Whether you choose to include Twelfth Night in your course or whether Shakespeare's comedy has been thrust upon you, be not afraid to incorporate an interactive resource into your study of Shakespeare's tale of loss, love, and identity....

Introduce your middle school writers to a higher level creative writing activity. They become familiar with the literary term pun, and illustrate their writing with clipart they find online. They complete a worksheet on puns in which...

"Dad jokes" aren't the only ways to hear some groan-worthy puns! A poetry lesson explores how figurative language, particularly puns, can make poetry funny, before class members create their own silly poems.

What's got 60 eyes, 150 fingers, and an endless number of ideas? Your language arts class! Challenge young writers to come up with clever riddles with an online poetry lesson.

You've got your topic—now how do you make your poem funny? Explore ways to make a poem humorous, including puns, exaggeration, silly words, and surprising endings, with a helpful poetry lesson.

Have everything you need to know about the elements of poetry with a nine-page handout. Split into four categories—word sounds, meanings, arrangement, and imagery—budding poets may reference terms, read definitions, descriptions, and...

What is a homophone for aloud? Or right? Fifth graders complete a list of 24 homophones, choosing another word that sounds like a given word but has a different meaning. At the bottom of the page, they write punning sentences to practice...

Read and analyze a variety of Shakespearean and contemporary puns using Visual Thesaurus computer software. Middle and high schoolers analyze a pun as a class; in small groups they analyze a Shakespearean pun using contextual clues and...

Explore how language is used for comic effect. Middle schoolers determine which of the three formulas for jokes (double meanings, unexpected outcome, humorous mental image) make each of 18 classic, corny examples funny. They complete a...

Is there a difference between writing errors and employing rhetorical devices? This presentation argues that there is a difference, but it might be a finer point than one would think. Addressing double entendre, oxymorons, and parody,...

Get a giggle from this presentation about puns and ambiguity. From ad campaigns to old jokes to pictures of animals made out of vegetables, the slides are amusing, informative, and bizarre. The presentation spends more time providing...

Mourning the death of the Pillsbury Doughboy (from a yeast infection and pokes in the belly), this presentation discusses the use of puns, metaphors, and polysemes. The slide show continues by discussing other popular metaphors and...

See the effects of puns, letter play, alliteration, and rhyme in newspaper headlines. Writers use such language effects to have their headline stand out. Examples are given with a slide prompting practice at the end. Use in a journalism...

By George, there are so many literary devices illustrated here! Help your pupils create interest in their writing by presenting one or two of these literary devices at a time. The slides contain examples and beg participation from the...

Tickle your funny bone with a worksheet that presents five famous puns drawn from Shakespeare's Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Much Ado About Nothing. Readers identify the play on words as a homographic or homophonic pun. 

Students examine the wit of characters in two plays. In this drama lesson, students read The Shakespeare Stealer by Gary L. Blackwood and Twelfth Night by Shakespeare. Students analyze the puns used in both plays and write essays that...

Students analyze why puns are funny. In this puns usage lesson, students work in small groups to analyze Shakespearean puns, then write their own puns to share with the class. Students are encouraged to use VisualThesaurus to aid in...

Introduce kids to Shakespeare with a packet of activities that has kids examine sonnets as well as scenes from various plays. They even get to translate scenes into modern language and then perform their work.

The AP Literature and Composition exam is all about close reading. Test takers are presented with a passage and asked to analyze how an author uses literary devices to create a desired effect. Prepare your students for the exam with a...

"O pun" the door on this activity. Have your pupils compare the puns and word play in scenes from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to those in Gary Blackwood’s The Shakespeare Stealer. Warm up and introductory activities, as well as...

In this puns activity, students create puns of their own after reading examples of puns. Students read 12 examples of puns on this activity.

Students increase their knowledge of homonyms and become familiar with puns.

High schoolers analyze and practice presenting vocabulary words in out of the ordinary ways with word play, frisky words and puns. They also identify the correct definition of each word and then use them in gimmicks to add flair and fun...

Nothing's better than the sound of children's laughter. This humorous presentation should have your young learners laughing. Jokes and puns are the focus. Classics such as, "Why did the turkey cross the road?  To prove he wasn't...