Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee  and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write...

What a helpful resource! This presentation could be used to review literary terms in the classroom. Learners view a series of slides defining the meaning of terms, such as personification, imagery, similes, metaphors, and alliteration....

In this poetry writing worksheet, students identify the topic, similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, rhyme scheme, and alliteration in a poem. Students fill out this information in a given diagram.

Need to review literary terms/techniques with your class? The slides in this presentation define and give examples of 22 common literary terms. The PowerPoint could be used for AP test prep.

After a review of poetic terms, groups are given an object and they create a poem using a simile, a metaphor, internal rhyme, end rhyme, alliteration, and personification. Groups then exchange objects and repeat the process. Consider...

I have a pair of ducks; one can’t swim. Viewers are introduced to several literary terms (paradox, oxymoron, pun, irony, etc.) that are defined and illustrated with examples. Then they are asked to identify the figurative language used...

Under construction, this lesson focuses on Canto Familia, a collection of poetry about Gary Soto's experiences growing up in California's Imperial Valley. Representative of the experiences of many Latinos, the poems also address themes...

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...

Have your class practice their comprehension skills using this resource. After reading Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George, learners engage in cause and effect activities, identify story elements and figurative language, and...

Tasking class members to analyze a poem can strike fear into the hearts of many learners. Here's a worksheet that takes the mystery out of the process by providing questions about what to look for in the text and to the devices poets use...

What is 14 lines long, written in iambic pentameter, and follows a predetermined rhyme scheme? Introduce scholars to the sonnet, one of the most famous of the fixed-form types of poetry, with a 10-slide presentation that includes the...

Passport photos are notoriously unflattering but here's an activity that encourages youngsters to create a poetic picture of themselves using each category on the passport as a prompt for a poem.

We carry memories of where we're from; tweens and teens can capture these memories by first listening to several memory poems and then crafting their own. They analyze literary devices other poets use, brainstorm a list of images they...

Students are introduced to similes and read various examples. Then students write their own similes to describe themselves and share them with the rest of the class.

Fifth graders will be able to identify and use prepositions correctly in written work.¿¿¿ They will also be able to identify poetic devices.They will see how their writing can be more descriptive and "visual" for their audience.

Arm your writers with an arsenal of literary terms. With definitions of everything from plot structure and figurative language to point-of-view and types of irony, learners will gain an understanding of elements in stories and be able to...

Hook kids into a study on poetry elements by asking them to bring in the lyrics to their favorite song. Discuss the elements in one or two songs (preferably that demonstrate rhyme, figurative language, or a repeating phrase). Groups do...

Students examine several examples of similes and metaphors, stating what is being compared. Then each student chooses a different person from the Civil War era and writes similes and metaphors that describe that person.

Fourth graders, after brainstorming a list of things good friends do for each other, apply prereading strategies to the book, "Be A Friend to Trees," and create similes and metaphors utilizing content ideas. They also sketch an...

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

"Lucky lady." "Straight as an arrow." Here's a figurative language activity that provides middle schoolers with six examples and asks them to identify the literary device modeled.

To demonstrate their understanding of figurative language, middle schoolers use a guided reading activity to find examples of figurative language in a text, identify the technique being used, and to explain how they were able...

In this writing poems worksheet, students record 10 nouns, then write 2 or 3 verbs next to each noun, and finally write a simile or metaphor that matches the noun and verbs in that row. Students then organize these lines into stanzas to...

In this identifying types of figurative language worksheet, students read sentences and phrases, determine if they are similes, metaphors, hyperboles, personifications, or a combination, identify the type/s and write an explanation of...