Best for
Close reading, poetry, narrative writing, descriptive language mini-lessons, and text-response work where students need to explain how language creates meaning.
English • Years 6-10 • Creative reading and writing
Figurative Language Toolkit
Use this handout to help ākonga move beyond naming a technique and instead explain what the language is doing. Figurative language is not decoration. It helps writers create imagery, shape mood, and express ideas that literal wording would flatten.
Free reading-and-writing base, premium adaptation path
This page already contains the teaching sequence, examples, and write-on space. Te Wānanga becomes useful when you want the same structure rebuilt around a class novel, local poem, speech, or schoolwide writing topic.
- Swap in a current class text, waiata, or poem study.
- Generate simpler or more advanced examples for mixed readiness levels.
- Save the adapted version in My Kete and refine it later in Creation Studio.
Kaiako planning snapshot
- Use length: 30-40 minutes as a close-reading or pre-writing workshop.
- Grouping: Whole-class model, then pairs for effect analysis, then independent writing.
- Prep: Bring one short excerpt from your current class text if you want a second example beyond this page.
- Teaching move: Keep asking, “What picture, feeling, or idea does this create?” so students do not stop at labelling the device.
Resources already provided
- Technique quick-reference cards
- Effect-analysis task with write-on space
- Creative language challenge
- Support and extension pathways
- Teacher-only curriculum companion
If the lesson mentions figurative-language examples, response prompts, or a writing challenge, those materials are already on this page and ready to use.
Ngā Whāinga Akoranga / Learning Intentions
- We are learning how figurative language creates imagery, mood, and meaning.
- We are learning how to explain the effect of a literary device, not just identify it.
- We are learning how to use figurative language deliberately in our own writing.
Paearu Angitu / Success Criteria
- I can identify a figurative-language technique in a short line of text.
- I can explain what that technique helps the reader see, feel, or understand.
- I can write at least one purposeful figurative example of my own.
Curriculum integration / Te Mātaiaho alignment
The companion page links this handout to English expectations around creative texts, figurative language, and explaining how language and style shape meaning for a reader.
Why this matters in Aotearoa
Strong figurative language appears across the texts ākonga meet in Aotearoa classrooms: poems, speeches, waiata, whakataukī, spoken-word pieces, stories, and film dialogue. It helps writers make ideas memorable and emotionally precise.
Through a mātauranga Māori lens, imagery and symbolism can carry whakapapa, whenua, and relationship. The teaching goal is not to force a Māori layer onto every example, but to help students notice how language can hold place, history, and feeling with care.
Quick guide to common devices
Simile
A comparison using like or as.
Example: “The harbour lay flat as polished pounamu in the morning light.”
Metaphor
A direct comparison where one thing is described as another.
Example: “The classroom was a waka carrying everyone’s ideas.”
Personification
Giving an object, place, or natural force human qualities or actions.
Example: “The southerly clawed at the windows all night.”
Symbolism
Using an image or object to suggest a bigger idea.
Example: Repeated rain may symbolise grief, cleansing, or change.
Read the line, explain the effect
1. “The bus stop shivered under a grey Auckland dawn.”
2. “Her hope was a match struck in the dark.”
3. “The kapa haka beat rolled through the hall like thunder.”
4. “The apology hung in the room, heavy as wet wool.”
Name the main technique in each line and then explain the effect. What image, mood, or idea does it create for the reader?
Technique to purpose match-up
Choose one technique from the list and explain when it would be most useful.
A. To create a gentle, peaceful mood
B. To make a feeling vivid and memorable
C. To build tension or intensity
D. To represent a larger idea through one image
Your turn: craft a line that carries meaning
Pick one prompt and write three lines that use figurative language deliberately. Do not just make it fancy. Make it clear and purposeful.
Prompt 1: A storm moving across your town or rohe
Prompt 2: Walking onto a sports court, stage, or marae for the first time
Prompt 3: Waiting for important news
Visual symbol sketch
Draw or map one symbol you could use in a poem, story, or visual text. Label what the symbol is and what bigger idea it represents.
A strong symbol works because the image and the bigger idea genuinely connect. Keep the relationship clear.
Tautoko / Support
- Give students one device to focus on first instead of all four.
- Let students explain the effect orally before writing it down.
- Use the sentence frame: “This creates the image of ... which makes the reader feel ...”
Whakawhānui / Extend
- Have students compare two figurative lines and judge which is more effective.
- Ask students to revise one weak line until the image is sharper and more original.
- Challenge students to combine symbolism with another device in a short paragraph.
Hononga Marautanga · Curriculum Alignment
Curriculum alignment for this handout has not yet been verified against the live curriculum statements. A generated placeholder that stood here was removed on 2026-08-29 because it matched no real statement.
Aronga Mātauranga Māori
This resource sits within a kaupapa that recognises mātauranga Māori as a living knowledge system with its own frameworks, values, and ways of understanding the world. The New Zealand Curriculum calls for learning that reflects the bicultural partnership of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which means every subject area has an obligation to engage authentically with Māori perspectives — not as cultural decoration but as substantive contributions to how we understand our topics. The concepts of manaakitanga (care for others), kaitiakitanga (guardianship), whanaungatanga (relationship and belonging), and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination) provide a values framework applicable across all learning areas, and all are relevant to the work in this handout.
Ngā Rauemi Tautoko · Support Materials
This handout is designed to be used alongside the broader unit resources available at Te Kete Ako handouts library. This handout stands on its own; it is not part of a linked unit planner. All resources are provided — no additional preparation is required to use this handout in your classroom.
Curriculum alignment
- Reading — Making Meaning: Integrate sources of information, processes, and strategies confidently to identify, form, and express ideas.
- Writing — Creating Meaning: Integrate sources of information, processes, and strategies confidently to identify, form, and express ideas.