words that mimic the sounds they describe (onomatopoeia) in a text.
• Students will find examples of obvious and deliberate exaggeration (hyperbole) in a text.
• Students will find examples of multiple words or a continuous phrase that a writer has used to represent persons, objects, actions, feelings, or ideas descriptively by appealing to the senses (imagery) in a text.
• Students will find textual evidence when provided with examples of an object, person, place, or action that has both a meaning in itself and that stands for something larger than itself, such as quality, attitude, belief, or value (symbolism).
• Students will find textual evidence when provided with examples of a writer or speaker’s attitude toward a subject, character, or audience conveyed through the author’s choice of words and detail (tone).
• Students will Identify the literal representations of idioms through class discussions, drawings, and writing.
• Students can use this interactive online tool to view literal representations of selected idioms, complete the sentence by selecting the correct idiom from the list, determine the metaphorical meaning of the idiom, and then use the idiom in a sentence to show their understanding of its meaning.  Online Idiom Tool
• Students will Identify the literal representations of idioms through class discussions, drawings, and writing.
• Students will show an understanding of the metaphorical meanings of selected idioms by using them in sentences.

• Teachers review how to identify a simile or metaphor in a text.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to find examples of similes and metaphors in a text.
• Teachers explain and model that personification is when human characteristics are given to animals, ideas, or inanimate objects in a text.
• Teachers may list nouns on the chalkboard such as monkey, tree, wind, snow, sky, leaf. In another column on the board, write some verbs such as whispered, smiled, laughed.  Teachers then guide students to write their own sentences using personification.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to find examples of personification in a text.
• Teachers explain and model that onomatopoeia is the use of  words that mimic the sounds they describe in a text.
• Teachers provide opportunities for students to find examples of onomatopoeia in a text.
• Teachers explain and model  that a hyperbole is the use of obvious and deliberate exaggeration in a text (e.g., I am so hungry, I could eat a horse).
• Teachers can use Tall Tales to  provide a wealth of hyperbole examples.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to find examples of a hyperbole in a text.

• Teachers explain what imagery is and model how to find examples of imagery in a text.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to find examples of imagery in a text.

• Teachers  explain what symbolism is and model how to find symbolism in a text.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to find symbolism in a text.

• Teachers explain what tone is and model how to find tone in a text.

• Teachers provide opportunities for students to find tone in a text.

• Teachers will discuss how some idioms are passed down through generations. This discussion gives students a preliminary introduction to the historical meaning of idioms.

• Teachers can briefly define the five different types of imagery -- visual (sight), auditory (sound), tactile (touch), olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste) -- and provide an example of each. Write those five headings across the top of your board. Ask your students to create their own school-related imagery examples, and write examples under the correct category. Instruct them that funny examples are fine as long as they're appropriate for the classroom and aren't about teachers or students. For example, a student might write, "the school alarm blared like an army drill," under the "auditory" category, or "the smell of tuna casserole seeped into the classroom like a stink bomb," under the "olfactory" category.

Supporting Resources

Teacher Insights

OSDE ELA Glossary (webpage)

• This standards involves students going beyond defining literary devices; they must locate them in the text as they read.

• Literary devices, or techniques, are similar to literary elements in that they are choices an author includes when writing, but they “are not universal or necessary in the sense that not all works contain instances of them” (Literary Devices).

• Literary devices are style choices rather than essentials.

• Different devices include those listed in the standard which can be found in the OSDE Glossary, but further explanations on these devices, along with other devices, refer to: literarydevices.com.  

• Examples of these terms include:

• simile: She runs like the wind.

• metaphor: She is the wind when she runs.

• onomatopoeia: Buzz, whoosh, and boom

• personification: The wind whispered through the trees.

• hyperbole: I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse!

• idiom: It’s raining cats and dogs.

• alliteration: Harry the happy hippo hula-hoops.

• imagery: involves language that appeals to all senses

• Sound: the splashing of the waves soothed us.

• Touch: Wisps of milkweed seeds brushed against my face.

• Taste: Saltwater is bitter on my tongue.

• Smell: The mushrooms gave off a pungent odor.

• Sight: The deep red of the maple leaves announced the coming of fall.

• symbolism: Winter can represent old age.

• tone: Tone can be serious, humorous, sarcastic, objective, etc

• It should be pointed out to students that any use of the word like is not necessarily a simile.

• The statement I like ice cream is not a simile.

• Likewise, any use of is or are is not necessarily a metaphor.

• The statement His shirt is blue is not a metaphor.

• Personification is the bestowing of human qualities on animals, ideas, or things.

• Animals or objects as characters who talk are not examples of personification. The animals, ideas, or things must take on a human quality through comparison.

• Students at this age will misidentify personification in the following ways:

• When the action is what an animal and human can do.

• Example: The cow was eating grass.

• When the action is not something humans do.

• Example: The thunder boomed outside.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.