Diction Teacher Resources
Diction, or word choice, matters. Words have both denotative and connotative meanings. Words have sound and shape and shades of meanings. And writers consider these factors when crafting their sentences.
Get young writers thinking about the power of words with a writing traits lesson or lay the groundwork for a study of diction with a presentation about the importance of choosing the right words. Here’s a humorous video that stresses the importance of choosing words appropriate for your audience, and kids will get a kick out of staging a funeral for words they overuse in their writing. Banish boring verbs with a handout that list 250 substitutes for went.
What study of diction would be complete without a lesson that looks at the way William Shakespeare’s uses words in a soliloquy from King Henry IV, Part II, while you can engage Star Wars fans with lesson that uses diction and syntax to transform Lucas’s film into a Shakespearean drama.
A key element of ELA CORE, college entrance, and AP exams is the analysis of diction and tone. This presentation is loaded with examples and practice exercises to prepared students for such exams.
Whether new to teaching or an experienced veteran, whether looking for lesson that encourage writers or activities that prepare learners for exams, the teacher-curated resources in Lesson Planet’s collection are designed to support your curriculum needs.
Showing 606 resources
University of Pennsylvania
U. Penn: Notes on "Lyrical Ballads"
This etext is the original notes, preface, and advertisment for the book "Lyrical Ballads," by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Contemporary Literature: Rhetorical Landscape: Rhetoric
This lesson focuses on rhetoric; it defines it, discusses rhetorical devices, and audience appeals. It includes a student assignment to read "Tear Down This Wall" a speech by Ronald Reagan and then use the comment feature in Microsoft...
Yossarian the Grammarian
When "Society" Should Be Replaced by "People": Grammar and Usage
This video lesson from Yossarian the Grammarian explains how decide between using the word "society" and the word "people" when writing or speaking.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Effective Word Choice
This video lesson focuses on effective word choice in writing; it discusses word order, usage, and the need to consider the audience. It explains the need to avoid redundancy and wordiness. It demonstrates how to do this using a student...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Contemporary Literature: Rhetorical Landscape
This is an introduction to a unit on the use of rhetoric in speaking or writing to persuade an audience to the desired way of thinking or action. If focuses on rhetorical techniques and the three audience appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos.
![Carson Newman College: Close Reading of a Literary Passage [Pdf] Unit Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Carson Newman College: Close Reading of a Literary Passage [Pdf] Unit Plan")
Other
Carson Newman College: Close Reading of a Literary Passage [Pdf]
Provides a number of questions that students can ask themselves about a literary passage when doing a "Close Reading" and following this with an organized piece of writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Evaluate Tone in Various Media for Different Audiences & Purposes
This lesson will help you evaluate changes in formality and tone within printed texts written for specific audiences and purposes. It focuses on writing produced during the Great Depression.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: The Power of Simple Words
A fun, playful introduction to using short, simple words when attempting to communicate a point of information. [2:02] W.9-10.2d lang/voc
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise: The Power of Words
Explore the power of words in this media gallery from American Masters. Using video, discussion questions, and teaching tips, students assess the persuasiveness of Maya Angelou's argument that words have power. Students also perform a...
British Library
British Library: Coleridge's Kubla Khan: Composition
This activity, which aims to develop students' understanding of 'Kubla Khan' after completing an initial study of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, will encourage students to make links between the poem and a number of historical sources.
Harvard University
The Harvard Chaucer Page: The High Style
Essay about Geoffrey Chaucer's use of the "high style" in middle English verse, characterized by an elegantly adorned diction reliant upon Latin and French borrowings.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Close Reading of Prose: Practice 2 (English Ii Reading)
Read carefully in order to identify diction, tone, and irony, and evaluate their impact on the meaning of a text.
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: 5.1 Writing About Literature: The Basics
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Learn the basics of how to write about literature by asking subjective and objective questions; use tone, diction, and syntax; identify plot elements, and...
New Zealand Ministry of Education
Nz Ministry of Education: Speech Making
This lesson plan focuses on speech making including watching famous speakers and noting their language choice, diction, body language, pauses, etc. This is followed by group work practicing the "hamburger" method of writing a prepared...
Folger Shakespeare Library
Folger Shakespeare Library: Close Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets
This lesson plan teaches students to consider diction, syntax, literary devices, and rhetorical strategies in doing a close reading of Shakespeare's sonnets.
Louisiana Department of Education
Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts, Grade 9: Hope, Despair, and Memory
This unit teaches students about the importance of hope and remembrance during times of tragedy. Students explore the different ways characters and historical figures have embraced humanity and created civility as a response to...
Grammar Check
Grammar Check:16 Persuasive Writing Secrets & Influential Words (Infographic)
Students will learn tips about persuasive writing from this GrammarCheck infographic. Students will find easy-to-remember steps that will assist students when drafting a persuasive writing piece.
Grammar Check
Grammar Check: 33 Commonly Misunderstood Words & Phrases (Infographic)
This infographic provides a list of words and phrases that are commonly misused in formal writing. Students will see different homonyms that are misused and find ways to discover them.
TES Global
Tes: Yr 5 Poetry Unit 1 a Poetic Style
[Free Registration/Login Required] This learning module engages students in analyzing different poems. A poetry unit overview, a poetry checklist, figurative language notes, sixteen poems and graphic organizers are included to help...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Understanding and Analysis of Literary Text: Meter and Rhyme
OnTRACK English II Reading, Module 3, Lessons 1-12, and Practice Lessons 1-3. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of poetry, drama, fiction, and literary non-fiction, and provide...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: "Knot" the Whole Truth
The writer will analyze and discuss the tall tale format after reading Jerry Spinelli's tale of Cobble's Knot, told in Chapter 20 of Maniac Magee. Then writers will need to create an interesting character in a special situation which...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Your Own Faraway Place
In this lesson, learners will build background by hearing an excerpt from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, an excerpt where the main character, Milo, travels to a distant land that has a distinctive mood: melancholy. Next,...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: I Wanna What?
This lesson is centered on word choice and vocabulary and the book, I Wanna Iguana, by Karen Kaufman Orloff. Young students learn to grasp the difference between begging and persuading and apply this knowledge to their own persuasive texts.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: If You Give a Student an Animal
In this lesson plan, the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin, written by Laura Numeroff, is used as a mentor text for word choice. The content focus of the lesson is to teach the students to take ownership of scientific and descriptive...
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