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How to Successfully Teach Figurative Language

Language is simple, right? It’s something that we use every day. Our students should have no problem understanding it on their own. Wrong! Many students struggle to learn English. Add figurative language to the mix, and your students are bound to be confused.

Figurative language is on almost every state test from the lower levels all the way up through college. So, what can you do, as an educator, to help your students successfully learn how to identify figurative language and how to use it?

First, activate their prior knowledge. This may require you doing some research ahead of time. One way you can do this is by using a song that your students are familiar with or as your students might say, a song that is “trending”. Locate some figurative language inside of the song lyrics and use them to help your students get a better grasp of what figurative language is.

You start by put a copy of the lyrics on your Promethium Board, White Board, or Google Slides.
You may also want to give your students a copy of the song lyrics.
You could even have the song playing when your students walk into the classroom.

***Make sure that you vetted the song before you play it for your class. This is to avoid accidentally playing any embarrassing or explicit lyrics.

Now that you have introduced the song, you can begin to ask your students some questions to get them engaged. Some of those questions include:

Do you like the song?
What do you like or dislike about the song?
What are the song lyrics about?

Once they finish listening to the song and looking at the lyrics, you should tell them that the song contains figurative language.

Give them a definition of what figurative language is, and then point out the figurative language within that song.
You can discuss reasons why the artist decided to use these particular words or phrases.

Another way to get your students to recognize figurative language is to use picture books. Picture books and other lower-level books are loaded with figurative language.

Some of these lower-level books will have words while some will not. This is the way that I used these types of picture books:

I allow the students to look through the books or I show them the pictures.
I ask the students to look at two different things from the book. Then, ask them questions to make comparisons or describe the two things.
The students will begin using similes or metaphors to describe the two things. Once the students have done this, I then explain to them that what they are using is figurative language.

You may also want to give your students a list of the different types of figurative language and their definitions.

teaching figurative language

At this point, you will want to show them more examples of figurative language in songs and books again. This time, however, don’t tell them which types of figurative language are used within each of your examples. Have your students try to identify them on their own.

Poems are also a wonderful way to introduce figurative language.

Poems can be difficult, but you can make things easier by guiding your students through them line by line or stanza by stanza and analyzing them. And, as you run across figurative language in the poems, be sure point these out.

Again, you will have to have done some research before class. Have a copy of the poem ready for your students to use.

Next, try having your students compose some figurative language of their own. These can be quick and easy sentences or paragraphs. You might also want to consider having them create a figurative language booklet. You can let the students work in small groups. You might want to even break the groups down into threes to prevent unnecessary talking during the activity.

You can assign them to complete 5 examples of a select number of figurative language devices. You could have them compose 5 similes, 5 metaphors, and/or 5 idioms.

You can have your students to compose their own poems. They could write stories that using figurative language. These stories can be creative writing activities, or they can be narratives.

Task cards are also a great way to help your students identify figurative language. Task cards allow them to have hands-on interaction with figurative language. You can buy these from places like Amazon or you can download some printable from online from sites like Teachers Pay Teachers.

I have several figurative language activities in my TpT store that can be used. These are simple activities can be printed off and used. This is how I use the figurative language task cards:

I print them off, laminate them, and hand them out to my students. These cards can be used as center activities, or you can use them at a teacher’s table. This way the students got to manipulate the task cards and work with them.

I also use figurative language puzzles that I have created. They are figurative language circles that have been sectioned off into 4s. I print these off, cut them into the 4 parts, and mix them up. I mix in at least one more puzzle to make it fun. Then, I have the students match the definitions to the examples.

Figurative language devices are often on state standardized tests. So, when you are teaching figurative language, be sure that you present it to your students in the same format that’s going to be on their state test.

When you are first introducing the lesson, you can do it in the simple formats of nursery rhymes, songs, picture books, and poems. However, as you more along, increase the difficulty level. Raise the rigor of the activities. And, most importantly, have your students interacting with figurative language on a regular basis and make sure that it is in the same or a similar format as it will appear on your state’s standardized tests.

11 Ideas for Teaching Figurative Language Meaningfully

Teaching figurative language can be a little difficult. Your students may struggle to understand the different elements of it. However, it can be done successfully. Begin by introducing figurative language in a format that they can easily understand. Have them interact with task cards, puzzles, worksheets, and fun figurative language games. Once they have mastered these, move on to the more complicated versions of figurative language. Whether you use the puzzles, task cards, or any other figurative language worksheet, the more your students can interact and manipulate them the better they will become at identifying the figurative language.