Lesson Plan
National Endowment for the Humanities

A “New English” in Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart”: A Common Core Exemplar

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Similes and Metaphors: An Interactive Review

For Teachers 7th
Get your pupils' attention with this lesson plan on similes and metaphors, which features two poems by Tupac Shakur. A SMART board presentation guides them through the lesson plan, which includes a BrainPop activity (linked). After they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Inferences While Identifying Similes and Metaphors

For Teachers 5th
Use this lesson to study similes and metaphors and the inferred meaning. For this language arts lesson, 5th graders write their own similes and metaphors. A worksheet is provided for extension work or to check understanding as homework.
Lesson Plan
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Scholastic

Quick as a Cricket Lesson Plan

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd Standards
Teaching young learners about similes is easy as pie with this primary grade language arts lesson. Following a class reading of the children's book, Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, young readers learn the definition of a simile...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Matthew Henson

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Discuss the work of Matthew Henson, an African American who traveled to the North Pole with Robert Peary. After reading the story "Matthew Henson" by Maryann N. Weidt, learners answer questions by drawing inferences and conclusions,...
Lesson Plan
Roald Dahl

The Twits - The Glass Eye and the Frog

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
What do a pair of stinky socks and a toy hamster have in common? The third instructional activity in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl uses silly objects to teach about figurative language. Zany pranks...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Similes and Metaphors

For Teachers 5th
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....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

When Turtle Grew Feathers

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students explore the Choctaw Native American tribe.  In this cross curriculum literacy and U.S. history lesson, students locate where the Choctaw Indians lived on a United States map.  Students listen to When Turtle Grew...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Lucky Break

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Explore idioms with a chicken theme! Consider doing these activities prior to Thanksgiving, as there's a section about wishbones! First your youngsters will match a short list of idioms with their meanings. Then, give each learner the...
Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Ballad

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young balladeers analyze examples of ballads and generate a list of common traits (story, quatrains, rhyme schemes, refrains, etc.), then identify these traits in Robert W. Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and a ballad written by...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Microsoft Word - Similies

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders complete an attached simile worksheet. The teacher models the activity on a LCD screen. They then open a simile template in the correct folder on Microsoft word. They insert similes, spell check their work, and then...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

It's Raining Cats and Dogs! Literary Devices and Figurative Language

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Third and fourth graders study literary devices and figurative language. They view a PowerPoint presentation (which you must create) to review hyperbole, idiom, simile, and metaphor. They read and discuss the book There's A Frog in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Metaphorical Poetry

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders read and discuss poems by Jewel., Sylvia Plath, and Langston Hughes They examine poems for examples of metaphors and similes. After discussing Jewel's poem Lost, they write their own poems. They hold a poetry reading in...
Unit Plan
Gwinnett County Public Schools

Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Getting to Know Esperanza (Chapter 2: “Las Uvas/Grapes”)

For Teachers 5th Standards
Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core designed instructional activity draws on material from the...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Contrasting Two Settings (Chapter 6: "Lost Melones/Cantalouples")

For Teachers 5th Standards
Continue working through Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, by looking into language choices and discussing text-dependent questions. Pupils converse in small groups and as a class about plot, setting, and figurative language. Using...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Inferring About Characters Based on How They Respond to Challenges (Chapter 3: "Las Papayas/Papayas")

For Teachers 5th Standards
Start off your day with a quick reading comprehension quiz about chapter three of Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan. After they complete the quiz, pupils participate in a discussion and look closely at the text. A strong Common Core...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Characters Changing Over Time (Chapter 10: "Las Papas/Potatos")

For Teachers 5th Standards
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...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Understanding Themes in Esperanza Rising

For Teachers 5th Standards
Determining a theme or central idea is greatly emphasized in the Common Core standards. Target that skill though big metaphors and central symbols in Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising. Help your class reach the standard through...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Grade 11 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 15

For Teachers 11th Standards
Scholars continue reading Act 3.1 from Shakespeare's Hamlet, discovering Ophelia's monologue about Hamlet. They complete a Quick Write to analyze Ophelia's perspective of Hamlet and participate in an optional jigsaw activity to explore...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How To Identify Figurative Language

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students investigate writing techniques by analyzing a chart. In this figurative language activity, students define similes, metaphors and identify the difference between them and personification. Students demonstrate their understanding...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Language of Surprise

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Aspiring writers complete and discuss fill-in-the-blank cliché expressions, define cliché as a form of predictable writing, take cliché expressions and turn them into new, unpredictable ones, read poetry that illustrates writer's use of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Troublesome Word Rap

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Create songs and raps to develop an understanding of the proper use of common misused words and homophones. First, your class defines misused words and homophones correctly by utilizing the words in a rap or song. Then they use...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Figurative Language iMovie

For Teachers 5th
In order to understand figurative language, learners read 5 poems, each exemplifying a different literary device. They discuss and write responses to each poem. They then choose one literary device which they will use as the basis...