Virginia SOL 9.RL.2.A
The Standard
Analyze the use of rhyme, rhythm, sound, imagery, and other literary devices in poetry to convey a message and elicit a reader’s emotions.
Virginia Standards of Learning for English · Craft and Style
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students find sound patterns, rhythm, imagery, and figurative language in a poem. They explain how each choice develops the poem’s message and affects readers’ emotions.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students accurately mark examples such as repeated sounds, rhythm, figurative language, and sensory details. They cite exact words and explain how those choices shape emotion and meaning.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may identify a device but stop at naming it. They may assume every rhyme creates a cheerful mood or confuse the speaker’s feelings with their own reaction.
How to Assess It
- Give students an eight-line poem and ask: Identify one sound device and one image, then explain how each supports the message or mood.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a printed poem to color-code sound devices and imagery, then tap the rhythm while reading it aloud.
Ask students to write: Which single word or line most shapes the poem’s mood, and why?
Play device detective by awarding points for identifying a device, citing its line, and explaining its effect.
Compare a song lyric with its audio recording, then note how rhyme, rhythm, and sound change the listener’s response.
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Printable 9.RL.2.A Worksheet
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