A simile that runs on: imagery

What is an imagery question?

Your child is asked to name the device a writer has used, or to find an example of one in a passage.

Three of the four are usually secure by Year 5. A simile compares using like or as something as. A metaphor says one thing is another, with no comparing word. Personification gives something that is not a person the behaviour of one.

That is two minutes' work. The lesson is about the fourth.

The analogy: a simile that runs on

An analogy is awkward because it has a comparing word in it, exactly like a simile does — so the rule your child has used since Year 4, if it says like, it is a simile, stops working.

The difference is what comes after the comparing word.

Her cheeks were as red as a poppy. After the comparing word: a poppy. One thing, sitting there on its own. That is a simile.

Revising without making any notes is like trying to carry water in a sieve. After the comparing word: trying to carry water in a sieve. That is not a thing. It is something happening — a whole situation. That makes it an analogy.

A second difference confirms it: a simile helps you see something. An analogy helps you understand something.

Two words that are pretending

The people who write these papers know your child has been taught to hunt for like and as. So they put them in sentences where they are doing an entirely different job.

The lorry rumbled up the lane as the rain began. There is an as right there. Is it a simile? No — and here is how to know every time. A simile's as never travels alone. It comes in a pair: as red as, as quick as. Put a finger on the as and go looking for its partner. There is not one here, because this as means when.

Most children like the new playground. There is a like. But look at what is in front of it — children. This like is the verb. It means enjoy.

Both sentences are literal, and literal is on the answer sheet for exactly this reason. Answering literal is not giving up. Sometimes it is the hardest answer to give.

Finding one in a passage

Once there is a passage in front of your child, nobody points at the sentence any more.

The mistake almost everybody makes is to read the passage through hoping something jumps out. It is slow, and the paper is timed.

Instead, take one technique at a time and scan for its signature:

• Simile — hunt for like, and for as something as. Nothing else.
• Metaphor — hunt for was or were followed by a or the.
• Personification — read only the verbs, and ask which of them a person would have to do.

And when they find it, write down only the words that carry the picture. A river of shadows — not the whole line it lives in. Marks are lost there that were never lost on the naming questions.

Where do pupils lose marks?

Stopping at like and writing simile. The word tells you something is comparing; it does not tell you what kind.

Refusing to answer literal, because it feels like a failure.

Quoting the whole sentence when only a few words carry the image.

Try it yourself

Name the device — or say that the sentence is literal, which is sometimes the answer.

1. Her cheeks were as red as a poppy.
2. Revising without making notes is like trying to carry water in a sieve.
3. The lorry rumbled up the lane as the rain began.
4. Most children like the new playground.
5. The wind rattled the windows and shouldered its way under the door.

Show Answers

How much practice does this type need at home?

Hunt for them in what you are already reading. One page, one technique: find me a simile on this page. Then next time, personification, by reading only the verbs.

The scanning habit is the part worth building, because naming a device your child has been handed is easy and finding one in four hundred words is not — and it is the second that the paper actually asks for.