1. Figurative Language
EQ 9 & 10

2. Personification
Personification is a special kind of metaphor that gives human qualities to something that is not human, such as an animal, object, or idea. “The tree sighed sadly in the cold.” A tree cannot sign or be sad. What are some examples of personification from stories that we have read this year?

3. Complete the following chart.
Literal Term
Possible Figurative terms
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
friendship
Lighthouse, warm blanket
Lea’s friendship is a lighthouse.
Lea’s friendship is like a lighthouse.
Lea’s friendship wrapped my sadness in a warm blanket.
Football game
Cleaning your room
music
pajamas
Ice cream

4. Read and Think I was seven, I lay in the car
Watching palm trees swirl a sickening pattern past the glass.
My stomach was a melon split wide inside my skin.
Naomi Shihab Nye, “Making a Fist,”
Pair & Share
What is the metaphor in this poem? What is the literal term? What is the figurative term? What does the metaphor mean?
How would the meaning and impact of these lines change if Nye said simply, My stomach really hurt?

5. Now you try it.
Rewrite the figurative term in Nye’s metaphor. Try to express feelings of anxiety and pain- both physical and emotional- with your metaphor. My stomach was ___________________________.

6. Read and Think
The camp faced a wide cove of white sand and palm trees. The bay was so perfectly blue, it looked like it had been retouched for a tourist brochure. Across the bay stood protective mountains, shoulder to shoulder, across the Concepcion peninsula.
Ann Brashares,The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Pair and Share
What is the example of personification in the third sentence?
How would the passage change if the sentence were written like this?
There were mountains across the Concepcion peninsula.

7. Now you try it:
Describe a place you like to go in the summer. In your description, use at least one example of personification. Exchange your description with a partner and have your partner identify your literal and figurative terms.