CCRA.L.5: Figurative Language, Word Relationships and Nuances in Meaning
In plain English: CCRA.L.5 is the Common Core College and Career Readiness anchor standard for language that asks students to demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings, from personification and puns to paradox, and from analogies to shades of connotation. In grades 6-12 it is carried by L.6.5 through L.11-12.5.
Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy · Domain: College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language · Cluster: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use Also written as CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.L.5 · Official standard
CCRA.L.5 is about the parts of meaning a dictionary definition leaves out. Figurative language says one thing in terms of another: a wind that "must have" flowers, a flood that turns a London district into Venice. Word relationships (synonyms and antonyms, part and whole, item and category, cause and effect, analogies) help students understand each word through the others. Nuances are the shades of meaning between words with similar definitions, such as thrifty and stingy. Across grades 6-12 the figures of speech grow from personification to allusion, irony and puns, then to euphemism, oxymoron, hyperbole and paradox, while the work on relationships and connotation deepens.
The lesson uses Carl Sandburg's short poem "Windflower Leaf" (1922) for grades 6-8, an excerpt from G. K. Chesterton's essay "On Running After One's Hat" (first collected in 1908) for grades 9-12, and an original retirement toast written for this page. Every activity has a grades 6-8 version and a grades 9-12 version, and the grade-level pages under Related Standards give each band in full.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
Identify a figure of speech in context, restate it literally and explain its role in the text
Use the relationship between two words (part/whole, item/category, cause/effect, synonym/antonym) to understand each word
Complete and explain analogies
Distinguish the connotations of words with similar denotations and explain a writer's choice among them
Prior Knowledge Required
Students should already be comfortable with:
Recognizing similes and metaphors
Using context clues to work out an unfamiliar word CCRA.L.4
Knowing that a word's denotation is its dictionary definition
"A shoe store can put up a sign that says 'Cheap Shoes' or one that says 'Inexpensive Shoes.' Both mean low in price. Which sign would the store rather use, and why? Then: when a classmate says 'My backpack weighs a ton,' what does the classmate really mean?"
Take answers. Most stores choose "inexpensive," because "cheap" can also suggest poor quality. The two words share a denotation (dictionary meaning) but differ in connotation (the feelings and associations a word carries). The backpack does not weigh a ton; the exaggeration is a figure of speech called hyperbole, and it means "my backpack is very heavy." Today students work with both kinds of meaning, plus the relationships that connect words.
Direct Instruction15-20 minutes
Three kinds of understanding.
Figurative language: words used beyond their literal meaning. Simile (a comparison with like or as), metaphor (a comparison without like or as), personification (human qualities given to a thing), allusion (a reference to a well-known text, story or person), verbal irony (saying the opposite of, or something very different from, what you mean), pun (a play on words that sound alike or have two meanings), euphemism (a mild word in place of a harsh or blunt one), oxymoron (two opposite words side by side), hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration) and paradox (a statement that seems to contradict itself but holds a truth).
Word relationships: synonym and antonym, part and whole (wheel : bicycle), item and category (oak : tree), cause and effect (spark : fire), degree (warm : hot). An analogy sets two pairs side by side, written a : b :: c : d and read "a is to b as c is to d."
Nuances: words with similar denotations can differ in connotation (positive, negative or neutral) and in strength or degree. Thrifty praises careful spending; stingy criticizes it.
How the anchor grows. Every grade-level standard below carries CCRA.L.5.
Progression of CCRA.L.5 in grades 6-12
Grade-level standard
Band
What this band adds
L.6.5
Grade 6
Interpret figures of speech such as personification; use relationships such as cause/effect, part/whole and item/category; tell apart connotations of words with similar definitions (stingy, thrifty, economical)
L.7.5
Grade 7
Literary, biblical and mythological allusions; synonym/antonym and analogy relationships; connotations such as polite, diplomatic and condescending
L.8.5
Grade 8
Verbal irony and puns; relationships between particular words; connotations such as firm, persistent and bullheaded
L.9-10.5
Grades 9-10
Interpret euphemism and oxymoron and analyze their role in the text; analyze nuances in words with similar denotations
L.11-12.5
Grades 11-12
Interpret hyperbole and paradox and analyze their role in the text; analyze nuances in words with similar denotations
Model text (grades 6-8). Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an American poet. "Windflower Leaf" appeared in the 1922 collection American Poetry, 1922: A Miscellany. A windflower is a spring wildflower, also called the wood anemone. The poem is short: read it aloud twice, the second time slowly.
