Virginia SOL 6.RV.1.E
The Standard
Explain the construction and meaning of figurative language, including simile, hyperbole, metaphor, and personification.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Vocabulary Development and Word Analysis
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students recognize similes, metaphors, hyperbole, and personification in context. They explain how specific words build the comparison or exaggeration and what the expression means beyond its literal wording.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students correctly distinguish among the four devices in unfamiliar sentences. They point to the wording that creates each device and explain the idea, image, or emphasis it adds.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may label every comparison a simile, even when it does not use “like” or “as.” They may interpret hyperbole literally or name a device without explaining its meaning or effect.
How to Assess It
- Give students four short examples, one of each device. Ask them to label each, underline the words that create it, and explain one example in literal language.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs sentence strips to sort by device, then have them highlight the comparison, exaggeration, or human trait that creates each example.
Ask students to explain how “The hallway was a zoo” differs from saying the hallway was noisy and crowded.
Play Figurative Language Four Corners by reading examples aloud and having students move to the labeled corner, then justify their choice.
Collect examples from advertisements, sports headlines, or weather reports, and rewrite each one literally to compare its impact.
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Related Standards
- 12.RL.2.A
Evaluate how the use of figurative language in poetry and prose contributes to the reader’s understanding of the subject, form, mood, and theme.
- 7.RV.1.E
Analyze the construction and meaning of figurative language, including simile, hyperbole, metaphor, and personification.
- 11.RV.1.F
Explain the meaning of figurative language and literary and classical allusions and analyze their role in texts.
- 8.RV.1.E
Analyze the construction and meaning of an author’s use of symbols, analogy, and figurative language such as simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, and i...
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