Students read a series of sentences and decide what literary term is being shown. They also discuss a novel about prejudice.

Designed to be used with an independent reading book, this activity provides practice with identifying and explaining literary terms. While they read, individuals find instances of literary devices and elements in use in their books....

Students explore figurative language. In this Fahrenheit 451 instructional activity, students read the Bradbury novel. As they read, students note the simile, metaphor, and personification examples that they encounter.

Learners analyze poems by Tennyson and Noyes. They identify examples of alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, metaphor, and simile. Students create examples of alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, metaphor, and simile.

Students analyze lyrics of their favorite songs as examples of alliteration, metaphor, Onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme, and simile to determine the purpose of these devices in poetry. They use their analysis to create a presentation...

Learners examine the impact of sound devices in poetry. In this poetry lesson, students read the listed poems and identify uses of hyperbole, simile, metaphor, imagery, and personification. Learners discuss how sound devices enhance poetry.

Students examine the use of literary prose in the story, "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed." In this literary prose instructional activity, students investigate the use of imagery, metaphor, and simile in the story. They tell how author's...

This lesson about writing can be taught in small groups or large group settings. They examine basic writing techniques and practice using them to improve their writing.

Students use their knowledge of philanthropy and poetic conventions to write original poetry about philanthropic giving. In this philanthropy lesson, students write poetry based on philanthropy using poetic conventions. Students...

Ninth graders read, "The Gift of the Magi," discuss the multiple themes of the story and situational irony. Individually, 9th graders review questions from the study guide, explore the simile, metaphor, and allusion. Students prepare...

Jump back into expository writing and analysis at the start of a new school year! Start with a review of an authors' stylistic choices in diction, syntax, treatment of subject matter, and figurative language. Writers choose a text to...

Students read the poem Bluebottle and discuss the use of the simile in the poem.  In this Bluebottle poetry lesson, students analyze the use of verbs and the energy created by that use.  Students text mark all the similes in...

Test the true meaning of giving - and irony - with this instructional activity about "The Gift of the Magi." Using textual analysis, details, and text organization, middle schoolers make predictions about future events in the story and...

A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...

Aspiring writers complete and discuss fill-in-the-blank cliché expressions, define cliché as a form of predictable writing, take cliché expressions and turn them into new, unpredictable ones, read poetry that illustrates writer's use of...

Although this activity is based on “Final Word,” Craig Wilson’s USA Today column, the strategies could be adapted to any local columnist. After reading three articles independently, groups share observations about content and style used...

Young scholars examine examples of literary terms in poetry. Then they choose two songs, write out the lyrics, and decipher what they think the artist is trying to say. Each student presents their song to the class and they cite examples...

Students read aloud the book "Courage" by Bernard Waber and discuss the examples that compromise the defintion of courage. They describe another word such as joy and work with a partner or group to brainstorm and write sentences of...

Students find a group of words from an unlikely source and turn them into a poem. They discuss the central image in two well-known poems by Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson. They write their own short poem expressing one central...

Students write a poetic analysis on a poem by Carl Sandburg. They take their previous knowledge of poetic devices and apply them to a piece of writing that displays their knowledge on a specific poem. They explain what they know about a...

Students review what they have already learned about similies and begin to engage with similies on a deeper and more abstract level as they create their own.

Students examine a primary source document from 1684 that includes many of the same lines found in Romeo's speech to Juliet from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Students compare the texts and discuss authorship during the sixteenth and...

High schoolers identify different types of literary terms in poems. They read different poems and create a packet summarizing them. They write a poem of their own and a biography of one of their favorite poets.

Students use Maya Angelou's novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings to identify themes about adversity in the text. In this adversity, students read chapter 36 of the novel and discuss the examples of adversity in the book. Students...