Looks like? Sounds like? Smells like? Feels like? Tastes like? Sometimes a white, blank, soulless piece of paper can intimidate writers. Provide potential poets with this template that can serve as a parking lot for words and phrases to...

This instructional activity about writing can be taught in small groups or large group settings. They examine basic writing techniques and practice using them to improve their writing.

The Tanka, another fix from of Japanese poetry, is featured in the final exercise in a 10-part series of poetry writing activities.

Elementary schoolers read many tall tales. They create their own tall tale about a specific event of their choosing. They must act the part of the author. This well-designed instructional activity takes three class sessions to complete,...

Ask your pupils to explore the sounds, forms, and language of poetry by putting together a portfolio of their own work. In a binder, learners collect the poems listed on the second page of the assignment sheet. Each individual creates a...

Present your class with an overview of poetry-related information. The slides are clearly organized by topic, starting with reading poetry, ending with myths, and touching on everything from the five senses to open and closed forms of...

Students are introduced to similes and read various examples. Then students write their own similes to describe themselves and share them with the rest of the class.

Eighth graders review literary elements such as simile, metaphor, allusion, plot sequence, allusion, situational irony, and theme. As the class begins, 8th graders discuss childhood memories. Students write a story about their...

Fifth graders discover how figurative language is used in poetry. They read selected poems and identify the figurative language with handouts and worksheets included in the lesson. They write poems of their own using figurative language.

Young scholars study personification and alliteration in various fiction texts. In this literary devices lesson, students use various texts to identify the literary devices of personification and alliteration. Young scholars use examples...

The problem with beards is that they collect a lot of food. The first lesson in an 11-part unit related to The Twits by Roald Dahl explores the hairy jungle that is Mr. Twit's beard. A concluding project has learners create their own...

Students make connections between reading and writing. In this language arts lesson, students explore literary elements as they examine a number of texts and practice implementing figurative language into their writing.

Students explore American social movements. In this writing skills lesson, students read Orwell's "Politics and the English." Students then apply the rules for writing that are included in the piece. Students follow-up by completing a...

For this figurative language worksheet, students read and study examples of simile and metaphor. There are 20 questions to be used with Smartboard and 10 questions in which students identify similes or metaphors.

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...

Jump back into expository writing and analysis at the start of a new school year! Start with a review of an authors' stylistic choices in diction, syntax, treatment of subject matter, and figurative language. Writers choose a text to...

Students develop their own smilies and metaphors. They examine writing of the Poet Laureate. They identify philanthropy in quotations of others.

As part of a study of figurative language Avi uses in his book, Crispin, individuals define the 10 terms listed on the instructional activity and then locate severals examples of each in the text of the novel.

Test the true meaning of giving - and irony - with this lesson about "The Gift of the Magi." Using textual analysis, details, and text organization, middle schoolers make predictions about future events in the story and determine the...

Students use their knowledge of philanthropy and poetic conventions to write original poetry about philanthropic giving. In this philanthropy lesson, students write poetry based on philanthropy using poetic conventions. Students...

After your poets have compiled several written poems into a scrap-book, use this grading scale to explain how they'll be graded. The only guiding explanation of the assignment explains that they need to use two of the five literary...

Young scholars analyze lyrics of their favorite songs as examples of alliteration, metaphor, Onomatopoeia, personification, rhyme, and simile to determine the purpose of these devices in poetry. They use their analysis to create a...

Explore figurative language with your secondary class. Extending a language arts unit, the lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine how an author's word choice establishes a story's tone, possibly using metaphors, similes,...

Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...