The Literacy Umbrella
Understanding Figurative Language (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 3: Literacy for GrowthAges:
9-12
Grade Range:
4th 5th 6thFood Groups:
Primary:
Knowledge Building, Vocabulary
Transcript
There's so many aspects to figurative language, and in the beginning of the year we really just focused on simile and metaphors. And as the year grows out, it actually grows. So, we came up with the idea of putting it under an umbrella so that we know that they all went together. So once we came out with our umbrella of figurative language, they decided that we wanted to have it just pouring figurative language. So we had raindrops with onomatopoeia, rain drops with alliteration, we had a couple of storm crowds that had idioms there. And so what the students did was after we came up with cool as a cucumber as a simile, they decided to create their own similes, and their own metaphors, so they had to actually put them in the storm, because we didn't want to leave them outside out of the umbrella. So, what they did was as they came up with their own, they had pretty as a butterfly, and they would list the butterfly and then they would tell us that that was a simile. And what they really enjoyed the most was the alliteration here. And a lot of them took the first letter of their name and they just went wild with it. Everyone has heard of Peter Piper picks the peck of pickled peppers, and so I have a little child that may have said Diajia danced dainty down the street. So, they actually went wild with the alliteration that was their favorite one.
Activity Objective
The goal of The Literacy Umbrella: Understanding Figurative Language(Virtual Tour) is to explicitly teach word meanings and figurative language and providing opportunities for exposure to and use of a variety of uses for figurative language.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- Introduce figurative language with similes and metaphors.
- Using an umbrella as a concrete representation of figurative language helps students understand the many components of language.
- Develop anchor charts with the students. This provides them with opportunities to take responsibility for their learning and makes their ideas visible and important.
- Anchor charts provide a visual reference of students' thinking and supports ongoing learning.
Other Recipes by this Teacher
The UNRAVEL Device: Using a Test Taking Mnemonic (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 6th
Double the Fun: Exploring Homonyms (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 4th
Integrating Social Studies: Developing Research Skills (Virtual Tour)
4th - 6th
The Wall of Science: Anchoring Students' Learning (Virtual Tour)
3rd - 6th
The KWL Chart: Building Knowledge with a Graphic Organizer (Virtual Tour)
2nd - 6th
