CCSS ELA Standard: 8.L.5

Dust can mean “remove dust” but also “add more dust!”

When I see a quote, I often think, “That’s not quite right!”

Can your students match multiple meanings of the same five words?

Can your students match multiple meanings of the same five words?

Can your students match multiple meanings of the same five words?

Let’s make this simile about a strong uncle even more specific.

Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.

Start with a basic simile. Now make it more specific. Now even more. Watch how much better writing gets with each round.

Now let’s try the Path Cipher – a cipher that mixes things up even more than Zig Zag did.

Look closely at Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Two sets of idioms related to numbers.

Five sets of idioms related to birds (and bugs).

Five sets of five idioms, all related to body parts!

Five sets of five idioms, all related to food.

Look closely at Twilight in the Wilderness. What do you notice? Now turn those details into a poem you didn’t know you could write.

Does the antonym of an antonym bring us back to the same meaning?

Let’s start with “As cold as fire.”

What if we started a sentence with the simile?

Your students will turn the iconic painting The Scream into a vivid, sensory poem.

Rather than just demand that students “write clearly,” we’ll explore the hazards of poorly written sentences… and maybe create one of our own!

When students learn about alliteration, it’s hard to steer them away from goofy tongue-twisters. Certainly, there must be more powerful and practical ways of using alliteration. In this lesson, I draw on delicious examples from Shakespeare to show how a very advanced writer used alliteration. Then, I break those ideas down so students can try them out.

Can students spot similes vs metaphors?

Why do we say ‘break a leg’? Five themed sets of idioms your students will actually remember.

So, which is happiest: happy, joyful, or ecstatic? Which is most temporary?

How can one idea pull in opposite directions, being both true and false or right and wrong at the same time? It’s time to explore Paradoxes!

We’ll start with the cliché “as cold as ice” and go somewhere much more interesting.