Curated OER
Descriptive Prompt: Precise Language
Incorporate sensory details into a piece of descriptive writing. First, elementary and middle schoolers improve a piece of writing by using precise, vivid language, as well as appropriate word choice. They then listen to a variety of...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - Dirty Beards
The problem with beards is that they collect a lot of food. The first lesson in an 11-part unit related to The Twits by Roald Dahl explores the hairy jungle that is Mr. Twit's beard. A concluding project has learners create their own...
Curated OER
Short Poems Are Scary!
What do all those chairs and pencils do in the classroom once everyone leaves? Allow imaginations to run wild with frighteningly short poems!
Novelinks
The View From Saturday: Concept/Vocabulary Analysis
Design your unit on The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg with a concept and vocabulary analysis resource. It outlines the plot, literary elements, vocabulary issues, and any possible considerations for planning a differentiated...
Curated OER
Reading a Classic Novel
Charles Dickens offers an excellent example of sensory writing in this reading comprehension worksheet. Learners read excerpts from the novel Hard Times in which he describes the New England industrial city of Coketown. They consider why...
Curated OER
Writing Organizers
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...
Tell City Schools
The Cay
Support your instruction of The Cay by Theodore Taylor with this extensive unit of materials. Provided here are prereading activities, worksheets and discussion questions for the entire book, and reading quizzes that you can use to check...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - The Wormy Spaghetti
What do spiders' legs and an octopus's eyeball have to do with metaphors? The fourth lesson plan in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl uses disgusting foods to teach about metaphoric writing.
Curated OER
How To Identify Figurative Language
Students investigate writing techniques by analyzing a chart. In this figurative language lesson, students define similes, metaphors and identify the difference between them and personification. Students demonstrate their understanding...
Curated OER
Chalkboard Challenge: Literary Terms
This interactive PowerPoint simulates a "Jeopardy" game that addresses figurative language, cause and effect, and other literary terms. Players can chose which category and amount they would like to play on the Game Board.
Curated OER
Similes and Metaphors
Reward your class with tasty treats while teaching them about simile and metaphor. After a teacher demo and explanation of simile and metaphor, pupils read books, looking for examples of these literary devices and copying them down....
Curated OER
Lots of Lessons from Aesop
Aesop’s Fables offer young learners an opportunity to study figurative language. After reviewing theme, simile, alliteration, and metaphor, model for your pupils how to identify examples of these devices in the fable. Class members then...
Curated OER
Reading the Play
Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...
E Reading Worksheets
Poetic Devices Finder
Track the poetic elements in any text with a guided reading worksheet. Kids note examples of consonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition, rhyme, and rhythm when reading a poem or story, and provide a short explanation as to why...
EngageNY
Characters Changing Over Time (Chapter 10: "Las Papas/Potatos")
Engage further in Esperanza Rising with a focus on close reading and metaphor. Class members zero in on the tenth chapter, examining characters and big ideas. Pupils discuss the text in small groups and as a whole class, and participate...
Curated OER
Similes and Metaphor
Use photography to inspire similes and metaphors. Kids rifle through magazines and pictures you've brought to use them as inspiration. They choose two and create a metaphor or simile to accompany their display. Consider hanging these on...
Curated OER
Edward Lear, Limericks, and Nonsense
Introduce your class to the delights of nonsense poetry and explore literary devices with the writing of Edward Lear. Learners identify rhyme and meter as well as figures of speech, alliteration, and onomatopoeia in "The Owl and the...
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Savvy by Ingrid Law
Literature circles give learners a chance to explore a novel in a unique way. An educator's guide for the book Savvy uses literature circles as part of the novel study. Additional activities cover elements of figurative language and...
Curated OER
Metaphors, Similes and Expressions
“Her cutting words were weapons that inflicted wounds upon my soul.” Figurative language is the focus of a worksheet that asks learners to underline the figurative language used in each example, and then to label each phrase as a...
Joel Michel Studies
The Swiss Family Robinson: Novel Study
What items would most people want to have with them if they were stranded on a desert island? Using the novel study for The Swiss Family Robinson, scholars attempt to answer the question from their own perspectives. They also explore...
Building Background Knowledge: Learning About the Historical and Geographical Setting of Esperanza Rising
Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed lesson plan outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and focus on the...
Library of Congress
A Selection of Stories from The Æsop for Children
Read and incorporate a variety of Aesop's Fables into a fable genre study with an eBook produced by the Library of Congress. The interactive eBook contains 146 fables written by Aesop and includes colorful interactive illustrations by...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Words in Context, Pun Fun
Scholars explore a variety of texts to locate wordplay. Partners read their selections and discuss meanings.
Curriculum Corner
Academic Reading Vocabulary
From A to Z, learners define, draw, and find examples of specific reading focus skills in an alphabetized reading vocabulary packet. Words include dialogue, theme, text structure, genre, paraphrase, and many more.