1This flower is repeated out of old winds, out of old times.
The wind repeats these, it 5must have these, over and over again.
Oh, windflowers so fresh, Oh, beautiful leaves, here now again.
10The domes over fall to pieces. The stones under fall to pieces. Rain and ice 15wreck the works. The wind keeps, the windflowers keep, the leaves last, The wind young and strong lets these last longer than stones.
Carl Sandburg, Windflower Leaf (1922). Public domain (published 1922). Source text.
Figurative language: personification
Lines 4-6 say, "The wind repeats these, it / must have these, over and / over again." What figure of speech is this, and what does it mean literally?
Result: Personification: the wind is given human actions and wants. It "repeats" the flowers and "must have" them, as a person might repeat a favorite song. Literally, the windflowers grow back every spring. The figure makes their return feel chosen and needed, not just a cycle.
Word relationship: item and category
Lines 14-15 say, "Rain and ice / wreck the works." How are "domes" (line 10) and "stones" (line 12) related to "the works"?
Result: They are items in the category "the works": things people build. Seeing the relationship explains the phrase. "The works" is not a factory here; it is everything built of stone, from domes over buildings to stones under them.
Nuance: two words for lasting
Lines 16-17 say, "The wind keeps, the windflowers / keep, the leaves last." Why might the poet use both "keep" and "last"?
Result: The words have similar denotations, but they differ in shade. "Keep" can mean to stay fresh and usable, as food keeps in a cool cellar, or simply to continue; "last" means to go on through time. Together they say the flowers stay fresh and also endure. Using one word three times would lose that difference.
Guided Practice15 minutes
A harder text (grades 9-12). G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was an English writer known for playful essays. The essay opens while he is away in the country and hears that London has flooded. Battersea is a district of London on the south bank of the River Thames; a ratepayer is a person who pays rates, the local taxes charged in British towns; "the two fifteen" is the 2:15 train. Venice is an Italian city built on canals, where boats called gondolas are rowed by gondoliers. Grades 6-8 classes can read paragraph 1 with the teacher.
1I feel an almost savage envy on hearing that London has been flooded in my absence, while I am in the mere country. My own Battersea has been, I understand, particularly favoured as a meeting of the waters. Battersea was already, as I need hardly say, the most beautiful of human localities. Now that it has the additional splendour of great sheets of water, there must be something quite incomparable in the landscape (or waterscape) of my own romantic town. Battersea must be a vision of Venice. The boat that brought the meat from the butcher’s must have shot along those lanes of rippling silver with the strange smoothness of the gondola. The greengrocer who brought cabbages to the corner of the Latchmere Road must have leant upon the oar with the unearthly grace of the gondolier. There is nothing so perfectly poetical as an island; and when a district is flooded it becomes an archipelago.
2Some consider such romantic views of flood or fire slightly lacking in reality. But really this romantic view of such inconveniences is quite as practical as the other. The true optimist who sees in such things an opportunity for enjoyment is quite as logical and much more sensible than the ordinary “Indignant Ratepayer” who sees in them an opportunity for grumbling. [...] For instance, we often hear grown-up people complaining of having to hang about a railway station and wait for a train. Did you ever hear a small boy complain of having to hang about a railway station and wait for a train? No; for to him to be inside a railway station is to be inside a cavern of wonder and a palace of poetical pleasures. Because to him the red light and the green light on the signal are like a new sun and a new moon. Because to him when the wooden arm of the signal falls down suddenly, it is as if a great king had thrown down his staff as a signal and started a shrieking tournament of trains. I myself am of little boys’ habit in this matter. They also serve who only stand and wait for the two fifteen.
[...]
