Simile and Metaphor Worksheets Printable for 7th Grade

These simile and metaphor worksheets printable for 7th grade are built around the gap that actually slows middle schoolers down in ELA: they can label the device, but they struggle to explain what it does to a sentence. Most seventh graders have circled similes and metaphors since fourth grade — what they have not done is paraphrase the comparison, name the two things being linked, and describe how that link shifts tone or imagery. This set puts that interpretive work at the center of every task.

What Students Practice Across the Set

Each worksheet moves students through a deliberate sequence: identify the device, name what two things are being compared, paraphrase the comparison in plain language, and explain how it affects the reader. That last step is where seventh graders stall most reliably, and it is where these resources spend the most instructional time.

• Sort sentences into three categories — literal language, simile, and metaphor — not just two, so students must confirm a comparison is actually present before labeling its type
• Underline signal words (like, as) when present and note their absence in direct metaphors
• Paraphrase comparisons in their own words, which surfaces confusion about what is actually being compared
• Describe the emotional or sensory effect of a comparison on the reader
• Rewrite flat, literal sentences by inserting original similes or metaphors tied to recognizable school-based scenarios
• Rate comparisons from predictable to specific, then revise the weakest ones — a step that feeds directly into revision habits during narrative writing units

Writing extensions appear on most worksheets in the set. They are not tacked on as optional enrichment. A student who writes fast as a rumor in a crowded hallway instead of fast as a car has learned something about word choice that carries into every essay and narrative they write that year.

Frequent Student Errors Worth Watching For

The most common mistake at this level is not confusing similes with metaphors — it is treating any vivid or dramatic sentence as figurative language. Students will correctly flag the hallway was a beehive as a metaphor, then also flag the fire was hot and overwhelming as figurative because it feels intense. Each worksheet addresses that directly by including clearly literal sentences alongside figurative ones. Students must confirm that a comparison between two unlike things is actually present before labeling anything.

A second pattern worth anticipating: students who correctly identify Her smile was sunshine as a metaphor will explain it as "She was happy." They caught the emotion but skipped the imagery — the warmth, the involuntary brightness, the sense of something radiating outward. The explanation prompts on each worksheet push past the emotion summary and into sensory or tonal effect. After one or two modeled examples in class, the prompts carry that expectation on their own.

Third, students frequently miss the two-part structure of a comparison. They circle as quiet as but write only "the room was quiet" when asked to paraphrase — they have not named what the room is being compared to. Every paraphrase prompt in the set includes the explicit question: what two things does this comparison connect? That framing resolves the confusion faster than re-explaining the definition from scratch.

Standard Alignment

Two CCSS standards sit directly behind this set. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.7.4 asks students to determine the figurative and connotative meanings of words and phrases as used in a text and analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.5a addresses the interpretation of figurative language, including similes and metaphors in context. In classroom terms, both standards ask students to connect a device to an author's deliberate choice — not just attach a label to a sentence. The identification step on each worksheet covers the recognition side of both standards. The explanation and rewriting steps address the analysis and impact language that appears on grade-level reading assessments and released test items at the seventh-grade band.

How to Build These Worksheets Into Your Lesson Plans

Short, consistent practice outperforms a single long drill session for this skill. A brief worksheet with five or six mixed items works well as a bell ringer in the first eight minutes of class. Students sort and label independently, then you discuss one or two items aloud before moving into the day's main reading or writing task. That routine gives you daily formative data without cutting into lesson time.

When you are deep in a poetry or narrative unit, pull a context-based worksheet right after students finish a shared reading. Ask them to find two comparisons from the text, then match those lines to a parallel example on the worksheet and explain the effect of both. That pairing keeps figurative language connected to real reading rather than drifting into isolated skill work. The simile and metaphor worksheets printable for 7th grade in this set are formatted to sit alongside a poem or passage — not just as standalone exercises.

For sub plans or station rotations, the included answer keys let students self-check without teacher facilitation. A three-station setup works efficiently: one worksheet at the identification level, one at the explanation level, and one at the writing extension level. Students rotate through all three in a single class period and exit with a visible record of where they stand in the progression from recognition to application.

Adapting the Set for Different Student Levels

Students who are still shaky on the basic definitions benefit from a signal-word annotation step before they begin. Before distributing a worksheet, highlight every like and as on it, then ask students to decide whether each highlighted phrase is part of a real comparison or a filler phrase — "she worked as quickly as she could" is a simile; "as soon as the bell rang" is not. That one constraint narrows the task without removing the analytical demand.

For students who have identification down cold, the rating step moves the work into craft. Ask them to rate each comparison on a scale from 1 to 3 — 1 for a cliché (busy as a bee), 3 for something specific and earned (busy as a group chat during a fight) — then rewrite the one they rated lowest. The simile and metaphor worksheets printable for 7th grade in this set can serve both groups from the same worksheet; the differentiation comes from what you ask each student to do after the core items are finished.

Students reading below grade level often struggle when figurative language appears in unfamiliar content or settings. Several worksheets in the set use school-based scenarios — a crowded cafeteria, a timed test, a hallway between classes — precisely because those contexts lower the background knowledge barrier while keeping the language analysis demand fully intact.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I introduce these worksheets if students think they already know this skill?

Start with an explanation task rather than identification. Give students a sentence like The cafeteria was a storm and ask them to write two sentences explaining what the comparison suggests — not just that it is loud, but what kind of loud, what kind of movement, what the storm image adds that the word "busy" would not. When students see that their explanations are thin, they understand immediately why this level of analysis is worth practicing. The identification tasks that follow feel purposeful rather than remedial.

Can these resources double as assessment tools?

These simile and metaphor worksheets printable for 7th grade work well as formative checks, not summative grades. A five-item identification and explanation worksheet at the start of a unit tells you who needs direct instruction and who is already ready for analysis and writing work. The writing extensions on later worksheets can function as a brief performance task if you collect and respond to them as part of a writing conference routine.

Do these worksheets transfer to classes outside ELA?

History and science teachers who use narrative nonfiction or primary sources occasionally pull one of these worksheets when a text relies heavily on figurative language. A speech by Frederick Douglass or a passage from a science-based memoir will contain metaphors students need to interpret accurately before they can engage with the content. The explanation prompts on each worksheet transfer to any subject where precise reading matters.

How long does a typical worksheet take to complete?

Most students finish the identification and explanation sections in 10 to 15 minutes. The writing extension adds 5 to 8 minutes for students who work through it seriously. That range makes these resources manageable as bell ringers, homework, or quick in-class practice without needing to block a full period for figurative language work.