Ohio Department of Education
A Glossary of Literary Terms
If you're tired of defining allusion, onomatopoeia, and satire for your language arts students, hand out a complete list of literary devices to keep the terms straight. Each term includes a definition that is easy to understand and...
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Analysis of Character in a Short Story
Ninth graders examine a character from the short story, John Steinbeck's, "Flight." students respond to questions about the story and illustrate the character's journey.
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Comparing Characters Across Two Short Stories
Ninth graders listen to a read aloud of two short stories focusing on literary devices. The write about the settings and realism of the stories, and decide each main character handles the conflict he faces with nature.
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A Sure Bet!
Ninth graders analyze Chekhov's "The Bet". They repsond to a journal quesiton and use examples from the novel. In groups, they take on different roles analyzing the novel and then write one of my prompts to complete the lesson.
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Reading the Movies: Another Approach To Teaching Critical Thinking Skills And Writing
Students explore the elements of film to analyze character, action, and the themes in the movie, "Quiz Show." The activity encourages students to make personal connections and real life applications as they view the movie, critically.
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Bunnicula
Young scholars create a dictionary of vocabulary after reading a story. Individually, they create a story web making sure to include all of the basic story elements. They also create a timeline and write a book report of all important...
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Life's Lessons: Survival of the Fittest
Students analyze Jack London's use of anthropomorphism to identify the importance of adaptability in life. In this literature lesson, students use the novel The Call of the Wild to identify key elements in survival. Students...
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Activity 3: Composing Personal Narratives
What was your most (exciting, maddening, nervous, thrilling, etc.) experience in school? A part of a unit on narrative writing, in this lesson class members review the elements of the form and then choose an event when they learned a...
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The Days of Jane Eyre's Life
High schoolers watch the movie Jane Eyre and complete a viewing log. They take a test on their findings.
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Sequential Order for Holes
In this language arts worksheet, students place events from the book "Holes" into sequential order and answer 7 multiple choice questions about the book. This well-designed worksheet would be an excellent homework assignment or in-class...
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I Hate My Sibling?
Third graders read the book Jacob Have I Loved, then ask themselves whether they can truly hate their siblings.
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How Logical is Garfield?
Third graders analyze comics found in the newspaper for samples of logical, emotional, and ethical appeal. They write a paragraph for each selected comic strip explaining how the comic strip represents the use of logic, emotions, or ethics.
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Up Close and Personal with Black Bayou Lake
Pupils get up close and personal with Black Bayou Lake. Visiting web sites and taking virtual tours, they write multi-paragraph essays using descriptive words and literary devices.
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Building a Literature Pyramid
Students create a literature pyramid. They review and discuss their assessment task and rubric and select the literature for their pyramid. They read the literary selection and complete a pyramid sheet for one of the four literary...
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Fall Similes and Metaphors
Students interpret what a similies and metaphors are. They give examples of similies and metaphors. Pupils write different similies and metaphors using fall or autumn descriptive words. Students base their comparisons on facts, once they...
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A Little Mystery and Intrigue in Writing Short Detective Stories
Students read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...
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Dragonwings
Students engage in a lesson that is concerned with the literature study of Dragonwings. They write about the story from the perspective of a reader that is well informed towards the last chapters. Students also find target vocabulary and...
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Reading Guide: OJ's Final Run and Cirque du OJ
In this reading guide, students define vocabulary and literary terms found in the articles 'OJ's Final Run' and 'Cirque du OJ'. Students also answer comprehension questions based on the reading.
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Voices from the Holocaust: A Message of Hope
Students develop a sense of historical empathy as they discuss The Holocaust and roll play activities designed to highlight prejudice in today's society. In this Holocaust history and The Diary of Anne Frank lesson, students...
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Cyrano De Bergerac: Understanding Drama Through Characterization and Dialogue
Students explore three major dramatic concepts using Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. In this dramatic concepts lesson, students research the concepts of universal theme, characterization, and dialogue using the given text. Students...
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I'm a Little Crab Pot
Third graders read Jacob Have I Loved and explore conflict/ resolution.
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Poetry Book
Learners study the following terms and concepts: word choice, dialect, invented words, concrete terms, abstract terms, figurative and sensory language. In cooperative groups, they select three of the terms, research them, and pick poems...
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News Poetry
Third graders select a small item in a newspaper and then dramatize it in a well-constructed poem. They share their poems with the class.