Expressive Language Features

Overview

This two-week plan is designed for Year 3 students in New Zealand to deepen their understanding and application of language features such as similes, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and personification to enhance their writing. Emphasis is on using these features to support meaning and engage the audience. The plan aligns specifically with the New Zealand Curriculum as detailed in Te Mātaiaho: English in the New Zealand Curriculum Years 0–6 (2024).

Curriculum Alignment

• Learning Area: English
• Strands: Writing, Oral Language, Reading (interconnected to support comprehension and expression)
• Progress Outcomes (Year 3):
  • Compose single-paragraph texts including descriptive language to entertain and inform
  • Explore and use language features for effect (e.g., similes, sound devices)
  • Plan and write for purpose and audience, using language features to support meaning
  • Develop oral language skills including discussing language features and their effects
• Key Competencies: Using language, symbols, and text; Thinking; Relating to others
• References:
  • Explicitly teach language features by analysing model texts and discussing their effects
  • Use oral language to plan and share ideas before writing
  • Writing sequences including planning, drafting, revising, and editing with a focus on crafting sentences
  • Foster positive identities as communicators through joy in language and texts

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Week 1: Introduction & Exploration

Learning Objectives

• Understand and identify similes, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and personification in texts
• Discuss how these features make writing more vivid and engaging
• Plan and orally compose sentences using one or two of these features

Materials

• Selected rich language texts and poems containing clear examples of the target features (including local narratives or poems with NZ content, if possible)
• Chart paper and markers
• Visual vocabulary cards illustrating each feature
• Student writing journals/notebooks

Lesson Breakdown (50 minutes)

Time	Activity	Details
5 min	Activate prior knowledge & set purpose	Engage students with a fun or familiar poem/read-aloud that uses sound and vivid language. Ask what makes the poem interesting or “alive.” Introduce today's focus: language features.
15 min	Explicit teaching & modelling	Using a shared big book or projected text: Identify and define similes, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and personification. Use think-aloud strategies to analyse example sentences. Create a classroom anchor chart with definitions and examples.
10 min	Collaborative exploration	In pairs, students find examples of these features in a small selection of texts and then share their findings with the class. Use “think-pair-share” to encourage participation.
15 min	Guided oral language activity	Teacher models planning sentences aloud that include the language features. Then, students orally create their own sentences using visuals prompts and share with the class. Recording ideas on chart paper supports writing later.
5 min	Wrap-up and reflection	Recap what each feature is and how it makes writing interesting. Students write or draw their favourite feature and why.

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Week 2: Application & Creation

Learning Objectives

• Use similes, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and personification in writing
• Plan and write a short entertaining paragraph including at least two language features
• Engage in peer feedback and revise writing for clarity and impact

Materials

• Writing planners (graphic organisers for paragraph planning)
• Sentence starters focusing on language features
• Example texts/models created in Week 1 or teacher-prepared
• Feedback checklists (simple and visual)

Lesson Breakdown (50 minutes)

Time	Activity	Details
5 min	Review and goal setting	Recap last week's language features. Set learning intention: Use features to make writing more exciting and clear to their audience.
10 min	Planning	Use a graphic organiser to plan a short narrative or descriptive paragraph, encouraging students to plan where language features will be used. Teacher models oral planning aloud with an example.
20 min	Writing & drafting	Students write their paragraphs independently, using their plans and referencing the classroom anchor chart. Teacher monitors and supports individual students, prompting with examples and scaffolding as needed.
10 min	Peer sharing and feedback	Students share sentences or paragraphs in pairs or small groups focusing on effective use of language features. Use simple prompts like “What did you like?” and “Can you hear the simile/alliteration?”
5 min	Reflection & next steps	Whole group reflection on how language features helped shape meaning and made their writing more interesting. Introduce next steps for continued use in writing.

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Assessment and Reflection

• Formative Assessment during collaborative activities, oral sharing, and writing drafts.
• Use teacher observations and checklists focused on the use of targeted language features in planning and writing phases.
• Anecdotal notes for individual support and extension.
• Student self-reflection on favourite features and how they helped their writing.
• Use oral language to monitor understanding and ability to describe language features.

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Teaching Considerations

• Differentiate support according to students' literacy levels and English language needs (use scaffolded sentence stems, visuals, and oral modelling).
• Encourage culturally responsive texts where students see diverse perspectives including Māori and Pasifika stories or poetic forms.
• Use digital tools for students who can compose or illustrate their writing digitally, reinforcing language features multimodally.
• Provide opportunities for multisensory engagement (e.g., act out sounds for onomatopoeia, draw illustrations for personification).
• Align feedback with students’ writing goals, focusing not only on transcription but creative use of language.
• Foster a positive classroom culture where playful use of language is celebrated.

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This plan is grounded in the Te Mātaiaho curriculum framework for years 0–6 focusing on building unconstrained literacy skills like vocabulary and figurative language, weaving reading and writing together to build comprehension and composition capabilities through explicit teaching, flexible grouping, and authentic purposes for writing.

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I hope this plan will inspire teachers with engaging, curriculum-aligned, explicit instruction strategies while fostering students’ creativity and language skills. If you want, I can also provide sample texts or detailed activity sheets!