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8th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 2 of 14

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.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 8.9(E) · 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 Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 2 of 14 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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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 silent snow fell softly on the sleeping street.

    • Alliteration
    • Hyperbole
    • Irony
    • Onomatopoeia

  2. Question 2

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    The old bridge groaned under the weight of the trucks.

    • Irony
    • Simile
    • Personification
    • Hyperbole

  3. Question 3

    The narrator knows things the characters do not. What is the point of view?

    Maya crossed the bridge, thinking of home. Far away, a storm was gathering that neither she nor the village knew about.

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

  4. Question 4

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    By midnight, the moon was a ghostly balloon drifting over the lake.

    • Simile
    • Metaphor
    • Flashback
    • Onomatopoeia

  5. Question 5

    Which point of view is used?

    You open the box and your hands begin to tremble.

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

  6. Question 6

    Which literary device does this excerpt use?

    Dark clouds gathered over the picnic as Dana noticed the unlocked gate swinging in the wind.

    • Flashback
    • Foreshadowing
    • Onomatopoeia
    • Simile

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