A scavenger hunt would work great to practice literary genres, not just the big ones like novels, short stories, and poems, but also the more specific ones like historical fiction, science fiction, and so on. This one is especially easy. Just give each kid or group a list of the terms and set them loose to browse the classroom library and bookshelves in search of examples.
Kids working together in groups can gain a good understanding of what certain literary terms really mean by helping each other with definitions and examples. Demonstrating what they have discovered to the whole class shows a further level of understanding.
8th grade lesson plans for literary terms
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Any good story, and many good informational titles, will include examples of a number of literary terms. One nice follow-up activity after any whole class story is to have students search the story for examples of whichever literary terms are prominent in that story.
One group of literary terms that many classes start with in the beginning of the year is story elements. Here is one idea for a student writing project that incorporates the ideas of character, setting, plot, conflict, resolution, and theme. This project, in which students plan and then write a story, could be done as a whole class or in small groups. Here are the steps:
Are you're looking for a literary devices lesson plan? This literary terms lesson covers seven literary terms related to poetry and other literature. This lesson plan on literary terms is appropriate for students in the upper elementary or middle school grades.
Verify how well students have mastered the literary terms covered in this lesson plan by assigning the practice questions below. Add these practice questions to a blank document to create a worksheet. You can use this as homework or an in-class activity. Check student work using the answer key below.
The literary devices discussed in this lesson provide students with a great introduction to literary devices, though there are many more types of literary devices. Once students have mastered these, consider exploring examples of foreshadowing. From there, move into examples of analogy.
Freytag's Pyramid is a tool for mapping plot structure, which allows readers to visualize the key features of stories. Students whose experience with text is limited have internalized the pattern described by Freytag's Pyramid through oral storytelling and television viewing. They need help seeing that the patterns they are familiar with are the same ones writers use to construct a short story, play, or novel. This lesson plan provides a basic introduction to Freytag's Pyramid and to the literary element of plot. After viewing a brief presentation about plot structure, students brainstorm the significant events in a story with which they are all familiar and place those events on Freytag's Pyramid. They work in small groups to map the plot of another story. For homework, they map the plot of a favorite television show. Finally, they apply their knowledge of Freytag's Pyramid to map the plot of a narrative poem.
Write literary terms on the board. You will need one for each student. Yes, there are enough literary terms: plot, setting, exposition, mood, theme, tone, character, conflict, 5 types of conflict, point of view, three types of point of view, dramatic, verbal, and situational irony, suspense, foreshadowing, alliteration, synecdoche, personification, metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, meiosis, rhythm, meter, voice, style.....Pronounce each term and have students repeat it.
Assign one term to each student.
On a clear slice of paper, each student will design a poster. The poster will have the term at the top with its definition below. The middle of the paper will have a visual representation--picture or symbol--that represents the term along with a written example from a piece of literature familiar to the class.
Instruct students to extract a slice of notebook paper and copy the terms. Leave enough room to take notes next to each word.
Everything should be removed from desks except the literary term poster, the notes paper, and a writing instrument.
Every 45 seconds, shout pass. Students will pass their paper to the next designated person. Each student will have 45 seconds to study each literary terms poster. Once the term has made it around the room, stop.
Instruct students to make any corrections on any poster.
Do the activity in part one of this series.
Give a quiz the next day and boast how great you are at teaching to different learning styles and how you deserve a raise and a vacation in the Dominican Republic!
ELA Common Core Standards CoveredAmaze your administrator by teaching literary terms to different learning styles. Here are some ELA Common Core Standards to cement your raise.
Are you introducing poetry to your students? One of the best ways to teach poetry is to explore the structure of the poem. These structures are also known as the elements of poetry. The basic elements of poetry include meter, rhyme, scheme, verse, and stanza. In order to dive deeper into poetry, students will first need to understand these structural elements. In this blog post, you will learn strategies for teaching poetry and ideas for your elements of poetry lesson plans.
Drama Works! Companion Book of Lesson Plans by Jonas Basom contains the 150 printed lesson plans from Drama Works! Online. The lessons include more than 1200 activities in total, including variations for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Using the 65 indexes in the back, the teacher can quickly look up lessons by 25 drama skills, 12 theatre categories, 11 school subjects, 11 learning styles, and 6 age/grade level groups (preschool to college). The book also includes the glossary of theatre and literary terms with definitions.
The companion book allows the user to save time and money by not needing to print from Drama Works! Online. It provides offline access to the lessons without a computer and without needing to login. The teacher or substitute has instant access to complete lesson plans ready to read and lead. The lessons were designed to align with the National Core Arts Standards, Texas theatre standards (TEKS), and Common Core ELA.
W= By the end of the lesson, students will have read and comprehended a story written with complex word choice and sentence structure. Students will understand the impact of literary devices such as personification, symbol, simile, and setting on a story.
T=This lesson can be tailored to various reading levels by allowing students able to read the text independently to do so; reading aloud to other students or utilizing an audio version for struggling readers; using an adapted version of the story for readers significantly below grade level.
O=This lesson is organized using before, during, and after reading activities to help students approach the text. Prior to this lesson, students would already have used student-friendly definition formulas, defined literary terms and plot elements and discussed their use in poetry, and gained relevant background knowledge on the author's life. Following the reading of this story, students would read one or two more stories with guidance from the teacher before reading and responding independently to a story. This technique scaffolds their ability to read complex texts independently.
Teacher and student supports include selection summaries in Spanish, English, Haitian Creole, and Brazilian Portuguese, plus multilingual glossaries of literary and informational terms in 10 languages.
I totally agree and know that students spend entirely too much time with level one identification of literary terms. However, students have to learn these terms before they can rigorously apply this knowledge to a text and make meaning.
I'm going to politely disagree with this author. As a writer, how can you use literary elements in your writing if you cant identify them? As an artist, we all learn the basic discipline specific language so that we can have technical conversations about the art and it's meaning. Without an understanding of that terminology along with application beyond a multiple choice test, I can't really expect any deep conversations with students about authors craft. As a student, I may make a claim that has nothing to do with literary terminology or devices, but I may use those devices as support to make my claim. That language is a gateway to access deeper conversation in literature. That access is especially important for students with lower socioeconomic economic status. I've had the same issues with teaching grammar. If we don't teach terms like subject and predicate, how can we teach parallelism. In regards to standardized testing, I hope as English professionals we would be teaching skills beyond what testing asks of them. Getting a 5 on an AP test has little to do with a true understanding of great writing.
If we chose to ignore teaching students about literary devices, what would then be the use of critical analysis when pertaining to a novel study and the simple task of being able to make sense of the story and its purpose? Like I say to my students before every lesson involving critical analysis; we use analysis everyday whether it be while driving, playing a sport or creating a work of art. Without analysis, we would be a jump first and think afterwards type of society. The world would be a different place without something so basic. Something to think about.
Hi Christina,I have spent the afternoon thinking about how to teach literary terms and looking for related teaching materials.I was relieved to find your webpage and your approach to teaching literary terms as it is action-based rather than theory-based. Great job! 2ff7e9595c
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