• 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? A compact phrase that combines opposite ideas, such as 'cruel kindness'. (understatement / euphemism / oxymoron / paradox) → oxymoronPrompt: Ask: does it soften, combine opposites in two words, seem self-contradictory as a whole idea, or downplay?
2. Which technique matches this description? Giving human qualities or actions to something non-human. (personification / juxtaposition / pathetic fallacy / hyperbole) → personificationPrompt: Recall the key test for each technique: like/as? human actions? weather? s-sounds? exaggeration? contrast?
3. Which figure of speech is used here? He's a little economical with the truth. (oxymoron / euphemism / paradox / understatement) → euphemismPrompt: 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? Using a part to stand for the whole (or the whole for a part). (synecdoche / allegory / metonymy / conceit) → synecdochePrompt: Part for whole → synecdoche; associated thing → metonymy.
2. Which figure of speech is used here? Oh cruel sea, why did you take him from us? (metonymy / bathos / synecdoche / apostrophe) → apostrophePrompt: 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 matches this description? Directly addressing someone absent, dead, or something non-human. (apostrophe / metonymy / bathos / allegory) → apostrophePrompt: Part for whole → synecdoche; associated thing → metonymy.
2. Which figure of speech is used here? The hero faced the dragon, the storm, the army of shadows… and then a very long queue at the post office. (bathos / conceit / apostrophe / synecdoche) → bathosPrompt: Is a part standing for the whole, or a related thing standing for something else?

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