3So I do not think that it is altogether fanciful or incredible to suppose that even the floods in London may be accepted and enjoyed poetically. Nothing beyond inconvenience seems really to have been caused by them; and inconvenience, as I have said, is only one aspect, and that the most unimaginative and accidental aspect of a really romantic situation. An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.
G. K. Chesterton, On Running After One's Hat (excerpt; cuts marked [...]) (1908; this edition 1915). Public domain (published 1915). Source text.
Hyperbole and verbal irony (paragraph 1). Ask: "Does Chesterton really feel 'an almost savage envy' because his town flooded? Is Battersea really 'the most beautiful of human localities'?" Both are deliberate exaggerations. The irony is that a flood is usually bad news, yet he pretends to be sorry he missed it. The role of the figures: they set a playful tone and prepare the reader for his serious point about how we see trouble.
Allusion (paragraph 1). "Battersea must be a vision of Venice." The butcher's boat moves "with the strange smoothness of the gondola," and the greengrocer leans on his oar "with the unearthly grace of the gondolier." Ask what the reference to Venice adds. Venice is famous for beauty and romance, so the allusion turns a muddy flood into a postcard scene. That is exactly his method: change the frame and the event changes.
Nuance (paragraph 2). Compare "the true optimist who sees in such things an opportunity for enjoyment" with the "Indignant Ratepayer" who sees "an opportunity for grumbling." Both see an opportunity in the flood; the nouns attached to it carry opposite connotations. Ask students to name the connotation of "Indignant" (offended, self-righteous) and explain why the capital letters make the ratepayer sound like a type of person rather than one man.
Independent Practice15 minutes
Students annotate the original toast below with three colors: one for figurative language, one for word relationships and one for nuance. Grades 6-8 find at least two examples of each and restate each figure literally. Grades 9-12 also name each figure precisely (for example, oxymoron or euphemism) and write two sentences on its role in the toast. Collect the annotations as the formative check.
1Friends, neighbors and loyal customers, thank you for coming out on such a cold night.
2Forty years ago, Ingrid Lund opened this bakery with one oven, two mixing bowls and a great deal of courage. Some people say she was stubborn. I prefer to say she was determined. When the oven broke on the very first morning, she borrowed her neighbor's oven and baked anyway.
3Her rye bread became famous on this street. Her cinnamon rolls became, I should say, legendary. One newspaper writer even called them notorious, though I am sure he meant it kindly. (Laughter.)
4Tonight is bittersweet. We are happy for Ingrid, and sad for ourselves. She is not leaving us, she tells me; she is simply "stepping back from the ovens." I asked her what she will do with her mornings now. She says she plans to sleep until six, which for a baker is practically noon.
5Ingrid taught every one of us that a bakery is like a family: the bread is only the part you can see. She trained twelve apprentices, and four of them now run bakeries of their own. That is her real recipe.
6So please raise your cups of cocoa. To Ingrid: we knead you more than ever.
SVHS (original passage; invented people and bakery), A Toast at the Lund Street Bakery. Original passage written for this page.
Closure5 minutes
Exit ticket: (1) Write one figure of speech you found today, its literal meaning and its effect. (2) Give two words with similar denotations but different connotations, and use the more positive one in a sentence.
Teacher note: the Chesterton excerpt treats a London flood playfully. Before discussion, note that real floods can cause serious harm; the essay's point is about everyday inconvenience, and the omitted paragraphs keep it there. The quiz and homework use all three texts above.
Differentiation Strategies
For Struggling Students
Give a figure-of-speech card with one short example for each term
Read "Windflower Leaf" chorally and pause after each stanza to restate it in plain words
For connotation, start with only two words and ask which one a person would rather be called
For Advanced Students
Ask students to rewrite paragraph 1 of the Chesterton excerpt without any figurative language and explain what is lost
Have students find an allusion in a text from their own reading and explain what it adds
Ask students to build a five-word connotation ladder for a word of their choice and defend the order
Assessment Guidance
What to Look For
For figurative language, look for the right name, a literal restatement and, in grades 9-12, the figure's role in the text. For word relationships, look for the relationship named precisely (part and whole is not the same as item and category) and used to explain the words. For nuance, look for both connotation and strength or degree, and for a reason the writer chose one word over its near-synonyms.
