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7th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 1 of 13

Literary Devices

Irony, foreshadowing and symbolism

What your child practices

Recognizing the tools writers use: figurative language, foreshadowing, flashback, symbolism and the three kinds of irony (verbal, situational and dramatic), plus the parts of a plot.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 7.RL.3; 7.RL.5 · irony, foreshadowing and symbolism

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Foreshadowing hints at what will happen later. A flashback jumps back to an earlier time.
  2. A symbol is an object that stands for a bigger idea.
  3. Irony: verbal (saying the opposite of what you mean), situational (the opposite of what’s expected happens), dramatic (readers know what a character doesn’t).

Example: A fire station burns down. What kind of irony is this? You’d expect a fire station to be the safest place from fire. The opposite of what you expect happens. Answer: Situational irony

Literary Devices in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 1 of 13 in 7th grade English Language Arts, before Tone & Mood.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    Noah spent all weekend building a robot to tidy his room. By Sunday night, his room was messier than ever, covered in robot parts.

    • Flashback
    • Verbal irony
    • Dramatic irony
    • Situational irony

  2. Question 2

    A scene interrupts the present action to show something that happened earlier. What is this called?

    • Personification
    • Flashback
    • Foreshadowing
    • Symbolism

  3. Question 3

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    Standing at the finish line, Ana suddenly remembered the first time she tried to run a lap, three years earlier, gasping and red-faced before she was even halfway around the track.

    • Personification
    • Flashback
    • Foreshadowing
    • Onomatopoeia

  4. Question 4

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    Since his best friend moved away, Sam has carried a broken compass in his pocket. Its needle spins and spins, never settling on a direction.

    • Flashback
    • Hyperbole
    • Symbolism
    • Onomatopoeia

  5. Question 5

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    In the play, the audience watched the twins swap name tags. Now the teacher, unaware, praises “Amir” for a project that his brother finished.

    • Symbolism
    • Verbal irony
    • Situational irony
    • Dramatic irony

  6. Question 6

    In a story, a dove appears whenever the characters make peace. What device is the dove an example of?

    • Flashback
    • Symbolism
    • Hyperbole
    • Onomatopoeia

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