A lot of learning objectives are included here! Discuss some related vocabulary words before reading President Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech at the United Nations Day ceremony. Several activities accompany the speech including a graphic...

Point of View’s short film, “34x25x36” launches a study of how images presented by mannequins and advertisements influence body image. Class members read and discuss the fact sheet "Media's Effect on Girls: Body Image and Gender...

Use O. Henry's ubiquitous tale of love and poverty to explore irony. After reading the story, middle schoolers identify examples of all three kinds of irony in the story. With partners, they brainstorm original examples of irony. Then...

Practice vocabulary and speaking skills in this ESL reading comprehension lesson. Middle and high schoolers participate in a number of before, during, and after reading activities based on an article entitled "Footballer Sent Off for...

After studying metaphors in written text, transfer your learners' knowledge to song! Have each learner bring in a song that uses metaphors and/or similes, and play these examples for the class. Can the other learners identify the...

Give your learners quick definitions of simile, metaphor, and analogy. As the first slide in this PowerPoint suggests, you can use the presentation as a warm-up and have scholars record the words and their meanings in a Literary Terms...

Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of a...

Seven example sentences provide opportunities to improve clarity and variety in writing with diction related to connotative differences. Learners select one of four answer choices to improve each sentence for accuracy. They then...

Don't let your pupils bite off more than they can chew! Comprehending idiomatic speech can be very perplexing to language learners. Readers must use context clues, common sense, and knowledge of the connotative and denotative meanings to...

Jump back into the 90s with Alannis Morissette's song "You Learn." After hearing the song, small groups analyze the lyrics and write an essay about a mistake they've learned from. Use the example sentences to identify the denotative and...

What's happening in this poem? Have your high schoolers participate in an activity about connotation and denotation. They apply the concept of connotation to a reading of Theodore Roethke's poem "My Papa's Waltz." Lead a discussion about...

Lead your class to explore, define, and explain denotations and connotations. Using Voyage™ 200 (a personal learning tool), each learner investigates and defines examples of denotation and connotation. After finding the definitions, the...

High schoolers assess persuasive techniques in propaganda. They identify and critique rhetorical devices in primary source documents (sources are not specified, but links to sites that contain various documents are included). Groups make...

Use literacy tools to select precise vocabulary. High schoolers respond to discussion questions that require them to consider the denotation and connotation of words. They then read non-fiction passages and identify words in the passages...

If used as part of an exploration of figures of speech, this short presentation defining similes, metaphors, and analogies could be used as a review tool in an English classroom. A teacher could augment this resource with more examples...

Readers analyze figurative language in William Golding's Lord of the Flies with four text examples from chapter one. They identify each example as a simile, metaphor, or example of personification, and analyze the comparison that was...

Readers analyze figurative language in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 with four text examples from part two. They identify each example as simile, metaphor, or personification, and analyze the comparison that was made. Resource includes...

High school readers analyze figures of speech in Shakespeare's  A Midsummer Night's Dream with support from a two-page worksheet. They respond to four multi-step questions regarding the use of metaphors, similes, hyperbole, and irony in...

Explore the pop art movement and create a sculpture in the pop art style based on a visual pun, or play on words. The scholar's work may use humor, allegory, metaphor, or be in the form of a parody. Visual examples are provided, and some...

Use this poetry analysis worksheet to help your learners understand a poem of their or your choosing. This resource asks class members to summarize the poem and analyze it by looking at voice, word choice, imagery, and theme. The...

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...

After reading and evaluating examples of prose nonfiction by Zora Neale Hurston and other authors, high schoolers write a personal reflective essay rich in figurative language. By incorporating this strategy, they utilize voice within...

Why do we need to know the meaning of idioms? Discuss common idioms with your learners by showing this PowerPoint. Each slide focuses on a single idiom. Encourage your learners to create their own meaning before showing its known...

Analyze layers of meaning by exploring denotation and connotation. By examining a photograph of the famously controversial Marilyn Monroe, high schoolers interpret the connotative and denotative meanings of the given information. Then...