About this activity
Sixteen items on the idioms children hear long before anyone teaches them: hang in there, she let the cat out of the bag, that's a piece of cake, he's under the weather, hold your horses, it cost an arm and a leg, we're in the same boat. Each is offered with a literal option alongside the figurative one, because the literal reading is the error being tested.
How to use it in a session
Ask what the literal words would mean before giving the figurative meaning. Letting a cat out of a bag is a funny image and drawing attention to it makes the gap between words and meaning explicit, which is the actual lesson. Then ask for a situation where the student would use it, since an idiom that cannot be placed in a context has been memorised rather than learned. Twelve minutes covers the sixteen.
What to listen for
Watch for literal answers surviving instruction. A student who still chooses she opened a bag after being told the meaning is not being careless — idioms are genuinely arbitrary, and there is nothing in the words to reason from. Notice whether they can spot one in speech, which is much harder than choosing from four options.
Carrying it home
Idioms turn up in ordinary family talk constantly. Stopping on one — what do you think that means — takes five seconds and there are several a day in any household.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Third through fifth, using the idioms children meet in classrooms and at home.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all sixteen items play with no account.
- Why do idioms cause so much difficulty?
- Because the meaning is not in the words. Most language can be worked out from its parts; an idiom cannot, so it has to be learned individually — which is why students with otherwise strong language still miss them.