Free Literary Devices Cheat Sheets for the Classroom

Overview

Literary devices are the building blocks of strong writing and close reading, but the sheer number of terms can be overwhelming for students. This three-part cheat sheet pack breaks the most common devices into clear, manageable groups, giving your class a reliable reference for both analysis and creative writing tasks.

Each sheet focuses on a different category — figurative language, sound features, and specialised language — with simple definitions, plain-language explanations, and a worked example for every device. The friendly tone and clean layout make it suitable for upper primary and lower secondary classrooms.

Print the sheets as desk references, paste them into student workbooks, or display them during a literary devices unit.

This cheat sheet pack provides:

• Figurative Language sheet: Covers similes, metaphors, personification, and symbolism, with definitions and examples that help students see how writers create imagery and meaning.
• Sound Features sheet: Explores repetition, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, homophones and homonyms, and onomatopoeia, showing how writers use sound to create rhythm and effect.
• Specialised Language sheet: Introduces synonyms and antonyms, slang, jargon, cliché, hyperbole, irony, rhetorical questions, and oxymoron, building vocabulary for richer expression and analysis.
• Worked examples throughout: Every device is paired with a clear example, including extracts from well-known texts like Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise.
• Accessible, plain-language explanations: Definitions are written for students, not specialists, making the concepts easy to grasp and apply.
• Print-ready format: Designed for classroom display, desk references, or workbook inserts.

Teaching Tips

• Introduce one sheet at a time: Spread the three categories across separate lessons so students have time to absorb each group of devices before moving on.
• Pair with a reading task: Hand out a sheet before a class novel, poem, or song study and ask students to flag examples of each device as they read or listen.
• Use it as a writing prompt: Set a short creative writing task where students must include a specific number of devices from one of the sheets.
• Run a ‘spot the device’ game: Read aloud short passages and have students hold up the matching device — a quick way to check understanding across the whole class.
• Build a class word wall: As students find examples in their own reading, add them to a shared display under each device heading.
• Display for assessment season: Keep the sheets on the wall during writing assessments so students have a visual prompt to lift their language choices.