English Language Arts Planning for Teaching and Learning

Figurative Language

Figurative Language by jennifer abel

Listed below are selected teacher resources, picture books, and non-fiction related to figurative language.

Teacher Resources

The writing strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled writers with 300 strategies

by Jennifer Serravallo

Grades: K-6

From the author of The reading strategies book, this book presents a wide range of techniques to allow teachers to develop individual goals for every writer, give students step-by-step instructions for writing with skill and craft, coach writers using prompts aligned with a strategy, present mentor texts that support a genre and strategy, and more. Goal 7 includes discussion of figurative language.

The reading strategies book: Your everything guide to developing skilled readers

by Jennifer Serravallo

Grades: K-6

This book presents a wide range of techniques to allow teachers to develop individual goals for every reader, give students step-by-step instructions for reading with skill, guide readers using prompts aligned with a strategy, adjust instruction to meet individual needs, and more. Goal 11 includes discussion of figurative language.

Poetry – From reading to writing: A classroom guide for ages 7-11

by Robert Hull

Grades: 2-6

The author uses poems from a range of authors to show how creative readings of poems can spark a child’s imagination and lead to original writing. Students are encouraged to write different forms of poetry, including rhyming and non-rhyming poems, haiku, free verse, narrative poems, and more. Chapter 7 includes discussion of figurative language. (E-book only)

Let’s poem: The essential guide to teaching poetry in a high-stakes, multimodal world

by Mark Dressman

Grades: 7-12

This guide presents multiple approaches to teaching poetry at the middle and high school levels. The author explores how to preserve the fun of poetry while also developing critical writing and analysis skills, how to introduce students to the basic formal elements of classic and contemporary poetry, and how to expand their repertoires through the use of digital technology and the Internet. The chapter on “Skin Poetry” discusses figurative language.

Understanding texts and readers: Responsive comprehension instruction with leveled texts

by Jennifer Serravallo

Grades: K-6

The author examines a number of areas of text comprehension, including how plot and setting, character, vocabulary and figurative language, and themes and ideas change as fiction become more complex; as well as how the complexity of main idea, key details, vocabulary, and text features increases in nonfiction texts.

Narrative writing: Learning a new model for teaching

by George Hillocks Jr.

Grades: 9-12

This book demonstrates how focusing classroom activities on producing content, rather than form, boosts students’ engagement and makes them active learners. The author shows how “at-risk” kids’ competencies increase significantly as they are taught how to complete important writing tasks such as incorporating detail and figurative language, creating dialogue, expressing inner thoughts, portraying people and action, and more.

Picture Books

The cat’s pajamas

by Wallace Edwards

This book depicts 26 idioms, bringing new meaning to familiar sayings and tickling your funny bone with a surreal illustration on each page. To ensure you get the hang of it, each expression is used in a sentence and explained at the back of the book.

Monkey business

by Wallace Edwards

From a fish opening a “can of worms” to a tap-dancing octopus putting his “best foot forward,” these familiar idioms are re-imagined in hilarious and unexpected ways. The idioms are used in a sentence that accompanies each illustration, and the meaning of each one is explained at the end of the book.

My grandma likes to say

written by Denise Brennan-Nelson, illustrated by Jane Monroe Donovan

Thousands of proverbs and idioms can be found in the English language – like “a horse of a different colour” and “a bull in a tea shop”. Derived from many different sources, these expressions are a link to history and culture, and can be an instructive tool in language education.

My teacher likes to say

written by Denise Brennan-Nelson, illustrated by Jane Monroe Donovan

Students often hear maxims and sayings on a regular basis in the classroom. From “Do you have ants in your pants?” to “Stick together!” and “Great minds think alike,” readers will be intrigued by the history of these adages, told in poetry form as well as expository text, and amused by the illustrations, depicting these sayings as a child might imagine them.

My momma likes to say

written by Denise Brennan-Nelson, illustrated by Jane Monroe Donovan

Parents say strange things sometimes – what does it REALLY mean when your mom says “Hold your horses”, “I have eyes in the back of my head”, or “Money doesn’t grow on trees”?

There’s a frog in my throat: 440 animal sayings a little bird told me,

written by Loreen Leedy and Pat Street, illustrated by Loreen Leedy

This book goes hog-wild with this collection of animal sayings. From lucky ducks to odd ducks to sitting ducks to just plain quacks, this book presents a wealth of sayings alongside fun-filled art bursting with color and energy. Each expression is clearly explained so no reader feels like a silly goose.

Picture the sky

by Barbara Reid

Wherever we may be, we share the same sky. But every hour, every day, every season, whether in the city or the forest, it is different. The sky tells many stories: in the weather, in the clouds, in the stars, in the imagination. This book envisions the sky above and around us in all its moods.

My heart is like a zoo

by Michael Hall

A heart can be hopeful, or silly, or happy. A heart can be rugged, or snappy, or lonely. A heart holds every different feeling, and for each one, the author an animal out of heart shapes, from “eager as a beaver” to “angry as a bear” to “thoughtful as an owl.”

My best friend is sharp as a pencil: And other funny classroom portraits

by Hanoch Piven

Story written by jennifer abel

 

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