Seaford sixth graders become stronger readers

To become both stronger readers and writers, sixth graders at Seaford Middle School have been studying figurative language. Teacher Richard Thau wanted to bring some excitement to the linguistics lesson, so that meant it was time for a competition.

Students competed one-on-one to guess the figurative language that was used in a sentence – alliteration, hyperbole, idiom, metaphor, onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme or simile. A sentence appeared on the display board, and then when the choices came up, they competed to see who could hit the correct answer first with a fly swatter. The winner got to stay in the game until a class champion was crowned.

Thau said that understanding of figurative language is very beneficial. As readers, sentences make sense when they can identify when authors use different techniques. For their own work, it helps students liven up their writing with greater description and visualizations.