Your learners already know when they like a story and when they don't, but they may not know that the plots of these stories are shaping that opinion. Like all resources in this series, the two activities and quizzes provided here deal...

They always say to write what you know. This approach is used to get middle schoolers prepared to write novels of their own. Using a favorite book as a model, potential novelists respond to prompts that ask about characters, plot, main...

Focus on complex characters with a lesson from a series that teaches individual skills from the Common Core. Specifically, this resource provides practice with standard RL.9-10.3. Get pupils thinking and talking about characters with the...

Students read and analyze Walt Whitman's poem, "Leaves of Grass." They compare/contrast Whitman's style to artist Takamori's style, and write an original poem about their childhood and fond memories.

Students read and analyze the novel "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou. They discuss the poetry and prose of the book, the importance of role models, complete a worksheet, and write a narrative using figurative language.

In this similes worksheet, 4th graders complete the similes and highlight similes in a poem. Students complete 4 activities on this worksheet.

Students write a poem from the perspective of the first-person persona. Through the words of the poem, demonstrate a higher level of thinking by providing insight to the personality of the poem's speaker, the "I" who is featured in the...

Students examine the use of metaphors in literature. In this literary devices instructional activity, students read poems that feature extended metaphors and compare them to the metaphors used in Don Quixote. Students then try their hand...

Students are introduced to the concepts of similes, metaphors and personification. In groups or individually, they read different poems identifying the similes, metaphors and instances of personification in each. They record all answers...

Students investigate the performance aspect of poetry by reading, writing and discussing poetry pieces.

Tenth graders examine poems by Shel Silverstein and identify literary elements in them. The exercise is part of an examination review about poetic elements. The review concludes with students writing nature poems displaying the devices...

Learners examine the epic poem Beowulf. In this analyzing poetry lesson plan, student compare listen to the Will Smith song "Wild, Wild West" and read Beowulf. Students analyze the song and the poem. Learners then research an influential...

Students examine a primary source document from 1684 that includes many of the same lines found in Romeo's speech to Juliet from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Students compare the texts and discuss authorship during the sixteenth and...

Third graders read and discuss the poem, "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes. After brainstorming examples of vivid verbs, figures of speech, language patterns, and imagery used in the poem, 3rd graders write a poem on a topic of...

Young scholars examine examples of literary terms in poetry. Then they choose two songs, write out the lyrics, and decipher what they think the artist is trying to say. Each student presents their song to the class and they cite examples...

Sixth graders be immersed indirect experiences which are opportunities for students to reflect, look back, debrief or abstract from their experiences what they have felt, and thought, and studied.

Young scholars explore onomatopoeia. They discuss the definition of onomatopoeia. Students brainstorm words that use onomatopoeia and they create a words work to use as a reference for poetry writing.

Fourth graders identify and write their own similes. In this literary devices lesson, 4th graders define and identify similes. The teacher scaffolds the lesson so that all students can write their own similes.

Fifth graders read opening pargraphs in their books and discuss with their peers the meaning of personification. They then identify three instances in the poem "Desert Tortoise" of similarities between humans and animals citing...

High schoolers review what they have already learned about similies and begin to engage with similies on a deeper and more abstract level as they create their own.

Students combine prefixes and suffixes to form nonsense words and sentences in the style of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky."  In this "Jabberwocky" lesson, students brainstorm ways to decode an unfamiliar word and apply these skills...

Students participate in a variety of activities surrounding Rock & Roll music, lyrics, drama and visual art and how they all help demonstrate examples of literary terms. They use Rock & Roll as an effective aid to stimulate their...

Students identify figurative language in a proverb and write an interpretation of the proverb prior to reading The Witch of Goingsnake. In this The Witch of Goingsnake lesson, students read a native American proverb and determine whether...

Elementary learners identify adjectives in sentences. They read the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll and highlight the adjectives. A good supplemental lesson if you are studying Lewis Carroll and/or "Jabberwocky."