Review the terms denotation, connotation, diction, and mood in paragraph writing. After defining the terms, middle schoolers practice writing examples of both connotation and denotation. They complete a connotation and denotation...

Given the two-sentence skeleton of a news story about a car theft/joy ride, budding writers create their own version of the story varying diction and sentence structure to heighten interest and complexity in their writing. Resource...

Students examine the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the diction in her poetry. In this poetry analysis instructional activity, students read Dickinson poetry and analyze the diction in the poems. Students journal about the poetry and...

Over the course of three days, middle schoolers explore the concept of connotation. They differentiate between the connotative and denotative meanings of sports team names, develop their own team names, logos, and text, and revise a news...

Why is it important to use precise language? Participants explore this question in the fourth activity in a series of 15 on effective instruction. Perfect for all content areas, the activity promotes appropriate language choice through...

How figurative language affects the tone and meaning in Chapter Three of Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, Not Buddy is the focus of a series of exercises that ask readers to locate, record, and analyze Curtis' word choices.

Bring this lesson into your unit about creative writing and precise language. First, middle schoolers create a piece of writing with the help of their classmates. In the second part of this workshop, they edit their own piece of writing....

Use drawings as inspiration. Have learners doodle for 10 minutes before beginning the lesson. Then, have them use their doodles to inspire a story. Several writing activities are included here to play with writing. One of my favorites...

Eschew obfuscation! Using dictionaries, writers revise a complicated text so that it reads more simply and improves the clarity of the passage. Focusing on word meanings, they revise the sample worksheets and then present their...

Kids paraphrase an entry from The Elements of Style, and then revise a sentence. They use the Visual Thesaurus and find synonyms for the phrase very pretty, brainstorm a list of intensifiers (as alternatives to really and very),...

Show, don't tell! Pairs work together to change a list of telling sentences into showing sentences using picture words that create vivid pictures in the readers’ minds.

Add to the narrative writing experience. Elementary or middle school writers listen to the teacher read a descriptive passage, then reread the same passage silently. They highlight sensory details and figurative language, then orally...

Improve word choice! Writers use dictionaries and thesauruses to aid them in choosing exciting words to incorporate in their writing. They rewrite sentences and practice identifying words that can be replaced using a better word....

Show your class the difference between which and that with this basic and straightforward worksheet. Using the context of each sentence, learners circle the appropriate word choice. Assign this as a warm-up activity or a short homework...

Students sing Oh Shenandoah with correct notes, diction, a characteristic choral tone, appropriate style and have an understanding of the history of the lyrics. The version of Oh Shenandoah is for an SSA choir and was arranged by Ruth...

A twenty-question activity provides practice using the commonly confused to, too, and two. Meet Common Core standards with the help of this resource in your fourth grade classroom. Use as homework or an assessment.

Third graders practice replacing words in a sentence to make it more interesting. In this word choice lesson, 3rd graders listen to the story The Hard-Times Jar by Ethel Smothers and discuss the author's word choice. Students then...

Students explore author's voice. In this literary elements and reading comprehension lesson, students listen to two poems about snakes (included) and identify adjectives and other descriptive words and phrases that help them determine...

Students recite the poem, The Frog on the Log, paying particular attention to precise diction, pacing, projection, inflection, volume and rhythm.

Third graders sing alone, with others and practice a varied repertoire of music. They have to sing using appropriate timbre, diction, and pesture, all while maintaining a steady tempo. Singly expressively, with appropriate dynamics,...

Young scholars study word choice by authors.  In this reading comprehension lesson, students read the book The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown and discuss with their classmates the importance of an author's words.  Young...

Second graders examine the use of synonyms. In this synonym lesson, 2nd graders listen to a read aloud of Splendiferous Christmas and ring a jingle bell each time a synonym is used for a word mentioned in the book. They write synonyms on...

Learners explore language arts by participating in a vocabulary usage activity. In this word choice lesson, students read examples of great word usage in literature and discuss with the class why some words appear stronger than others....

You don't need drums to play percussion; you can use your own body. Second graders use body percussion to make four-beat rhythms and play patterned clapping games. When they are finished they discuss beats, patterns, rhythm, and rhyme.