Tone and Mood are not synonymous! Introduce young readers to these literary devices with a series of exercises that not only point out the significant differences between the terms but also shows them how to identify both the tone and...

Twelfth graders get to know each other in an energetic, interactive learning space.

Seventh graders discuss how important words are in communicating experiences. They eat different kinds of fruit and notice, with their senses, different aspects about the fruit. They write a poem describing a visceral experience.

Students explore the Spanish words for family members. They identify family members in Spanish and say the words for where people live. Students explore how say where people are from and they describe a family member in a poem.

As part of their reading of The Hobbit, readers create a biopoem for one of Tolkien's characters.

Intended for native Spanish speakers, this plan provides an opportunity to create a class semantic web describing the different seasons and listen to Vivaldi's "Four Seasons." Learners will work together to revise their semantic webs,...

Students use tempera paints to create blots. They use the blots as inspiration for poetry writing by brainstorming and organizing all words they associate with the blot. They present their poetry along with their inspiration.

Students investigate the performance aspect of poetry by reading, writing and discussing poetry pieces.

Students explore the Earth's various biomes and ecosystems using Internet research. They create a multimedia poem using the photos, sounds, and vocabulary from their research.

High schoolers, in pairs, write descriptive poems of selected images of The Tempest using vocabulary from a word bank. They pass the poems only to other groups and then they attempt to draw an image solely based on the poem.

High schoolers create found poetry using lines from hip hop songs and Shakespeare's plays. They try to rewrite the words to music so that more people can explain Shakespeare's plays. They discuss the results of the activity.

Students discuss words that represent the "big ideas" in Othello and that recur throughout the play. They will be assigned words to track throughout the text, recording which character says the word and in what context.

Students define literary terms and answer short answer questions about poetry.  In this poetry starter lesson, students discuss the importance of titles, first and last lines, sounds, and speaker.  Students define a set of...

Students interact, answer questions, and extend the story plot. They write a Haiku or basic poetry with their words, name characters, create a new ending for a story, and write a new story with one of the characters.

Small groups read assigned chapters from the book, Letters to Rifka, then work together to fill out comprehension worksheets associated with their chapters. This fine, 13-page lesson plan culminates with each group getting together to...

Students research the historical inspiration for the lyrics of the "The Star Spangled Banner". They explore websites, read articles and analyze poetry in an examination of America's patriotic symbols and history.

This mini-lesson on onomatopoeia introduces the device through a poem and definition. It culminates in drawing an element of nature with the sound associated with it written across the picture.

As part of their study of Out of the Dust, readers create a biopoem for one of the characters in Karen Hesse's 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel.

Students create a variety of poems based on information they gather about the worldwide landmine crisis. They create shape poems, diamante poems and acrostic poems. This is a very nice lesson on poetry, with a strong tie-in to the issue...

Poetry is a wonderful way to explore language, express topical understanding, and incite creative thinking. After a trip to the local natural history museum (or zoo), learners write an acrostic or a cinquain poem describing one of their...

What makes a culture unique? Learners research life in the Appalachia region of the United States. Poetry, music, and oral history create Affrilachia, the term used to describe the lifestyle of the area. African-American mountain culture...

Students write "Guess Who?" poems in a descriptive manner. They listen to the poems as they are read aloud and try to guess who the poem belongs to.

Students create a poem that expresses the physical and emotional turmoil of living through the Dust Bowl.  In this Out of the Dust lesson, students research facts about the time period and discuss the cause-effect patterns...

Students use poetry Cinquain to help review nouns, adjectives, verbs, and synonyms. They follow up by composing their own Cinquain.