English Language Arts and Reading.4.10.D

The student is expected to

describe how the author's use of imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile and metaphor, and sound devices such as alliteration and assonance achieves specific purposes;

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.

Pose questions to students regarding author’s craft, specifically how the author's use of figurative language in a text achieves a specific purpose. Monitor to ensure all students participate, provide relevant responses, use accurate evidence from the text, and make accurate connections to the author's purpose.

Questions to Ask:

  • How does the author create imagery in the text?
  • What is the purpose of the imagery?
  • Why is it important and necessary for the author to include it?
  • What effect does the imagery have on the reader’s understanding of the text?

Notes:

  • Provide specific prompts or prepared notes for students who need support.
  • Challenge more advanced students to suggest additional ideas the author could use in the text for a simile, metaphor, or sound device.

 

Further Explanation

This SE requires students to identify and communicate how authors purposely use action words or detailed descriptions of people, places, and things to paint vivid scenes in the minds of readers. Through similes, metaphors, and other types of figurative language, authors compare dissimilar objects. Students are expected to recognize that these comparisons are effective because they connect to a reader’s senses and prior experiences. With sound devices such as alliteration, students are expected to recognize that an author is creating rhythm by using words that begin with the same sound such as big bad bear.

 

when two or more words, close to one another within a phrase or sentence, repeat the same vowel sound, but start with different consonant sounds (e.g., high, sight, lie)
The creation of mental images through language, or imagery, is a common characteristic of good writing. Students should recognize and communicate how authors purposely use action words or detailed descriptions of people, places, and things to paint vivid scenes in the minds of readers.
Figurative language refers to language not intended to be taken literally but layered with meaning using imagery. Authors often make comparisons through similes, metaphors, and other types of figurative language. Students can recognize that these comparisons are effective because they connect to a reader’s senses and prior experiences. For example, when an author uses a noun in a metaphor (e.g., my bedroom is a disaster), the reader automatically associates the noun (disaster) with a sight, sound, smell, taste or even touch. By using one noun to describe another, the author creates instant pictures in the minds of readers. These mental pictures help the reader understand a passage or text.
the use of words, phrases, and sentences in their real or actual sense
a subtle comparison in which the author describes two seemingly dissimilar things using words that are not meant to be taken literally (e.g., Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations.) An extended metaphor carries the comparison through several lines, parts, or the whole text.
a figure of speech in which two things that are essentially different are likened to each other, usually using the words like or as (e.g., “O my love is like a red, red rose”)
Authors can make words more meaningful through the purposeful use of various sound devices. Students are expected to recognize that authors use sound devices, such as alliteration and assonance, to achieve specific purposes. For example, an author using alliteration, or words that begin with the same sound (e.g., big bad bear), may be striving to attract the reader’s attention to those words or to create rhythm.

Research

Palmer, B. C., Shackelford, V. S., Miller, S. C., & Leclere, J. T. (2006). Bridging two worlds: reading comprehension, figurative language instruction, and the English-language learner. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 50(4), 258+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A156736307/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=4ec470e1

Summary: Recognizing that figurative language is a challenge for EL students, the authors consider ways to transition students from modeled practice steps in interpreting figurative language when reading to self-assessed interpretations. Specific strategies and examples are provided, including discussing with students about the importance of figurative language and its contexts.