Students weigh rights of students and others to free speech versus the responsibilities that come with those rights.

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...

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.

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...

Learners 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, learners attain their speech...

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...

Learners 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...

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. 

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...

What is an idiom? Learners identify and read common idioms. They discuss what idioms are, and are given a black line master embedded in the plan that has 100 common idioms. Next, they complete "The Daily Idiom" worksheet, which is...

Fifth graders discuss hyperbole. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders understand that hyperbole enables writers to make a point by describing something in an overly dramatic way. Students create a list of objects that can be used to...

Animals oftentimes elicit various characteristics which make them symbolic or representative of human feeling, action, or emotion. The class creates horse characters out of clay to show character action and symbolism. This is a great...

Learners listen to headline from National Enquirer or other tabloid, listen to story "Journalism in Tennessee," compare and contrast connections between Twain's idea of journalism with present day journalism, define vocabulary, and...

Tenth graders read I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven. They share interpretations and conclusions in either oral or written form. They deliver a speech that conveys information using clear and concise language.

First graders share and create jokes to promote and enhance reading skills (fluency, emphasis, timing and sight word recognition), acquire vocabulary and recognize homophones. Students read their jokes aloud, concentrating on voice...

Twelfth graders explore the use of oxymorons in everyday speech and writing. In small groups, 12th graders develop a list of common oxymorons they have heard or read to present to the class, and search the Internet for additional oxymorons.

Students examine levels of language difficulty for different audiences. They explore how to simplify texts to suit a younger audience. Students use a thesaurus to find synonyms. Students select a news article to rewrite. They create...

In this vocabulary worksheet, young scholars recall that an abstract noun is a noun that does not have a physical form. Students write a matching abstract noun for a list of twenty adjectives.

What is a homograph? Develop your students' vocabulary with a word association tool.   Language arts classes discover what a homograph is and how it can be used as a visual thesaurus. They discover the other uses for homographs...

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

Students present genres to the class.

Students are given a word bank relating to theater. In this word bank lesson, students are introduced to a list of words and their definitions. Students then build their vocabulary regarding theatrical concepts.

This Teacher Resource from the Kennedy Center helps students examine where and how humorists derive the material presented to their audiences. Activities encourage students to analyze elements of humor and the style of entertainers, and...