Literary Devices Lesson Slides

Bring your language arts classroom to life with this visually rich and interactive slideshow on Figurative Language! Designed for middle and high school learners, this lesson covers essential literary devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, idiom, allusion, oxymoron, pun, and more. Each term is introduced with a student-friendly definition and clear examples, helping students connect figurative language to emotion, meaning, and literary impact.

This lesson also introduces connotation and denotation as a foundation for understanding figurative meaning. Students will explore how word choice affects tone and message, and how figurative language transforms simple writing into something vivid and memorable.

A powerful extension includes an excerpt from Neil Gaiman’s short story “Click-Clack the Rattlebag”, which gives students a chance to analyze figurative language in context while practicing close reading and inference.

📚 Great for ELA units on author’s craft, creative writing, or literary analysis
🎯 Aligned with Common Core standards for grades 6–10
🎨 Design credit: This slideshow was built using a template from Slidesgo, with icons by Flaticon and visuals by Freepik.
📝 Attribution for literary content: Neil Gaiman’s “Click-Clack the Rattlebag” (Telegraph.co.uk, 2015)