Teaching Figurative Language with Taylor Swift Songs - Grades 3-6

If there’s one thing I love about Taylor Swift (other than her dance moves!) it is her use of figurative language. If you have ever listened to her songs you know she uses a lot of similes and metaphors in her writing. She is a major pop star today, and I guarantee your students can (and will!) sing along to any one of her songs! With this product you will be able to teach and have your students practice identifying and writing seven types of figurative language using Taylor Swift songs.

Beginning in third grade students must be able to demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships and nuances in word meanings and distinguish the literal and nonliteral meanings of words and phrases in context in accordance with the common core standards. In addition to these skills, fourth grade students must also explain the meaning of simple similes, metaphors and idioms in context. In fifth grade students must be able to interpret figurative language, including similes, metaphors and idioms at a higher level of understanding. It is in these grades students build a solid foundation and understanding of figurative language to use throughout middle school and high school.

This file contains:
• common core standards page
• QR codes to 9 Taylor Swift songs on Youtube
• “Figurative Language” title page for student packets
• types of figurative language cheat sheet
• lyrics to 9 Taylor Swift songs
• key to color coding lyrics with 7 types of figurative language
• color coded answer keys to 9 pages of song lyrics
• figurative language recording sheet
• figurative language paragraph writing assignment
• figurative language poem/song writing assignment
• figurative language unit test

There are a few ways you could choose to incorporate these lessons into your classroom. I suggest previewing each song prior to having your students listen to them. We all know T-Swizzle likes to write about her love interests, so use your best judgment about what is or isn’t appropriate for your students. You certainly do not have to do all 9 songs…you can pick and choose which ones are right for you and your class!

Ways to use this file:
• print title page, lyric pages, & assignment pages as a packet for each student
• print each page of lyrics & assignment pages individually and distribute to students
• listen to songs whole group, color code lyrics whole group
• listen to songs whole group, color code lyrics independently
• listen to songs whole group, color code lyrics with a partner
• listen to songs as a center, color code lyrics independently
• listen to songs at a center, color code lyrics with a partner or small group
• listen to songs at school, have students color code lyrics as homework