Prestwick House
Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches
Have you ever watched a political speech and felt your heart beat a little faster, and your opinion either solidify or begin to slightly change? Rhetorical devices can be a strong tool in an effective and powerful speech. A short lesson...
Curated OER
A Rose Is a Rose
Flowering learners explore the concept of figurative language as it relates to poems, songs, or creative written expression. In this creative writing lesson, they complete several phrases using similes, metaphors, and...
Curated OER
Variations of Pain
Students listen to the song :King of Pain" by the Police. They identify different instrumentation and different rhythmic accompaniments to the opening vocal phrase and explore the text in-depth, discussing the various poetic images of...
Curated OER
Poetry of Abraham Lincoln
Fourth graders analyze Abraham Lincoln's poems "The Bear Hunt" and "My Childhood's Home" for word choice and deeper inquiry into the vocabulary he uses to convey emotion. They identify rhyming words and patterns in these poems. ...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Animating Poetry: Reading Poems about the Natural World
Learners complete poetry analysis activities. In this poetry analysis instructional activity, students consider the use of imagery and sound devices in poetry. Learners translate poetry into another art, read a diverse selection of...
Curated OER
Making Poetry Writing Fun!
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...
Curated OER
Poetry and the American Presidents
Fifth graders choose a poetry activity in order to focus their research about American presidents.
Curated OER
Swirling, Twirling, Glistening Jewels... Glass Art In Words
Pupils examine the art form of the glass sculpture. After viewing a three dimensional object, they write creatively describing the object through the use of metaphors. They use peer editing to check for grammatical and spelling errors.
Curated OER
Taxation Without Representation
Eighth graders empathize with how colonists felt when they were taxed without representation. They use a metaphor of students and a school principal to describe the strained relationship that developed between the colonies and Britain.
Curated OER
Essential to Autumn: Line, Shape, Color, Texture, Pattern, Rhythm, Emphasis, Movement, Balance, and Unity
Students explore the environment by learning about nature. In this art lesson, students go on a walk and find objects to help in creating a picture, or collage representing whatever season is being discussed. Students write similes...
Curated OER
China's River Valleys
Students express themselves artistically while learning about China's ancient river civilizations. They are given a Dragon outline that needs to include revelant life of China. Students can do it through words or pictures. Some things...
Curated OER
We Are Unique - Yet Also Alike
Sixth graders compare their lives to trees and make connections between the two, consider how trees are metaphors for people, and draw and label trees to represent themselves. Students then read brief stories, fables or nursery rhymes,...
Curated OER
Slang Ain't the Thang!
Students examine how a speaker uses words and images to express a message. They read a speech written by Sojourner Truth and discuss the purpose and audience, and identify the speaker's tools used in a speech by George W. Bush.
Curated OER
Mobile of Information
Pupils create a mobile of various geometric designs to be usend to display information from a variety of texts. They add graphics as well as graphs and charts, color, design and artwork to express the ideas learned through the different...
Curated OER
Pre-AP Strategies for Spanish Literature
Take a break from vocabulary development and have your Spanish scholars immerse themselves in Spanish culture. What are common Spanish proverbs? In short sessions over the course of a few weeks, the class will learn about different...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Poetic Elements
Poetry is all about sound and rhythm. The sound of the words, the rhythm of the lines, and the emotional atmosphere created by these elements and the literary devices poets use, compress whole stories into a few stanzas. The specialized...
Curated OER
All About Me from A-Z
Use the letters of the alphabet as prompts for autobiographical poems.
Curated OER
Lesson: Allison Smith: What Are You Fighting For?
Trench art is a nontraditional art form created by soldiers in trenches during wartime. Artist Allison Smith connects her art to the American Revolution and the question: "What are you fighting for?" Kids examine her art, how it connects...
La Jolla High School
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: In Search of Figurative Language
While this resource was originally made to be used in conjunction with John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, it could be used for any literary text. A reference sheet for readers, the resource includes terminology related to figurative...
Leadership Challenge
Helping Students See the "Gift" in Feedback
How can you help pupils view feedback as a blessing and not a curse? Lesson seven in a series of 12 character and leadership activities focuses on the S.A.R.A mindset and how to support budding leaders in their journeys toward the...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Poets.org
Love as a Two-way Street
Create an abundance of understanding, as your high school learners learn to analyze multiple love poems. Part one of this resource has learners define what love is, examine art that reflects the love between Robert and Elizabeth...
Shoop English
Literature Terms Activity
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....