South Dakota ELA 11-12.L.5.a

ELAGrades 11–12Language

The Standard

Analyze figurative language in context and its role in the text.

South Dakota English Language Arts Standards (2025)

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students find nonliteral phrases in a passage. They explain what the words suggest there and how they shape a reader’s view of a character, conflict, or idea.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can put a metaphor into plain words without losing its meaning. They use nearby details to explain why the writer chose that image instead of a literal description.
Common Misconceptions: Students may call any vivid description a metaphor or read a metaphor as a literal event. They may say an image “adds detail” without explaining what it makes readers think.
How to Assess It: Give students this passage: “The neighbors walked to the courthouse to appeal the eviction. The courthouse stood like a locked fist at the end of the street.” Ask what “locked fist” suggests about the courthouse and how it shapes the conflict.

Lesson moves

Print “The courthouse stood like a locked fist”; students cut off the comparison, add “at the corner,” and compare the effect.
Ask: In Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers,” why compare hope to a bird rather than say “hope endures”?
Give pairs cards reading “time is a thief,” “time passes,” “a storm of questions,” and “many questions”; match pairs and name each image’s effect.
Show the headline “Markets tumble” beside “Stock prices fell”; ask how the image changes a reader’s sense of risk.

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