Literary Devices Teacher Resources

High schoolers examine the historical and cultural context in Sandburg's poem. The poetic devices of personification and apostrophe are utilized in the poem and identified by Students.

Are the lessons of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar still applicable today? Explore themes, characterization, and plot structure with a thorough teacher's guide to the play. The resource covers the entire text and offers rigorous activities...

Start your language arts lesson with this quick PowerPoint that defines symbolism. Following the definition is a sentence describing the American flag as a symbol to the United States. Tip: After reading these slides, have students write...

Assess your learners on the five themes of geography and the most important key terms and concepts from an introductory geography unit. Here you'll find an assessment with 15 fill-in-the-blank and 14 multiple-choice questions, sections...

High school readers examine George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant" for examples of symbolism, metaphor, connotation, and irony. They analyze how these literary tools convey the writer's main point and contribute to the persuasive...

From Canterbury Tales to The Odd Couple, this presentation details the different treatments of humor in different literary formats. Numerous authors and works of literature are represented here as examples of satire, irony, comedy, and...

Give your class some background information on both Nathaniel Hawthorne and his short story "Young Goodman Brown." Basic themes and characters are introduced, especially as this is an allegory with many symbolic elements. Help your...

Third graders discover the meaning behind dream catchers. In this themes and symbols in art lesson, 3rd graders discuss the meaning of Native American dream catchers. Students use paper plates, beads, and feathers to make the dream catcher.

Students explore a variety of poetry and poetry concepts. They examine figurative language, mood, and literary devices. The students write and recite their own poetry.

In this onomatopoeia worksheet, learners read the directions and examples for this literary device. Students brainstorm, then write some sentences. Finally they write a comic strip using onomatopoeia, and illustrate it.

Students complete a poetry analysis unit. In this poetry analysis lesson, students study poetry by reading, reciting, and analyzing poems and their poets. Students study poetic devices, write their own poems, and complete hands-on...

In this creating poetic devices worksheet, 9th graders create 5 original examples of poetic techniques by listing and defining each term, then illustrating that example;  a list of terms and an example are shown;  a grading...

For this online interactive reading comprehension quiz worksheet, high schoolers respond to 5 multiple choice questions about themes from Doyle's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Students may check their answers on this timed...

In this online interactive symbols quiz worksheet, students respond to 5 multiple choice questions about themes from Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Students may check their answers on this timed quiz.

In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 4 short answer questions about themes from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 4 short answer questions about themes from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 4 short answer questions about themes from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. 

The second module in a series for high school seniors focuses on tracking the central idea of a text across genres and from multiple author and character perspectives. Twelfth graders read a speech by Benazir Bhutto entitled "Ideas Live...

A six-week unit takes high schoolers through various works of African-American literature, including poems, plays, and short stories. The lesson plan format includes a week-by-week description of activities, goals, materials, and...

Explore figurative language with your secondary class. Extending a language arts unit, the lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine how an author's word choice establishes a story's tone, possibly using metaphors, similes,...

What better way to prepare learners for academic success than to administer practice tests? With the Comprehensive Examination in English, scholars read informational and literary texts and answer listening and reading comprehension...

Included in this resource are a variety of activities to do while reading Willa Cather's My Antonia. The activities, which range from mapping out Nebraska to writing activities about pioneer living, are all designed with one...

Eight graphic organizers to choose from? That's right! Each of these organizers relates to writing or reading. From narrowing a writing topic, to responding to literature, to planning a writing project, you'll find many purposes for...

After analyzing the compelling first paragraph of Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Masque of the Red Death," high schoolers draft original opening paragraphs using techniques identified Poe's writing. The relationship between suspense...