Connotation Teacher Resources

Eschew obfuscation!! High schoolers learn techniques that permit them to listen critically, sort through verbiage used to hide meaning or mislead listeners, and determine the message's validity.

Frequently banned, often challenged, a mainstay of middle school curriculum, Tales from the Secret Annex, is the featured text in the seventh unit in the Teacher Guide Core Knowledge Program. The 134-page guide includes an...

English language learners have an opportunity to closely examine the academic language in portions of Nelson Mandela's famous 1964 Court Speech, "An Ideal for Which I Am Prepared to Die," with a activity that looks at key passages from...

"Yuns betta outten the lights!" Colloquial language is the focus of a lesson that asks middle schoolers to consider the pros and cons of using idioms. They read articles, match expressions with their meaning and place of origin, and...

Remember when everything was Fantastic! Fabulous! Awesome! Iconic! A series of activities encourages young writers to move beyond these overused descriptors and instead choose a more precise language.

Did you know that "30-40 percent of all words in English have a related word in Spanish?" This fact launches an interactive study of cognates appearing the same in English and Spanish. Learners demonstrate what they have learned about...

An interactive resource introduces users to dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauri and the significant differences among these reference guides. Users learn which reference is best for which kind of search, examine sample entries from...

High school juniors learn how to construct a strong argument by crafting a claim and using neutral language backed by evidence from reliable sources. To do so, they learn to evaluate sources and evidence to support claims. They then...

Information, inferences, and innuendos. Text and subtext. Class members examine telegrams exchanged between President John F. Kennedy and Alabama Governor George Wallace, studying both what is stated and what is implied by the...

A staggering amount of work went into compiling this vocabulary resource for Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. The overview provides a rationale for the strategy and information about tier 1, 2, and 3 words. The...

Young scholars brainstorm a list of words they use to refer to the elderly. As a class, they discuss the importance of word connotations and explain those used to refer to the older population. They complete a handout and share their...

Students discuss connotative language, hyperbole, allusion, and rhetorical question. In small groups, they read one section of the "Speech to the Virginia Convention" and analyze these devices. Groups present their results to the class.

Young scholars analyze the key elements of poetry using a mnemonic device.  The device: TPCASTT (title, paraphrase, connotation, attitude, shifts, title and theme).

Students research word frequencies in Macbeth and create a frozen picture inspired by a word.  In this Macbeth lesson, students view Blood Will Have Blood and discuss the dual meaning of the word "blood."  Students identify...

Fourth graders recognize that the term "pest" has a social connotation. They distinguish between good pest management practices and poor pest management practice and demonstrate knowledge of the IPM pyramid.

Students examine the title of a book and make assumptions of what words might appear inside. Then the students split the words into categories according to their connotation and compose their own stories based on the title of the book.

Young scholars review connotation and denotation and stylistic devices in poetry. They read the lyrics to a song as it is being played and then discuss the meaning of the song. As a class, students read poems, share their thoughts, and...

Class groups examine conflicting primary and secondary sources describing the 1704 attack on the fort at Deerfield by French and Native Americans and analyze the implications of discrepancies.

Words, words, words. The function of words in persuasive writing is the focus of a group activity that asks members to analyze how words advertisers use are designed to influence targeted audiences.

Especially tricky for language is understanding the line between inappropriate, confrontational, (in)effective, (un)reasonable and diplomatic English. The activities in the resource permit class members to practice...

Line, shape, color, texture, space. The first in a three-part series of lessons intended for advanced theatre arts classes introduces the elements of set design. Class members examine maquettes and analyze how designers have put together...

Is wet damper than soggy? Young grammarians consider shades of meaning by ranking a set of winter adjectives from the weakest to the strongest. 

Life is all about choices and consequences. Using a Cascading Consequences chart, scholars create a visual map of the effects of a particular choice or action related to water management. With their researcher's notebooks and copies of...

Readers examine the rhetorical devices Haley uses in chapter 8 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, paying particular attention to the diction and syntax and how these choices reveal changes in Malcolm X's point of view.