Penguin Books
Teacher's Guide: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelous
Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is controversial. Like many other Angelou books, it is frequently challenged or banned from schools. In fact, Angelou is one of the most frequently banned authors in the United States. An...
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Figurative Language
When is a staple remover a fanged monster? In your ELA classroom when you're teaching this fun figurative language lesson, of course! Get your young writers using figurative language by making a game of it. Give groups a paper bag full...
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Symbolic Poem
Pupils read and analyze several highly symbolic poems. They create their own symbolic poem, read it to the class, and discuss whether they can guess any hidden meanings.
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Figurative Language in Poetry and Prose
Students 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. Students discuss how sound devices enhance poetry.
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Original Line or Familiar Find?
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...
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Identifying Figurative Language
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.
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Patterns In Poetry: Images (Part 3)
Students explore imagery in poetry. In this poetry lesson, students examine how the use of metaphors and similes aid in reading comprehension. Multiple resources are provided.
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Focus On Figurative Language in Prose
High schoolers examine the use of literary prose in the story, "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed." In this literary prose lesson plan, students investigate the use of imagery, metaphor, and simile in the story. They tell how author's...
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Bluebottle
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...
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Teaching Poetic Devices
Students identify and analyze the poetic devices of alliteration, metaphors, onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme, and similes. They identify examples of each poetic device in songs, complete a worksheet, and teach the devices to a...
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Unforgettable...
Middle and high schoolers remember their most memorable experiences, and then connect their own narrative with an exposition about the topic associated with their experience. This New York Times lesson would be a great addition to...
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Figurative Language 2
Students read nursery rhymes and advertisements to identify examples of figurative language. As a class, students discuss the use of figurative language and its effectiveness in advertising, children's books, rhymes, poetry, etc. ...
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The Language of Surprise
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...
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Writing a poem
Students imagine themselves someplace -- the beach, a mountain top, a city street -- anywhere.
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VH1 Driven: Kanye West, Lesson 2
Students compose an original rap. They discuss the career and music of Kanye West, discuss their pre-writing worksheet, and write an original rap using a Final Draft Worksheet.
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Literary Analysis of The Minister's Black Veil
After reading The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a homework assignment your class will complete a literary analysis. Learners will analyze important element of the story and take notes to help support their...
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Idiom Quizzes - Animals
Following an exhaustive list of animal idioms, metaphors, and similes (categorized by animal), an online interactive quiz checks reader facility with their use. In each of 20 questions, a sentence has a definition for one expression in...
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A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Students study and explore the portrayal and development of a major character in a novel from the novel, "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens. They identify words and phrases that effectively describe the main character in this novel....
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The Witch of Goingsnake
Learners identify figurative language in a proverb and write an interpretation of the proverb prior to reading The Witch of Goingsnake. In this The Witch of Goingsnake lesson, students read a native American proverb and determine whether...
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Still I Rise: Maya Angelou
Learners read the poem, Still I rise, by Maya Angelou. They examine how language, poetic devices, and format contribute to the poet's message. They identify poetic devices used in the poem.
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Out of the Dust: Figurative Language
Young scholars find examples of figurative language in "First Rain" in Out of the Dust. In this Out of the Dust instructional activity, students takes notes on various type of figurative language and identify examples of each type...
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Ode to a Nightingale
High schoolers read poems about Tuberculosis by John Keats. Using the poems, they identify similies, metaphors, personification and imagery. In groups, they make connections about the author's outlook on life and how his disease...
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Poem of Instruction
Students write a free-verse poem and utilize the skill of providing detailed instructions. identify opportunities to create poems from simple, everyday verbal or written instructions. They study everyday language that has merit as poetry.
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Vocabulary Building Cards
Learners select vocabulary words from their reading each week then complete a card for each word which includes definition, source and a sample sentence. They share their cards with the class and complete vocabulary building cards...