National Humanities Center
Teaching Emily Dickinson: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar
Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for The Odyssey by Homer
A 15-page packet details three activities designed to engage scholars in Homer's The Odyssey. As they read, pupils use a graphic organizer to record examples of several literary terms found in The Odyssey and contemporary culture. Groups...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
7th Grade Poetry: Ode Poem
Walt Whitman's "Captain, My Captain" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" provide seventh graders with examples of odes. After reading and discussing these and other examples, young poets craft an ode and respond to the ode of a...
Curated OER
Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
Curated OER
Literary Analysis of The Minister's Black Veil
After reading The Minister's Black Veil, by Nathaniel Hawthorne as a homework assignment your class will complete a literary analysis. Learners will analyze important element of the story and take notes to help support their essays....
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.4
The fourth standard for reading literature in the Common Core calls for young readers to be able to determine the figurative and connotative meanings of words and phrases. Use this resource, a continuation of a series of Common Core...
Curated OER
Pictures in Words: Poems of Tennyson and Noyes
Students examine how Tennyson and Noyes use words to paint vivid pictures. They read and analyze two poems, complete an online scavenger hunt, complete a worksheet, and write examples of alliteration, personification, metaphor, simile,...
Curated OER
The Coin and the Fable: Alaska quarter reverse
An Alaskan quarter and a book of fables is what you'll need to start this lesson. Learners will use the image of the bear and the salmon found on the reverse side of the Alaskan quarter as inspiration. They will compose a fable about the...
Curated OER
Animal Diaries
Launch this lesson with Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm! Discuss the format and content of a diary, and ask learners if they've ever kept a diary before. Then, after an introductory discussion, have learners choose an insect or another...
Curated OER
Flora and Fauna as Figures of Speech
What a lovely way to incorporate artwork into your language arts lesson plan. View artwork in illustrated manuscript pages, depicting insects, animals, plants, flowers, and ornate writing in the Getty Museum. Practice using figurative...
Curated OER
Poetry Project
Choosing a poet or a theme, eighth graders conduct research in the world of poetry. They conduct Internet research and select five poems that fit their poet or theme, and create a seven slide PowerPoint presentation on their selected...
Curated OER
Fabulous, Fractured Fables
Elementary schoolers develop an awareness of the literary form known as the fable. They explore how authors write fables to pass along moral lessons. After reading and discussing many famous fables embedded in the plan, learners attempt...
Reed Novel Studies
Fourth Grade Rats: Novel Study
Things sure change in year's time. Suds, from Fourth Grade Rats, went from a third grade angel to a fourth grade rat! Although he is not necessarily happy with his new self, he worries he will lose his popularity. Learners complete...
Reed Novel Studies
Lawn Boy: Novel Study
A mountain of grass becomes a mountain of cash in the case of a young entrepreneur in the novel Lawn Boy. Arnold, a main character, begins a lawn mowing business and meets a stockbroker client that helps me manage his money. Scholars...
Curated OER
Apples Personified
Students write a creative writing piece by personifying apples. In this creative writing lesson, students view a PowerPoint about the writing process and brainstorm about apples. Students write a rough draft about their apple and peer...
Curated OER
"Black Boy"
Students read a series of sentences and decide what literary term is being shown. They also discuss a novel about prejudice.
Curated OER
Symbolic Poem
Students read and analyze several highly symbolic poems. They create their own symbolic poem, read it to the class, and discuss whether they can guess any hidden meanings.
Curated OER
Writing a poem
Students imagine themselves someplace -- the beach, a mountain top, a city street -- anywhere.
Curated OER
My Candle
This is probably my students' favorite writing assignment. They obviously tell their friends about it, because every year my ne
Curated OER
Folktale Unit Outline
Seventh graders analyze grammatical structures and identify literary elements in a variety of texts. Through the genre of folktales, ancient or indigenous cultures are studied.
Curated OER
Literary Elements and Vocabulary: Mini Quiz
Readers match five literary terms -- personification, narrator, tone, dialogue, foreshadowing -- with their definitions. They also spell, identify the part of speech, define, and write a creative sentence for each of five dictated words....
Curated OER
Dog With Personified Newspaper in Mouth (Coloring)
For this coloring worksheet, 2nd graders are given a line drawing of a silly dog with a newspaper in its mouth. The newspaper has eyes and hands; the worksheet can be used as a prompt for an essay on personification, or perhaps a starter...
Curated OER
Identifying Figurative Language
Students explore Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this figurative language lesson, students locate similes, metaphors, and examples of personification in their reading. Students write down the page numbers of each example for future...
Curated OER
Conversing with an Object
Students analyze museum artifacts and create conversations between these inanimate objects using prior historical knowledge. In this museum artifact lesson, students create theoretical dialogue between historical artifacts in order to...