Reading stories and poems: word meaning, structure, and point of view (grade 5) · lesson

Figurative language

💡 Similes, metaphors, and personification compare things to show a feeling or picture.

A simile compares with like or as. A metaphor says one thing is another. Personification gives human traits to things that are not human.

Writers also use body words to show feelings. Cheeks that burn or a heart that sinks are not literal. They show strong feeling.

To read figurative language, ask: what two things are compared? What do they share? What does that show?

🧠 Let's work it out

Read: The old car groaned up the hill.

Ask: can a car groan? No, people groan.
A car that groans sounds tired and strained.
So the author shows the car is old and working hard.
This is personification.

What do you think comes next?

simile: a comparison using like or as
metaphor: a comparison saying one thing is another
personification: giving human traits to things that are not human

🔗 Craft and structure (grade 5) · Khan Academy ↗

The speaker of a poem

💡 The speaker is the voice in a poem, and it can be a person, an animal, or even a thing.

The speaker is the I of a poem. It is not always the poet. A poem can be spoken by a river, a cat, or a clock.

Clues tell you who the speaker is. Look at what the I has seen or done.

A speaker may talk to someone or something. Look for you. An ode is a poem that praises its subject, and it often talks right to it.

🧠 Let's work it out

Poem: I have held a thousand cups of tea. My handle is chipped, but I still wait on the shelf.

Ask: who is I? Something that holds tea and has a handle.
So the speaker is a mug.

What do you think comes next?

speaker: the voice that tells a poem
ode: a poem that praises something

How the narrator shapes the story

💡 A narrator can share only some characters' thoughts, and that changes what the reader knows.

A first-person narrator is a character who says I. You know only what that character sees, thinks, and feels.

A third-person narrator may follow just one character's thoughts. You know that character's feelings but must guess the others'.

If a story were told by a different character, you would learn that character's thoughts instead. Some events might look different.

🧠 Let's work it out

Story: I tripped on the stage, and my face went red.

Ask: whose feelings do we know? The I, who tripped.
If a friend in the crowd told it, we would learn what the friend thought.
Maybe the friend didn't even notice.

What do you think comes next?

point of view: who tells the story and what they can know
first person: told by a character using I
third person: told by someone outside the story

How stanzas fit together

💡 Each stanza adds something new, and the last stanza often changes the view.

Stanzas work like paragraphs. Each one does a job.

Early stanzas may tell the past or the present. A later stanza may look ahead, change the mood, or share the lesson.

Watch for time words like once, now, and someday. They show a move in time.

🧠 Let's work it out

Poem plan: Stanza 1 tells about a beach full of people. Stanza 2 tells about kids shouting in the waves. Stanza 3 begins, Now the sand is empty and still.

Ask: what does stanza 3 add?
A change in mood, from busy and loud to calm and quiet.

What do you think comes next?

stanza: a group of lines in a poem
structure: how the parts of a text fit together