K12 Reader
Acceptance Speech
"I'd like to thank the members of the academy . . ." Kids craft an acceptance speech in which they identify what the award is for, their qualifications, and how they feel about being the recipient.
Curated OER
Figures of Speech Quotes and Examples
Providing several examples of figures of speech, such as irony, paradox, and personification, this presentation could complement your lecture on pragmatic humor or humor in writing. Examples from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in...
Curated OER
Rights And Responsibilities: Debating Free Speech, Responsibility And Censorship on Campus
Students weigh rights of students and others to free speech versus the responsibilities that come with those rights.
Curated OER
Language Acquisition
Detailing the stages of language, sound, word, and grammar acquisition for babies, this presentation is a great addition to a lecture that focuses on how the English language is developed in small children. Additionally, the slideshow...
Curated OER
What Makes Jokes Funny?
Explore how language is used for comic effect. Middle schoolers determine which of the three formulas for jokes (double meanings, unexpected outcome, humorous mental image) make each of 18 classic, corny examples funny. They complete a...
Curated OER
Mad About Parts of Speech
Eighth graders review and use the different parts of speech using Mad Libs or Web Libs. They also utilize creative writing skills by providing the most interesting word(s) for the story line. They utilize worksheets imbedded in this plan.
Curated OER
Editorial Cartoons
Do your classes love reading and drawing cartoons? Middle schoolers read an editorial cartoon from a newspaper. They discuss the cartoonist's topic, audience, and purpose. Next, they brainstorm questions they have about the cartoon and...
Curated OER
Visual Puns - Paper Mache Sculpture
Explore the pop art movement and create a sculpture in the pop art style based on a visual pun, or play on words. The scholar's work may use humor, allegory, metaphor, or be in the form of a parody. Visual examples are provided, and some...
Curated OER
Teaching Grammar Without the Hammer: Five Fun Activities
There are five lessons on teaching grammar here for you to peruse. Two of them work well for kindergartners; one on teaching synonyms and one on teaching parts of speech by reading Tall Tales. These lessons are especially engaging and...
Curated OER
Idioms: Get the Ball Rolling
Based on books written by Fred Gwynne, particularly A Little Pigeon Toad, this resource connects the language of idioms and figures of speech with visuals that make explicit the often humorous connections between the literal and...
Curated OER
Linguistic Humor and Language Play
By George, there are so many literary devices illustrated here! Help your pupils create interest in their writing by presenting one or two of these literary devices at a time. The slides contain examples and beg participation from the...
Curated OER
Speech Therapy Students Interact Between Schools
Students use technology to improve their communication skills and have the ability to interact with other speech students attending other elementary schools. Through riddles, games, and other activities, students attain their speech...
Curated OER
English Expressions Quiz: Online
An online worksheet provides opportunities to assess comprehension of 10 common adages like "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" or "Variety is the spice of life." Learners complete a multiple choice quiz (and can check their...
Curated OER
Irony in "The Gift of the Magi"
Use O. Henry's ubiquitous tale of love and poverty to explore irony. After reading the story, middle schoolers identify examples of all three kinds of irony in the story. With partners, they brainstorm original examples of irony. Then...
Curated OER
Synonyms - How Authors Make Comparisons
A very good 13-slide presentation on similes and metaphors is here for you. It introduces young poets to each term, gives examples, and prompts them to work together to identify similes and metaphors in several different sentences.
Curated OER
Synonyms
Similes and Synonyms are the focus of this language arts presentation. After being introduced to similes and how they work, young writers practice writing similes about the sun by using phrases such as, "The sun is like a golden ring...
Curated OER
Vacation Destination
Students participate in a role play where they are travel agents and must sell their assigned state to the rest of the class. They collect and present information in persuasive speeches to make their fellow students want to take a...
Curated OER
Eliminate Weak Verb-Adverb Combinations
Encourage your writers to use sob instead of cry loudly to trade in adverbs for strong verbs. Improve your middle and high schoolers' writing with this humorously written lesson which demonstrates how to remove excessive adverbs.
Curated OER
Compound Sentences
Here’s a quick review of compound sentences and how to create them. Your middle schoolers might not see the humor in the sample sentences, but older viewers certainly will.
Curated OER
Computer Language
A thorough and engaging slideshow presentation discusses all things computer, from artificial intelligence programs to text messaging lingo. Computer science students will get a kick out of the examples for ELIZA, Otto Jesperson's...
Scholastic
The Class Election from the Black Lagoon Storia Teaching Guide
One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black Lagoon. In...
K12 Reader
Collective Nouns: Animal Match
Discover the collective nouns of 10 animals with a worksheet that asks scholars to match a singular noun to its corresponding plural form.
K12 Reader
Create a Collective Noun
A learning exercise requires scholars to think up 10 collective nouns for singular words such as snowflakes, cups, basketballs, and more.
Curated OER
Regional and Social Dialects
Both humorous and fascinating, dialects of the English language are a never-ending source of cultural studies in America. This presentation details characteristics and vocabulary of Eastern U.S. dialects, Southern dialects, and Western...