English Language Arts and Reading.2.10.D

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The student is expected to

discuss the use of descriptive, literal, and figurative language;

author's purpose strand teks talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Author's purpose and craft: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking using multiple texts. The student uses critical inquiry to analyze the authors' choices and how they influence and communicate meaning within a variety of texts. The student analyzes and applies author's craft purposefully in order to develop his or her own products and performances.

Ask students to read a text, identify figurative/descriptive/literal language in a text, and have a conversation about why the author chose to use that language. Facilitate a discussion about figurative language by asking questions and listening to student responses.

Possible student responses include the following:

  • The author used figurative or descriptive language to make readers more engaged.
  • The author used figurative language to make the author’s point more convincing or relevant.
  • The author used figurative language to help describe something or compare it to something else more clearly.
  • The author used figurative language to help the reader create mental pictures with words.
  • The author used figurative language to create a mood for the story.
  • The author used figurative language to create a deeper understanding of the character and build the image of the character.
Descriptive language is language that is vivid and specific and helps the reader imagine what is the author is describing. In second grade, students should use references to the five senses and adjectives to recognize descriptive language in books.
Figurative language is language not intended to be taken literally but that is layered with meaning using imagery, metaphors, and other literary devices. In second grade, other literary devices may include similes, alliteration, and idioms.
Literal language is the use of words, phrases, and sentences in their real or actual sense.