Activities for literary terms?

I always had trouble with symbolism in literature- I have too literal a mind, I guess. I think a good way to introduce how symbols work would be to show students some things that they would clearly understand as symbols- the Nike Swoosh, for example, and a railroad crossing sign, and a symbol used to replace a word in texting. Then maybe put them in a context and ask them how that symbol conveys more than mere words would. For example, if you showed a sentence with the texting symbol in it, you could ask what they might assume about the writer (young, maybe a student, etc.) What does it tell you that the regular words don't? If someone wears a shirt with a Swoosh on it, what are they trying to convey about themselves? Are they athletic? Then you could put up a couple of lines from a poem, maybe, and talk about the symbols in it.