ELA 8 Standard 1 8-30
9/3/02
12:37 PM
Page 23
8.1.1
NAEP
Idioms, Metaphors, and Similes
Purpose
Students will analyze idioms and comparisons to infer the literal
and figurative meanings of phrases.
Materials
For the teacher: chalk, chalkboard
For the students: copies of Black Line Master (BLM) Metaphor
or Simile?, pen or pencil, paper
Activity
A. Pre-Activity Discussion
1. Begin the class by using as many idioms as you can, as
outrageously as possible (e.g., “I’m pleased as punch to be your
teacher today, because we’re going to kick up our heels and have
a blast. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts you’ll grab the bull by the
horns and get this material down cold!”)
2. Ask students what kind of speech you were just using.
3. Explain that you used idioms. Define idioms as vivid phrases
that mean something different than they seem to say literally.
4. Go over some examples with the class. Encourage students
to supply sample idioms (e.g., spill the beans, take the cake, talk
one’s ear off, bury one’s head in the sand, pay through the nose,
start with a clean slate).
5. Have students use each idiom in a sentence and explain what
it means.
6. Encourage students to speculate on how each idiom came
to mean what it does (e.g., students used to write on slates;
a clean slate is one that has been erased, like a clean chalkboard).
B. Discuss Metaphor and Simile
1. Explain that idioms can use the following two techniques
to create meaning.
They compare things using like or as (e.g., “busy as a bee”).
Say that this is a simile and write the term on the board.
They say that one thing is another, even though it is not
that way in reality (e.g., “He’s a live wire”). Say that this
is a metaphor and write the term on the board.
2. Reinforce that similes use like or as, and that metaphors
do not use like or as.
(continued)
Standard 1 / Activity 1
Indiana English/Language Arts Grade 8 Curriculum Framework, October 2002
meeting
individual
NEEDS
To help new English
speakers remember
common idioms, have
them draw pictures
showing their literal
meanings and write
sentences using
each idiom.
extending
THE
ACTIVITY
Have students make
up three idioms of
their own and read
one to the class. Have
the class guess what
the idiom means.
To help students
find ideas, give
suggestions for
idioms that describe
a suggested thing,
person, or situation,
such as the following:
an overly excitable
person, a very boring
movie, a person who
tells great jokes, how
one feels about going
to the dentist,
something very big,
something very small.
Standards Links
8.1.2, 8.3.6, 8.3.7
page 23
Standard 1
Standard Indicator
ELA 8 Standard 1 8-30
8/30/02
5:16 PM
Page 24
Standard 1
Activity (continued)
3. Explain that similes and metaphors are used in literary language,
and are not limited to idioms.
C. Discuss the Poems
1. Distribute the BLM Metaphor or Simile?
2. Have students look at the title of the first poem. If students
are uncertain about what deferred means, explain the word
to them.
3. Read the poem aloud to the class.
4. Ask students if the poem uses similes or metaphors.
5. Go through the poem line by line, having students identify
each simile.
6. Ask students what they think the poem means. Explain that
Langston Hughes was an African-American poet writing before
the major successes of the civil rights struggle.
7. Repeat steps 3 to 6 with the second poem.
D. Discuss the Idioms
1. Have students work independently to identify whether each
idiom on the BLM is a simile or metaphor.
2. When students are finished, go through the list as a class.
Make sure the students can identify similes and metaphors
and understand what the idioms mean.
E. Close the Activity
1. Discuss why we use idioms, metaphors, and similes (e.g., they
are more vivid and memorable than conventional speech).
2. Encourage students to listen for idioms, metaphors, and similes
over the next few days to see how often we rely on them in
everyday speech.
Classroom Assessment
Basic Concepts and Processes
Ask students the following questions:
What is an idiom?
What is a metaphor?
What phrase in A Dream Deferred is a simile?
What is your favorite idiom that uses a metaphor?
page 24
Standard 1 / Activity 1
Indiana English/Language Arts Grade 8 Curriculum Framework, October 2002
ELA 8 Standard 1 8-30
8/30/02
5:16 PM
Page 25
Name:
METAPHOR OR SIMILE?
Harlem (A Dream Deferred)
Langston Hughes, 1951
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore −
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over −
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Write “M” next to the idiom if it is a
metaphor; write “S” if it is a simile.
1. He overreacted again and made a mountain
out of a molehill.
2. What a pain. It’s like looking for a needle
in a haystack.
3. Don’t go into so much detail − just say it
in a nutshell.
4. She threw a whale of a party.
Or does it explode?
5. They’re not talking. I think their friendship
is on the rocks.
Does the above poem use mostly similes
or metaphors? ____________________
6. My math teacher looks mean, but his bark
is worse than his bite.
7. No way. You’re pulling my leg!
Paper Matches
Paulette Jiles, 1973
My aunts washed dishes while the uncles
squirted each other on the lawn with
garden hoses. Why are we in here,
I said, and they are out there.
That’s the way it is,
said Aunt Hetty, the shrivelled-up one.
I have the rages that small animals have,
being small, being animal.
Written on me was a message,
“At Your Service” like a book of
paper matches. One by one we were
taken out and struck.
We come bearing supper,
our heads on fire.
Does the above poem use mostly similes
or metaphors? ______________________
8. Look at all the food! They’ve really
gone overboard.
9. Don’t worry. It’s as easy as falling off a log.
10. I don’t have anything to do with that.
You’re barking up the wrong tree.
11. At formal parties, he’s like a fish out
of water.
12. I can’t build models. I’m all thumbs.
13. Careful − you have to take what he says
with a grain of salt.
14. Exactly! You hit the nail on the head.
15. That dress fits like a glove.
Standard 1 / Activity 1
Indiana English/Language Arts Grade 8 Curriculum Framework, October 2002
Black Line Master 1
page 25