What Is Personification
Personification is assigning human qualities, emotions, or actions to non-human objects, animals, or abstract concepts. "The wind whispered through the trees" gives the wind a human ability to speak. "The sun smiled down on us" assigns emotion to an inanimate object. In reading instruction, personification appears regularly in literature at grades 3-5 and becomes a tested skill on standardized assessments by grade 4.
Why It Matters for Reading Development
Personification is a core component of figurative language comprehension. Struggling readers often interpret personification literally, which blocks access to meaning. A student reading "the angry ocean" might focus on decoding the words correctly but miss that the ocean itself cannot feel anger. This gap widens when personification appears in chapter books and grade-level texts that students should be reading independently.
For students with dyslexia or those following Orton-Gillingham instruction, phonics decoding may be solid, but the leap to figurative language requires explicit teaching. Many IEPs include comprehension goals that directly address identifying and explaining personification by grade 4. Without this skill, students plateau at literal comprehension levels, affecting their reading level classification and placement in guided reading groups.
How Personification Works in Practice
- Recognition: Students must spot when a writer assigns human traits to non-human things. Common examples include time moving slowly, stars dancing, or a computer thinking.
- Differentiation: Personification differs from other figurative language. A metaphor compares two unlike things directly ("the ocean is an angry beast"), while personification gives human qualities to one non-human thing ("the angry ocean"). This distinction matters for comprehension checkpoints.
- Instructional sequence: Grade 3 introduces basic personification with simple texts. Grade 4-5 texts use subtler personification that requires inference skills. By grade 6, personification appears alongside other figurative devices in complex narratives.
- Reading level impact: Texts at Fountas and Pinnell levels N-P increasingly rely on figurative language. Students who cannot interpret personification typically need to drop back 2-3 levels or receive targeted small-group instruction.
Teaching Personification to Struggling Readers
Direct, multi-sensory instruction works best. Show concrete examples first: "The branches reached toward the sky" (arms reaching). Use picture support and act out the human action before connecting it to the non-human object. For students on dyslexia intervention or Orton-Gillingham programs, introduce personification after phonics fluency improves, typically in grade 3 or later depending on student progress.
When IEP goals include comprehension of figurative language, teach personification using short, high-interest texts first. Graphic organizers help. Draw the non-human object in one column, the human action in another, and discuss why the author made this choice. This builds both recognition and deeper comprehension that transfers to independent reading.
Common Questions
- How do I know if my child understands personification? Ask them to point out the human action in a sentence and explain what non-human thing is doing it. "The door creaked open" is easier than "Time flies." If they can explain why the writer used this language, they understand it, not just identify it.
- Should personification be taught before metaphor? Yes. Personification is more concrete because it focuses on human actions we all recognize. Metaphor requires comparing two different things, which is abstract. Typical instruction sequence: simile (grade 2-3), personification (grade 3), metaphor (grade 4), then mixed figurative language (grade 5+).
- Does personification appear on standardized reading tests? Yes. Most state assessments by grade 4 include questions about identifying personification or explaining its effect on meaning. Benchmark assessments often test it in grades 3-5. Review your state standards document for specific grade-level expectations.
Related Concepts
Figurative Language is the broader category that includes personification. Metaphor and Imagery work alongside personification in building meaning in literature. Personification often creates imagery by making readers visualize human actions on non-human things, strengthening mental picture formation in comprehension.