8.9.D
The Standard
describe how the author's use of figurative language such as extended metaphor achieves specific purposes
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for English Language Arts and Reading
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace a comparison that continues across several lines or parts of a text. They explain how the connected details support a message, create tone, or clarify an idea.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify several related comparisons that build across a passage. They cite specific words and explain how those choices shape tone, clarify an idea, or support a message.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may label any comparison as an extended metaphor, even when it appears only once. They may explain what the comparison means but not connect it to the author’s purpose or effect.
How to Assess It
- Use this exit ticket: “The classroom was a garden. Questions sprouted, ideas took root, and every mistake became compost.” Explain how the connected comparisons support the author’s message.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed poem to color-code each part of an extended metaphor, then label the idea each detail develops.
Ask students to discuss: Why might an author compare school to a race, a maze, or a garden? How does each choice change the message?
Play metaphor match by having teams pair comparison cards with purpose cards, then defend each match using a quoted detail.
Have students examine a commercial built around one comparison and explain how that comparison makes the product or message more memorable.
Keep exploring
Related Standards
- 5.10.D
describe how the author's use of imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile and metaphor, and sound devices achieves specific purposes;
- 7.9.D
describe how the author's use of figurative language such as metaphor and personification achieves specific purposes
- 4.10.D
describe how the author's use of imagery, literal and figurative language such as simile and metaphor, and sound devices such as alliteration and assonance achi...
- 6.9.D
describe how the author's use of figurative language such as metaphor and personification achieves specific purposes;
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