Figurative Language Worksheets

About this resource

Teaching figurative language and need something students can actually write on? This is a complete kit for one unit, written at a middle school reading level and laid out with real room to work. It starts with two plain-words charts that cover eight types: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, alliteration, onomatopoeia and imagery. Students then match the vocabulary, name the type of a sentence, tell which type fits and how they know, decide true or false and fix the false ones, finish a figure of speech from a word box, rewrite a plain sentence as a named type, read a short passage, check an invented student's answers for errors, write their own, and sort sentences on three cut-and-paste pages. It comes with answer keys, a tracker, a class grid, a team note and a family page, so nothing has to be written from scratch.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (32 pages)

• 16 student pages in 12 page types: Plain-Words Chart (2 pages), Match It, Identify the Type, Which Type? (2 pages), True or False?, Fill In the Figure, Make It Figurative, Read the Passage, Find the Error, Write Your Own, Figure Snapshot, and Cut and Paste (3 pages)
• 67 scored items on 10 pages, every answer read from the same lists that print the page, never typed by hand
• 16 original sentences to name by type (8 on Identify the Type, 8 on Which Type?), plus 1 short original passage and 5 answers from an invented student to check
• 8 vocabulary words matched to 10 meanings (two meanings are not used)
• 4 plain sentences to rewrite as a simile, hyperbole, personification or metaphor, with model answers in the key
• 24 cut-and-paste pieces on 3 sorts (4 + 4 into 2 boxes, 2 each into 4 boxes, 4 + 4 into 2 boxes)
• 3 answer keys, including what to look for on the 4 open-response pages
• 1 tracker (page, page type, items right, date, notes) and 1 whole-class progress grid
• 1 team note (a hand-off page), 1 family page and 1 filled example (an invented student)
• 1 phrase bank (17 starters, including student sentence starters for explaining and writing your own), 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here and a how-to-read-a-page page

The Page Types

1. Plain-Words Chart, 2 pages: types 1-4 and 5-8, each with a short name, what it means in plain words, and an original example. Students keep it beside them for the other pages.

2. Match It: 8 words (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, alliteration, onomatopoeia, imagery) matched to lettered meanings.

3. Identify the Type: 8 sentences; pick the name from a box of all eight types. A name can be used once, twice or not at all.

4. Which Type?, 2 pages: 8 sentences, one for each type; write the type number from the chart, then explain how you know in a 3-line ruled box.

5. True or False?: 6 statements, then fix two false ones in 4-line ruled boxes.

6. Fill In the Figure: 8 sentences, each naming its type, and a box of 10 words (two are not used).

7. Make It Figurative: 4 plain sentences to rewrite as the type named, with sentence frames to help.

8. Read the Passage: one short passage; copy the simile and the metaphor, name two more devices, and explain a sentence.

9. Find the Error: an invented student named a type for 5 sentences; students circle yes or no, give the right type where he is wrong, and explain.

10. Write Your Own: a simile, a metaphor and a sentence with personification, then three sentences that use three different figures, each named.

11. Figure Snapshot: pick one type of the chart, say it in your own words, give an example and draw it.

12. Cut and Paste, 3 pages: simile or metaphor, four types into four boxes, then alliteration or imagery. The pieces touch edge to edge, so cutting is a few straight lines, and every piece is over an inch each way.

Built For The Student Holding The Page

A "My name" line, one short instruction, large type, and no cartoons, mascots or clip art. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. Ruled boxes are about a third of an inch a line: a short answer gets 3 lines and an explanation gets 4 or more. Body text is 11 point or larger. The file prints clean in black and white.

No Guessing The Answer

Wherever a student picks among printed spots (the lettered meanings, the box of words, the order of the cut pieces), the position of the right answer is checked so it never sits in the same spot three times in a row.

Original Sentences, Standard Definitions

Every example sentence, the passage and the student answers are written for this file; nothing is quoted from a book, song or poem. The definitions are the standard classroom kind, kept short. Writers can use two devices at once, so each printed sentence was built to fit one type, and the answer key says what to do if a student defends a different one with words from the sentence. There is a blank line on the tracker for your own standard or wording.

Type In, Or Print

The name line, every answer box and every ruled box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the family page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Middle school English language arts classes, special education and resource rooms working on the same unit, co-taught classes, and substitutes who need a unit that is ready to hand out. The reading is written at about a grades 6-8 level.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A figurative language worksheet set with the record-keeping around it. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.