• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Euphemism, oxymoron, paradox and understatement; Naming language techniques (GCSE)). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which figure of speech matches this description? Deliberately presenting something as much smaller or less serious than it is. (paradox / oxymoron / understatement / euphemism) → understatementPrompt: Ask: does it soften, combine opposites in two words, seem self-contradictory as a whole idea, or downplay?
2. Which technique matches this description? Describing something as if it IS something else, without 'like' or 'as'. (sibilance / hyperbole / personification / metaphor) → metaphorPrompt: Recall the key test for each technique: like/as? human actions? weather? s-sounds? exaggeration? contrast?
3. Which figure of speech is used here? It was a bittersweet farewell. (oxymoron / euphemism / understatement / paradox) → oxymoronPrompt: Two contradictory words side by side → oxymoron; a whole statement that seems impossible → paradox.

• Show an interesting word in a sentence and ask what it might mean from the clues around it.
• Share the objective: Advanced figures: metonymy, synecdoche, apostrophe, conceit, allegory, bathos. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which figure of speech matches this description? A sudden, often comic, drop from the serious to the trivial.
• Step 1: Advanced figures substitute (metonymy, synecdoche), address (apostrophe), compare ingeniously (conceit), encode ideas (allegory) or deflate (bathos).
• Step 2: bathos: A sudden, often comic, drop from the serious to the trivial.
• Step 3: So the answer is: bathos
• Answer: bathos
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Which figure of speech matches this description? Referring to something by a closely associated thing, not a part of it. (metonymy / synecdoche / allegory / bathos) → metonymyPrompt: Part for whole → synecdoche; associated thing → metonymy.
2. Which figure of speech is used here? Downing Street declined to comment. (allegory / bathos / metonymy / synecdoche) → metonymyPrompt: Is a part standing for the whole, or a related thing standing for something else?

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 8 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. Which figure of speech is used here? All hands on deck! (synecdoche / metonymy / bathos / allegory) → synecdochePrompt: Is a part standing for the whole, or a related thing standing for something else?
2. Type the figure of speech (in English) that matches this description. A sudden, often comic, drop from the serious to the trivial. → bathosPrompt: Part for whole → synecdoche; associated thing → metonymy.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/english/grade-12.