02
Classroom Activities
3 Activities
1
Figure It Out
15 minPairs
Pairs read six sentence cards, written for this activity, and for each one name the figure of speech, restate the sentence literally and say what the figure adds. The literal restatement is the test of understanding: if a pair cannot say it plainly, they have not yet understood it.
Grades 6-8 Version
"The old car coughed and groaned up the hill."
"After the long hike, my legs were as heavy as sandbags."
"My little brother is a walking encyclopedia of dinosaur facts."
"Opening that messy closet was like opening Pandora's box."
Looking at the rain-soaked picnic table, Dad said, "Perfect weather for a picnic."
"The math teacher's garden is full of square roots."
Teacher key: personification (the car is noisy and struggling); simile (my legs felt very heavy); metaphor (he knows a great many dinosaur facts); allusion to the Greek myth in which Pandora opens a container and lets troubles out (the closet released a mess); verbal irony (the weather is terrible); pun on "square roots," a math term and plant roots.
Grades 9-12 Version
"The company announced that it was rightsizing its staff."
"A deafening silence followed the announcement."
"I have asked you a million times to close the gate."
"The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know."
"My uncle is between jobs right now."
"It was an open secret that the coach would retire in June."
Teacher key: euphemism for cutting jobs (softens bad news); oxymoron (the silence was so complete that it felt loud); hyperbole (I have asked many times); paradox (learning shows how much is still unknown); euphemism for being out of work (spares feelings); oxymoron (everyone knew, though no one said it officially). For each, pairs write one sentence on the figure's role: what the speaker gains by using it.
Discussion Questions
Which figures were hardest to restate literally? Why?
When is a euphemism kind, and when does it hide something a listener should know?
How can you tell verbal irony from a mistake?
Modification
For students who need support, give a word bank of the six figure names for their version and let them match before they restate.
2
Analogy Builders
15 minSmall groups (3-4)
Groups complete analogies, name the relationship in each, and then write their own. An analogy only works when both pairs share the same relationship, so naming the relationship comes first.
Grades 6-8 Version
Strips to complete (word bank: foot, bird, flood, quiet, weary, hot): finger : hand :: toe : ___; carrot : vegetable :: robin : ___; spark : fire :: heavy rain : ___; ancient : modern :: noisy : ___; glad : happy :: tired : ___; chilly : freezing :: warm : ___
Teacher key: foot (part and whole); bird (item and category); flood (cause and effect); quiet (antonyms); weary (synonyms); hot (degree)
Each group then writes two new analogies of its own, one part and whole and one cause and effect
Grades 9-12 Version
Name the relationship in each analogy and judge whether the two pairs really match: author : novel :: composer : symphony; scalpel : surgeon :: chisel : sculptor; prologue : play :: preface : book; timid : terrified :: pleased : ecstatic; drought : crop failure :: flood : erosion
Teacher key: creator and work; tool and user; opening part and whole; degree (mild to extreme); cause and effect. All five match
Groups then write one analogy that only seems to match (for example, wheel : car :: leaf : forest, where a leaf is part of a tree, not of a forest) and trade with another group to find the flaw
Discussion Questions
Why does the order of the words in each pair matter?
How did naming the relationship help you understand an unfamiliar word in a pair?
Which relationship was hardest to put into words?
Modification
For students who need support, give the relationship label with each strip and ask only for the missing word.
3
Shades of Meaning Line
15 minSmall groups (3-4)
Groups place words with similar denotations along a masking-tape line from negative to positive, defend the order and write sentences that show the differences. Diagram 2 shows one model.
Grades 6-8 Version
Two word sets from the grade-level standards' own examples: (1) stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty; (2) bullheaded, willful, firm, persistent, resolute
Groups place each set on the line, then write a sentence that uses the most negative and the most positive word about the same person
Teacher key for set 1, one defensible order from negative to positive: stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty. Accept other orders that students justify with an example
Grades 9-12 Version
Pairs with similar denotations: childlike and childish; assertive and pushy; curious and nosy; frugal and miserly
For each pair, groups write one sentence where only the first word fits and one where only the second fits, then explain the nuance in a phrase, for example "childlike: innocent and open, praising; childish: immature, criticizing"
Each group rewrites this neutral sentence twice, once admiring and once critical, changing only two words: "Ms. Ortiz asked many questions at the meeting and did not change her plan."
