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To Kill a Mockingbird: Chapters 13 & 14
What a great way to study symbols in a text! Give your class some support by offering basic pictures and the page number that is associated with symbols found in To Kill a Mockingbird. Readers analyze the mockingbird, Boo Radley, and...
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It's All an Allusion: Identifying Allusions, in Literature and in Life
To allude, or not to allude, that is the question: whether ‘tis better to make a reference and engage your audience or risk confusing them or sounding dated. After reading an article about, and loaded with allusions, class members take a...
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Metaphors Are Like Similes...Right?
Build the basis for critical thinking by increasing mastery of metaphors, similes, and analogies. Clear up the confusion that often marks lessons on figurative langauge. A very insightful article, full of great links.
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Lesson: More than Brushing my Teeth
Humor can often be found in everyday life. Young analysts critically examine a sculpture and apply what they discuss to their own life experiences. They perform skits of daily activities, such as brushing their teeth. Next, they make a...
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Lesson: A Special Place
Everybody has a special place they like to go. I hang out on top of the fridge, for example. Upper graders analyze the painting Mountain Lake, in terms of technique, style, and imagery. They then write or draw a place that expresses...
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Figures of Speech: Quiz 2
Hyperbole, simile, metaphor, and personification are spotlighted on an online/interactive quiz. Test takers read short passages and then identify the figures of speech used.
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Poetry Notes
Break this presentation into two or three days so as not to overwhelm your kids. Fifty-four slides is a lot of slides, but the PowerShow is well-organized, and terms are defined clearly and illustrated in examples provided. A general...
Media Smarts
Movie Heroes and the Heroic Journey
An exciting twist on the study of the classical hero and the heroic quest! Using film to explore modern-day tales of heroes, the resource contains complete, ready-to-use lesson plans for as many as twelve days of instruction. Throughout...
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Hyperbole!
Learn all about hyperbole with this quick PowerShow presentation. The nine slides are packed full with clear examples, and there are opportunities for the audience to create some examples of their own. It's quick and informative!
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Larger Than Life
Students research the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya and his use of fantasy and allegory in his artwork. After reading either classic or contemporary fantasy stories, they discuss how Goya might have illustrated the stories. Students...
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Literary Terms
Seriously, 93 slides of literary terms? Yes, and well worth the time, although perhaps not all at once. The beauty here is in the concise, easy-to-understand definitions for such well-known terms as imagery and personification, as well...
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Lesson: Living For The City
Both Money and Cummings were able to capture the essence of Paris. Critical thinkers analyze how each artist used his medium to describe the same place in a different way. Kids then write a Cummings-style poem about Monet's Waterloo Bridge.
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Test Review Sheet: Irony, Comma Rules, and Sentence Variety,
Covering vocabulary, literary analysis, and grammar, this learning exercise would be a great study guide or homework assignment for an eighth-grade Language Arts class. Though the five stories by Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry, and Oscar...
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Figurative Language in Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare was such a talented writer, but why? It must be his use of figurative language, blended with his clever, twisting plots. This worksheet focuses on his use of metaphor, simile, personification, oxymoron, and hyperbole within...
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Irony & Foreshadowing in "The Cask of Amontillado"
As your class reads "The Cask of Amontillado," have them search for examples of irony and foreshadowing. In one square, readers record textual evidence, and in an accompanying square, they comment on the quotations. One example is...
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"The False Gems" by Guy de Maupassant
Readers must go beyond the surface level of Guy de Maupassant's story, "The False Gems," to answer the questions on this activity. They must draw inferences, evaluate character's actions, and analyze how irony and symbolism give depth to...
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Personification
Introduce your young scholars to personification. The literary device is clearly defined and illustrated with clever examples. Opportunities for guided and independent practice using poems by Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes are also...
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Satire
The bite of comedy often rests on use of the literary devices detailed in this presentation. The definitions for terms like sarcasm, zeugma, and invective are followed by examples drawn from literature. Consider extending the lesson by...
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Similes & Metaphors
Similes and metaphors are the focus of a 57-slide presentation that your class members should find engaging. Although your learners may find the musical selections dated, the color coding highlights the similes and metaphors found in...
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Alliteration
Students recognize, identify and produce words that begin with the /sp/ sound. They decorate objects that have the /sp/ sound with items that have the /sp/ sound. Students create phrases with the /sp/ sound that describe the object...
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English Skills Assignment 6.205
Study words and word choice with this resource. Although the presentation is overwhelming, several topics are covered here. Alliteration, root words, parts of speech, and word meanings are just some of the topics! There's also a...
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Connotation and Denotation: How Word Choice Affects a Paragraph
Review the terms denotation, connotation, diction, and mood in paragraph writing. After defining the terms, middle schoolers practice writing examples of both connotation and denotation. They complete a connotation and denotation...
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Setting the Tone with Figurative Language
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,...
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Reading Comprehension 4: Level 8
Need a quick but comprehensive reading strategies exercise? Even your most reluctant readers will be engaged by the story of a nuclear reactor explosion at a top-secret Idaho base. After reading the short passage, learners answer nine...