S2 Chinese | Poetry Imagery and Figures of Speech Prep Guide (for tutors)

S2 Chinese | Poetry Imagery and Figures of Speech Prep Guide (for tutors) | Filling an 8-mark answer in 60 minutes

2026-11-06

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary Chinese

S2 students answer poetry questions with “the poem is beautiful and expresses the poet’s feelings”. The feeling is rarely wrong; what is missing is the scenery in between. A poet hides feeling inside scenery, so you describe the scenery first.

Objectives — Students can: (1) circle five images in a poem (noun plus its modifier) and state each one’s literal meaning in a sentence; (2) identify four figures of speech (simile, personification, hyperbole, parallelism) and say what each does; (3) fill an 8-mark feeling question in three layers (scenery, mood, feeling) and score at least 12 of 16 across two poems.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Nouns and adjectives	What two parts make up the phrase “cold crow”?	The modifier “cold” plus the noun “crow”
Structure of a simile	What are tenor, vehicle and connective?	“Moonlight like frost”: moonlight, frost, like
Feeling words	What kind of words are “sorrow” and “lonely”?	Words that name a feeling directly

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-5 min	Entry: two lines side by side	Write “the moon is round” against “cold moon, no sound” and ask which is poetry and why	State the difference and circle the modifiers
5-15 min	From scenery to image	Model circling every noun, then checking whether its modifier is warm or cold	Circle five images across eight lines
15-30 min	Four figures of speech	Model each: simile (like/as), personification (human action), hyperbole (extreme number), parallelism (matched length and word class)	Mark one example of each in the poem
30-45 min	The three-layer 8-mark answer	Model “what scenery is written / what mood it builds / what feeling it reveals”, quoting once	Write one 8-mark answer independently
45-55 min	Timed practice	One eight-line poem, one 8-mark question, ten minutes	Complete and self-mark
55-60 min	Exit check	Three questions collected and marked at once	Complete independently

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: An image is scenery plus feeling, not a pretty phrase

Students treat “imagery” as “beautiful lines” and copy whole sentences. An image is concrete: a noun plus the word that modifies it, and that modifier already carries the emotion. “Cold crow”: crow is the scenery, cold is the feeling. “Lone boat”: boat is the scenery, lone is the feeling.
Teach one action: circle the nouns, then circle the modifiers in front of them. The pair is one image. Eight lines usually give you five images, enough for any question.
If a student circles an abstract noun such as “sorrow”, stop them: that is the feeling, which is the end point of the answer, not the starting point.

Students do: circle every noun in eight lines, mark modifiers in a second colour, then list five images in two columns (scenery / feeling).

Scene 2: Each figure has a marker, and its effect must reach the reader

Simile: like, as, resembles; tenor and vehicle must be different kinds of thing, and the effect is “it turns an abstract A into a visible B”. Personification: a human action is given to a thing, as in “the wind is weeping”; the effect is that something lifeless now has a mood. Hyperbole: a number or degree pushed to an extreme, as in “white hair three thousand feet long”; the effect is intensity. Parallelism: two lines of equal length with matched word classes; the effect is rhythm and mutual reinforcement.
Never answer an effect question with “it makes the writing vivid”. Say which picture makes the reader feel which emotion.

Students say: why “the wind is weeping” cannot stop at “personification, very vivid”, but has to reach “the wind is given a mood, so the surroundings feel sad too”.

Scene 3: An 8-mark answer has three layers, not one paragraph of reaction

An 8-mark feeling question usually asks what feeling the poem expresses and to explain it. Marks split roughly three for scenery, three for feeling, two for quotation and organisation.
Layer one: “the poet writes cold crows, a lone boat and a cold moon”. Layer two: “these images are cold in colour and still in motion, building a lonely, chill mood”. Layer three: “this reveals the poet’s loneliness far from home and his longing for it”. Written as three layers, the marker can see three scoring points at once.
A student who writes only layer three, however accurate, caps out at three marks.

Students do: cut a model answer into three layers, label the scoring point on each, then write one question themselves.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Identify an image	Which image best shows loneliness?	Circle noun plus modifier, pick the clearest feeling	“Lone boat”: boat is the scenery, lone names the feeling
Identify a figure	What figure of speech is “white hair three thousand feet long”?	Look for a number pushed to an extreme	Hyperbole, stressing the depth of grief
Effect of a figure	What does the personification do here?	“Turns what into what” plus “makes the reader feel what”	Turns the wind into a weeping person, so the setting itself feels sad
Explain the feeling	What feeling does the poem express?	Scenery, mood, feeling, three layers	Cold images build loneliness and reveal homesickness

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity check: an image must be a noun plus a modifier, never an abstract feeling word; the figure must be one of the four, never an invented label; every effect sentence must name a concrete reader response, never “more vivid”; the three layers must use the same set of images; each quotation stays under twelve characters.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Circle images	Five images from eight lines	Check no feeling word was counted as scenery
Mark figures	One example of each of the four	Check parallelism really matches length and word class
Write 8 marks	One feeling question independently	Check all three layers use the same images

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Treating a feeling word as an image	Answering “the image is the poet’s sorrow”	“Sorrow is a feeling, not scenery. You can see a cold crow; you cannot see sorrow.”
Stopping at “more vivid”	Answering “a simile makes it more vivid”	“Vivid is empty, every figure is vivid. Say what became what, and what the reader now feels.”
Feeling with no scenery	Writing only “expresses homesickness”	“That is three of eight marks. Where are the scenery and the mood that earn the other five?”
Translating the whole poem	Turning eight lines into plain prose as the answer	“That is a translation, not an answer. The marker wants three scoring points.”

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary Chinese chapter index — All chapters for this subject
All prep guides — Matching chapters in other subjects
Redo this chapter — Pick another eight-line poem: five images, four figures, one 8-mark feeling question

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
What two parts make an image?	A noun plus its modifier	Answering “a feeling word” sends you back to act one
“White hair three thousand feet long” is which figure?	Hyperbole	Answering “simile” sends you back to act two
How many layers in an 8-mark feeling answer?	Three: scenery, mood, feeling	Answering “one” sends you back to act three

09 Tutor FAQ

Do S2 students need the definitions?

They need the names, and one line of definition each: a simile says A is like B. Marks come from the effect, not recitation.

Must an image be a noun?

Almost always. Verbs can work too, but at S2 the noun-plus-modifier drill has the highest hit rate.

Can poet background be used?

As support, never as a substitute. Scenery first, feeling second, background last.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.