Discussion Questions
Which two words were hardest to separate? What finally decided their places?
Can the same word be positive in one sentence and negative in another?
Why do writers of reviews, ads and news reports choose their words so carefully?
Variation: Thesaurus Check
Groups look up one word in a thesaurus, choose three of its listed synonyms, and explain why each would change the sentence it came from. A thesaurus lists words with related meanings, not words that can always be swapped.
03
Diagrams & Visual Aids
2 diagrams
Diagram 1: Figures of Speech from Grade 6 to Grades 11-12
The grade-level standards name new figures of speech in each band, from personification in grade 6 to hyperbole and paradox in grades 11-12. Students keep using the earlier figures as they add new ones, and in grades 9-12 they also analyze each figure's role in the text.
Diagram 2: A Connotation Line
A model for Activity 3, using the grade 8 standard's own example set. The order is a common reading, not a fixed rule: "firm" can be praise or criticism depending on the sentence, which is why students defend each placement with an example.
04
Homework Assignment
~30 min
CCRA.L.5 Homework: Figures, Relationships and Shades of Meaning
Directions: Answer in complete sentences. Problems 1, 2, 4 and 5 use the toast (Text 3, in Independent Practice); Problem 6 uses the Chesterton excerpt (Text 2, in Guided Practice) or, for grades 6-8, "Windflower Leaf" (Text 1, in Direct Instruction). Cite paragraph or line numbers. Problem 3 includes its own words.
Part 1: Figurative Language (Problems 1-2)
The toast ends, "To Ingrid: we knead you more than ever" (paragraph 6). Explain the pun: which two words does it play on, and why does it suit this speech?
Grades 9-10 focus: Ingrid is "simply 'stepping back from the ovens'" (paragraph 4). What blunter word does this euphemism replace? Explain why she, or the speaker, might choose the gentler phrase.
Part 2: Word Relationships (Problems 3-4)
Complete each analogy and name the relationship: (a) stanza : poem :: scene : ___; (b) hammer : tool :: violin : ___; (c) practice : improvement :: neglect : ___; (d) huge : enormous :: tiny : ___.
Paragraph 2 lists what Ingrid started with ("one oven, two mixing bowls and a great deal of courage"), and paragraph 3 names her "rye bread" and "cinnamon rolls." Give a category for each group of items. Then explain what the speaker achieves by putting "courage" in the same list as the oven and the bowls.
Part 3: Nuances in Meaning (Problems 5-6)
Paragraph 3 calls Ingrid's baking "famous," "legendary" and "notorious." All three mean well known. Rank them from most positive to least positive, explain the connotation of each, and explain why the audience laughs.
Grades 9-12: paragraph 2 of the Chesterton excerpt uses both "grumbling" and "complaining." Explain the nuance between the two words and why "grumbling" suits the "Indignant Ratepayer." Grades 6-8: explain the nuance between "fresh" in line 7 of "Windflower Leaf" and the word "new," and why "fresh" suits the poem.
Rubric
Criterion
Full Credit (2 pts)
Partial Credit (1 pt)
No Credit (0 pts)
Figurative Language
Figure named, restated literally and its role explained
Figure named or restated, but role not explained
Missing or confused with literal meaning
Word Relationships
Each relationship named precisely and the analogies completed correctly
Most completed; one relationship misnamed
Fewer than half correct
Nuance
Connotation and degree of each word explained and linked to the writer's purpose
Connotations stated without the writer's purpose
Words treated as identical
Evidence
Each answer cites the paragraph or line it uses
Some citations missing
No citations
05
Quiz: 20 Questions
Interactive, with answers
Instructions
Questions 1-4 and 15 use "Windflower Leaf" (Text 1, in Direct Instruction), questions 5-9, 16 and 20 use the Chesterton excerpt (Text 2, in Guided Practice), and questions 10-13 and 17 use the toast (Text 3, in Independent Practice). Questions 14, 18 and 19 include their own words. Your score updates as you answer, and Reset quiz clears everything.
Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In lines 18-19 of "Windflower Leaf," "The wind young and strong lets / these last longer than stones." Which figure of speech gives the wind its role here?
Answer: A
The wind is described like a person: "young and strong," and able to "let" something happen, as if it gives permission. That is personification. There is no comparison with like or as (simile), no play on a double meaning (pun) and no soft word replacing a harsh one (euphemism).
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which pair of words from "Windflower Leaf" are antonyms?
Answer: B
"The domes over" and "The stones under" set opposite positions side by side: over and under are antonyms. Domes and stones (A) are two items in the same category, things people build. Wind and windflowers (C) share a word part but are not opposites, and keeps and last (D) are near-synonyms.
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Line 15 says that rain and ice "wreck the works." Compared with "damage the works," what does wreck suggest?
Answer: D
"Wreck" is stronger than "damage": it means ruin, and the lines before it say the domes and stones "fall to pieces." Choice A describes "damage" at its mildest, the opposite of the word chosen. Nothing in the poem mentions night (B), and the poem names rain and ice, not people, as the cause (C).
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Line 2 speaks of "old winds," but line 18 calls the wind "young and strong." Which reading best explains both descriptions?
Answer: B
The poem is about things that return "over and / over again" (lines 5-6). The wind has blown for ages, so it is old, but it comes back each spring with full force, so it is also young: the apparent contradiction holds a truth, which is how a paradox works. Nothing signals two winds (A), a mistake (C) or irony (D); the closing lines praise the wind sincerely.
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 2 of the Chesterton excerpt says that to a small boy "the red light and the green light on the signal are like a new sun and a new moon." What does the simile show?
Answer: A
The simile compares signal lights to a sun and a moon, the lights of a whole world, and the same paragraph calls the station "a cavern of wonder." So the boy sees the ordinary station as a new world. Choices B and C read the comparison as a complaint, and D takes "sun" and "moon" literally as day and night.
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
"They also serve who only stand and wait for the two fifteen" (paragraph 2) adds four words to the last line of a famous sonnet by John Milton. What is the effect of the allusion?
Answer: C
Milton's line, "They also serve who only stand and wait," comes from his sonnet printed as "On His Blindness," where it describes patient service to God. Adding "for the two fifteen" applies that solemn line to waiting on a platform, so the boredom of waiting sounds dignified and the effect is comic. Nothing suggests dislike of poetry (A), late trains (B) or an essay about Milton (D).
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 1 says the butcher's boat "must have shot along those lanes of rippling silver." Literally, what are the "lanes of rippling silver"?
Answer: C
The boat is moving through flooded Battersea, so the lanes are its streets, now covered in water that ripples and shines like silver. The metaphor turns streets into canals, as in Venice. Railway tracks (A) and coins (B) take "silver" literally, and a pool (D) takes "lanes" literally.
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 3 ends, "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered." What is the main point of this paradox?
Answer: A
The two sentences reverse each other: the same event becomes an adventure or an inconvenience depending on whether it is "rightly" or "wrongly considered." That is the essay's claim, prepared in paragraph 2 by the statement that "this romantic view of such inconveniences is quite as practical as the other." Choices B and C keep only one half of the paradox, and D ignores it.
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Paragraph 2 says that to a boy, a railway station is "a cavern of wonder and a palace of poetical pleasures." Which figure of speech is this?
Answer: B
The station is said to be a cavern and a palace, with no "like" or "as," so these are metaphors. A simile (A) would say "like a cavern." Nothing is softened (C) and no word plays on two meanings (D).
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 4 of the toast, the speaker says, "Tonight is bittersweet." Which figure of speech is bittersweet?
Answer: C
The word joins two opposites, bitter and sweet, and the next sentence explains both halves: "We are happy for Ingrid, and sad for ourselves." Joining opposites is an oxymoron. There is no reference to a famous text (A), no exaggeration (B) and no play on sound (D).
