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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 16

Literary Devices

Irony, symbolism and point of view

What your child practices

Naming devices like simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, foreshadowing and symbolism in short excerpts, and identifying a narrator's point of view.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8R4; 8R6 · irony, symbolism and point of view

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Simile (like or as), metaphor (is), personification (human traits) and hyperbole (exaggeration) are figurative language.
  2. Irony is a gap between what is said or expected and what is real. Foreshadowing hints at later events.
  3. A symbol stands for a bigger idea. Second person speaks to the reader as you.

Example: “Her words were daggers.” Which device is this? Words are compared to daggers without like or as. That makes it a metaphor. Answer: Metaphor

Literary Devices in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 2 of 16 in 8th grade English Language Arts, after Close Reading and before Word Study.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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?

    The pilot, who was afraid of flying, wrote a book called Fearless Skies.

    • Simile
    • Irony
    • Personification
    • Onomatopoeia

  2. Question 2

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

    • Irony
    • Simile
    • Onomatopoeia
    • Alliteration

  3. Question 3

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    Years later, standing by the lake, Dana could still hear her grandmother singing in the boat that summer long ago.

    • Irony
    • Flashback
    • Foreshadowing
    • Hyperbole

  4. Question 4

    The narrator tells only Kenji's thoughts. What is the point of view?

    Kenji checked the clock again. He wished the bell would ring. He did not notice that his teacher was smiling at him.

    • Third person omniscient
    • Third person limited
    • First person
    • Second person

  5. Question 5

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    The wind whispered secrets through the trees.

    • Personification
    • Alliteration
    • Hyperbole
    • Simile

  6. Question 6

    This narrator knows what several characters think and do. What is the point of view?

    He was angry. Across town, his sister was planning a surprise. In the bakery, a stranger prepared to deliver the cake that would ruin it all.

    • Second person
    • Third person omniscient
    • First person
    • Third person limited

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