Lesson Plan for Finding
Figurative Language in Texts
Using the First 5 Chapters of
Call Me Lizzy as the Text
By Mary T. Wilkinson
© 2014
Lesson Plan for Finding Figurative Language
in the Text of Call Me Lizzy
This lesson will enhance understanding of State and Common Core
Standards on Figurative Language for grades 4-8
Lesson Objective- Students will be able to read a passage of text and find
figurative language hidden within it. They will also state what form of
figurative language is being used.
Build Background- Go over the meanings of the common forms of
Figurative Language with the handout that follows this lesson. If this
information is new to students, allow them to use this handout when doing the
practice worksheet. Tell students that figurative language makes their writing
powerful and interesting.
Model for Students- Teacher will read the last paragraph of chapter 2 on
page 23 of Call Me Lizzy aloud to the class. Then she will tell them that she
realizes there is some figurative language in these lines of text. These
sentences may be displayed on the blackboard, whiteboard, or on cardstock
strips in a pocket chart. Finally she will ask the students to use their handout
and help her decide what forms of figurative language might be in each
sentence.
Sentences from Chapter 2 -Use in Modeling the Skill of Recognizing
Figurative Language in Text
Page 23
“They were both pretty large people, so I was squished in like a sardine in a
can.”- (onomatopoeia on the word squished, and simile using like to compare
her to a sardine.)
“You’d have thought I was back in Indianapolis because Grandpa was going
around those corners like a driver in the Indy 500.” – (simile)
Practice with a Partner- Teacher will read selected sentences from chapters
three, four, and five of Call Me Lizzy. Give students and their partner a
specific sentence to work on together. These can be cut into strips and given
to two or three students. Students may use their Forms of Figurative
Language handouts to help them. Later, tell them the correct answers.
Sentence Strips
1. “Whee! I screamed. Coming down the other side of the mountain was
more fun than going up.
______________________________
2. “Now, don’t get so excited,” Grandpa replied. “I know what I’m doing,
and Lizzy is happy as a lark. Look at her.”
________________________________
3. “Your grandma is what we call, in the preacher business, a worry wart,”
Grandpa said smiling at Grandma. “She could worry the warts off of a
frog."
________________________________
4. By the time we stopped at the little white house, a sea of smiling faces,
young and old, surrounded the car.
________________________________
5. With one pull, I slid across the truck’s imitation leather bench seat and
plopped out on to the ground feet first like an Olympic gymnast
finishing her routine.
________________________________
6. “He’s two but I can’t let him down. He’ll take off like a shot.”
________________________________
7. “Grandpa tried everything he could to get her to snap out of it, but it just
wasn’t working.”
________________________________
8. “At first Grandma was mad as an old wet hen, but then she felt so sorry
for the old thing that she cleaned it up and started nursing it back to
health. “
________________________________
9. Just then we heard the big dinner bell clanging from the direction of the
house.
________________________________
10.
“We jumped down from the straw bales and took off like a shot out
of a cannon.
________________________________
Practice- Let students try to write some sentences with figurative language in
them. Teacher might say, “Write a sentence that contains a simile or write a
sentence that contains alliteration.” Check student sentences by letting those
who are finished read theirs to you quietly. If they are incorrect, show them
where they made their mistake.
Sharing- Let some students share their best sentences with the class, but only
those you have pre-approved as correct. Let the class see if they can guess the
figurative language in that child’s sentence.
Assessment- Give students the Quiz on Figurative Language in a Text to do
by themselves. The teacher may let them use their handout on Forms of
Figurative Language especially if they need accommodations.
Quiz on Figurative Language in a Text
________________________
Name
Find at least 5 forms of figurative language in this letter from the author of Call Me Lizzy. Each
line of this letter is numbered. Underline every use of figurative language that you find. Then at
the bottom of the paper, put the number of the line in the box next to the kind of figurative
language that sentence holds. One has been done for you as an example.
1. Hi friends!
2.
I wanted to tell you about how I came up with some of the literary ideas and
3. character traits in Call Me Lizzy. First of all, my own family is as big as a circus! I
4. have fifteen people in my immediate family! Whew! That’s two wonderful parents and
5. thirteen cheerful chattering children living in the same house all together with only
6. one bathroom! I’d say that’s a disaster waiting to walk in the door! I actually wanted
7. Lizzy to experience what my life was like by making Shelby’s immediate family
8. consist of twelve children. I also wanted Shelby and Lizzy to become friends that
9. were as close as two peas in a pod, so I had them to spend time with each other
10. whenever they could. Of course, Shelby is not a just like me, but she does love God.
11. My faith is the driving force in my life. Actually, I gave Lizzy some of the same
12. problems that I had growing up. You see, my dad was an alcoholic when I was ten
13. years old, but later he got sober and stayed sober for the rest of his life! Amazing!
14.Good writers share from their experience, but then they make up the rest. That’s what
15. I did with Call Me Lizzy. I hope I sell a gazillion copies, because you know the old
16. saying, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” The fun in writing this book was worth all of
17. the work I had to put into it. Maybe someday you will be an author too!
Best wishes,
Mary T. Wilkinson
Line #
11
Kind of Figurative Language
Adage
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Idiom
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Personification
Simile
Forms of Figurative Language & What They Mean
Term
Definition
Example
Adage
An old time saying, proverb
(words of wisdom), or maxim
(rule of conduct) that has become
true over time.
Saying- A person is known by the
company he keeps.
Proverb-Beauty is only skin deep.
Maxim-Honesty is the best policy.
Alliteration
The repetition of usually initial
consonant sounds in two or more
neighboring words.
The wild and woolly walrus waits
and wonders when we’ll walk by.
Hyperbole
A big exaggeration, usually with
humor in it
My sister uses so much makeup
that she has to use a sandblaster to
get it off at night.
Idiom
The language peculiar to a group
of people; sayings that make
sense only to that culture group.
It was raining cats and dogs. There
was a frog in her throat. He
coughed his lungs out last night.
Irony
A tragic twist to what should
have been a happy moment
He won the million dollar power
ball and died the next day.
It rained on her wedding day.
Metaphor
Comparing two unlike things
with a state of being verb or no
state of being verb.
I am a rock. My mom is a busy
beaver. The incident in the grocery
ruffled his feathers.
Onomatopoeia
Naming a thing or an action by
imitating the sound associated
with it.
Buzz, hiss, roar, woof, pling,
smack, crash, boom, zonk
Personification
Giving a non-human thing
human qualities or actions
The sun smiled down on me. The
flowers lifted up their heads and
drank in the rain.
Simile
Comparing two unlike things
with the words like, as, and
sometimes than.
Life is like a box of chocolates.
She is as cute as a bunny. He is
slicker than butter.
Answers to Sentence Strips
1. Onomatopoeia -Whee
2. Simile- happy as a lark
3. Idiom- worry wart
4. Metaphor with no linking verb – people compared to a sea of faces
5. Onomatopoeia – plopped and Simile-I am like a gymnast
6. Idiom- take off like a shot means he is very fast
7. Onomatopoeia – snap and Idiom- snap out of it means to come to your
senses
8. Simile- grandma’s anger compared to that of a wet hen
9. Onomatopoeia- clang
10. Simile- their running is compared to a shot out of a cannon which is
explosive and fast
Answers to the Quiz
Line #
16
5
15
9
11
4
6
3
Kind of Figurative Language
Adage
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Idiom
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Personification
Simile
Teachers who need extra help with teaching Figurative Language may
enjoy using Mary’s other Figurative Language helps from Teacher Pay
Teacher. A link to the Teacher Pay Teacher website is included with
Mary’s other links on the bottom right corner of her website.