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 2 of the toast, the speaker says, "Some people say she was stubborn. I prefer to say she was determined." Why does the speaker prefer determined?
Answer: D
Both words describe someone who will not give up, which the next sentence shows: when the oven broke, "she borrowed her neighbor's oven and baked anyway." Stubborn criticizes that trait and determined praises it, and a toast praises. Length (A) is not the reason; stubborn does not mean lazy (B); and both words describe Ingrid, not the oven (C).
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Ingrid "plans to sleep until six, which for a baker is practically noon" (paragraph 4). What does this exaggeration suggest about a baker's usual mornings?
Answer: B
If six feels "practically noon," a baker's normal day must start hours earlier, before dawn. The hyperbole is the joke. Choice A takes the exaggeration literally; C and D invent schedules the toast never gives.
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
In paragraph 5, the speaker says that "a bakery is like a family: the bread is only the part you can see." Which word relationship does the second half of the sentence use?
Answer: D
The bread is presented as one visible part of the whole bakery, which also includes the people, the training and the care. That is part and whole. Nothing causes anything (A), no pair of words is alike or opposite (B), and bread is not offered as an example of a category (C).
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Complete the analogy: petal : flower :: page : ___
Answer: D
A petal is part of a flower, so the missing word is the whole that a page belongs to: a book. Paper (A) is what a page is made of, a different relationship; a word (B) is part of a page, which reverses the order; a library (C) holds books but is not the whole a page belongs to.
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
What is the central contrast in "Windflower Leaf," and how do figurative language and word relationships build it? Cite at least two lines.
Model answer: The poem contrasts fragile living things that return with hard built things that break. The domes and stones "fall to pieces" and "Rain and ice / wreck the works" (lines 10-15), while the windflowers come back "over and / over again" (lines 5-6). Personification makes the wind a caretaker that "must have these" (line 5). The surprise is that the soft things outlast the hard ones. Rubric: 2 points for the contrast stated, one figure and one relationship explained, and two cited lines; 1 point for the contrast with thin evidence; 0 otherwise.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Chesterton says that "when a district is flooded it becomes an archipelago" (paragraph 1). Explain what he means literally and what the comparison adds.
Model answer: An archipelago is a group of islands. When the streets flood, each block of houses stands up out of the water like an island, so the district looks like a group of islands. The comparison adds romance: it follows "There is nothing so perfectly poetical as an island," so calling the flooded district an archipelago makes a nuisance sound like a poetic place to explore. Rubric: 2 points for the literal meaning and its effect, with the supporting sentence; 1 point for the literal meaning only; 0 otherwise.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
The speaker says of Ingrid's apprentices, "That is her real recipe" (paragraph 5). Explain the metaphor.
Model answer: A recipe is a set of instructions for making food. The speaker means that Ingrid's most important creation is not a bread but the bakers she trained: "She trained twelve apprentices, and four of them now run bakeries of their own." The metaphor says that teaching people was the true secret of her success. Rubric: 2 points for the literal meaning of recipe, the figurative meaning and the supporting sentence; 1 point for a figurative meaning without evidence; 0 otherwise.
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Grades 9-12 focus: write two analogies of your own, one showing cause and effect and one showing degree (for example, warm : hot). Explain the relationship in each.
Model answer: Cause and effect: "frost : burst pipe :: drought : dry well." In each pair, the first is a condition that causes the second. Degree: "damp : soaked :: annoyed : furious." In each pair, the second word is a stronger form of the first. Rubric: 2 points for two analogies whose pairs share the named relationship, each explained; 1 point for one correct analogy; 0 otherwise.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
The grade 7 standard gives this set of words with similar denotations: refined, respectful, polite, diplomatic, condescending. Explain the connotation of diplomatic and of condescending, and write one sentence for each that shows the difference.
Model answer: Both describe careful, polite behavior. Diplomatic is positive: tactful, choosing words to avoid hurting others in a hard situation. Condescending is negative: polite on the surface but showing that the speaker thinks he or she is better. Sentences: "Maria gave a diplomatic answer when her friends disagreed about the game." "The guide's condescending tone made the visitors feel foolish for asking." Rubric: 2 points for both connotations and two sentences that show the difference; 1 point for one; 0 otherwise.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
Grades 9-12 focus: how do the hyperbole and verbal irony of paragraph 1 prepare readers for Chesterton's claim in paragraph 3? Cite at least two phrases.
Model answer: Paragraph 1 treats a flood as a treat: he feels "an almost savage envy" at missing it and calls Battersea "a vision of Venice." The exaggeration is obviously playful, but it shows in action what he later argues outright, that even a flood can be "accepted and enjoyed poetically" (paragraph 3). The figures are a demonstration before the claim, so by the time readers reach the paradox at the end, they have already seen it done. Rubric: 2 points for two cited figures and a clear link to the claim in paragraph 3; 1 point for figures named without the link; 0 otherwise.
0 of 20 answered · 0 correct
06
Frequently Asked Questions
10 Questions
What does CCRA.L.5 mean?
It means students understand the meanings that go beyond a dictionary definition: figurative language, the relationships between words, and the shades of meaning between words with similar definitions. A student who meets CCRA.L.5 can explain what "weighs a ton" really means, complete an analogy, and say why "thrifty" is a compliment and "stingy" is not.
Which figures of speech does CCRA.L.5 cover in each grade?
The grade-level standards give examples: personification in grade 6, allusions in grade 7, verbal irony and puns in grade 8, euphemism and oxymoron in grades 9-10, and hyperbole and paradox in grades 11-12. Similes and metaphors are taught earlier and stay in use throughout.
What is the difference between denotation and connotation?
Denotation is a word's dictionary meaning; connotation is the feeling or association it carries. "Inexpensive" and "cheap" have nearly the same denotation, but "cheap" can suggest poor quality. CCRA.L.5 asks students to notice and explain that difference.
What word relationships are taught under CCRA.L.5?
Grade 6 names cause and effect, part and whole, and item and category; grade 7 adds synonym and antonym, and analogy. Students use the relationship to understand each word better, for example knowing that a sepal is part of a flower or that a robin is an item in the category bird.
How is CCRA.L.5 different from CCRA.R.4?
They overlap, but CCRA.R.4 asks how word choices shape meaning and tone in a specific text, while CCRA.L.5 builds the general understanding of figures of speech, relationships and connotations that makes that analysis possible. In practice, a lesson on a poem often teaches both.
Is CCRA.L.5 the same in middle school and high school?
The three parts are the same, but the expectations rise. In grades 6-8 students interpret figures and distinguish connotations; in grades 9-12 they also analyze each figure's role in the text and the nuances of words with similar denotations. The progression table in Direct Instruction shows each band.
What is the difference between a paradox and an oxymoron?
An oxymoron puts two opposite words side by side, as in "deafening silence" or "open secret." A paradox is a whole statement that seems to contradict itself but holds a truth, such as "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know." Oxymoron is named in grades 9-10 and paradox in grades 11-12.
How do I teach CCRA.L.5 without a list of terms to memorize?
Ask for three things every time: the name of the figure or relationship, a literal restatement, and the effect. Naming alone is the weakest of the three. A student who can restate "a walking encyclopedia" plainly and explain why the writer chose it understands more than one who can only label it a metaphor.
How can students practice CCRA.L.5 at home?
Look for figures of speech in songs, ads and sports commentary, and ask what each one means literally. Play quick analogy games in the car, and when a family member describes someone, ask whether a near-synonym would change the picture.
How does CCRA.L.5 connect to CCRA.L.4 and CCRA.L.6?
The three anchors form the Vocabulary Acquisition and Use cluster. CCRA.L.4 gives strategies for unknown words, CCRA.L.5 adds figurative meaning and shades of meaning, and CCRA.L.6 asks students to build and use a wide general academic and subject vocabulary. A thesaurus, for example, serves L.4 as a reference and L.5 as a map of near-synonyms.
07
Related Standards
8 standards
These are the grade-level standards that carry anchor CCRA.L.5 in grades 6-12, plus closely related anchors.
