a freely available textbook to learn language power techniques, such as metaphor, doublespeak, pronoun choice, and name-calling, and associated grammar, such as basic sentence structure, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and determiners. The book is for use in language arts, grammar, rhetoric, and English instruction at the high school, community college, and university levels, as well as by private individuals and groups.

Students will learn how descriptive words make stories clearer and more interesting to read.

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

People often say that mankind should learn from history. Charles Dickens, whose books are considered classics, set his novel A Tale of Two Cities in the past. He wanted his readers to learn from the bloody French Revolution and from the widespread brutality in London. Both cities (Paris and London) offer the reader a glimpse into dark and dangerous times. As students read about Dickens's Victorian setting and learn his view of the French Revolution, they will think about what makes a just world. Students will have a chance to think about their own experiences, and, using techniques they have learned from Charles Dickens, they will do some writing that sends a message about your own world.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

To complete the unit accomplishments, students will:

Read the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities.
Read several short pieces, including a biography of Dickens and excerpts from other literature, to help them understand Dickens’s world and the world of the novel.
Explore new vocabulary to build their ability to write and speak using academic language.
Practice close reading and participate in several role plays and dramatic readings to help them experience the dramatic writing style of Charles Dickens.
Write a vignette and a short narrative piece, and practice using descriptive detail and precise language.
Write a reflection about the meaning of Dickens’s novel.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How does good storytelling affect the reader, and how can a good story promote change in the world?
What was the Victorian view of gender roles?
How can power be abused?
What is loyalty ? What are the limits of loyalty?

In this lesson, students will focus on grammar as it relates to this section of A Tale of Two Cities.

This is a SoftChalk lesson reviewing the figurative language terms simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, and symbolism.

In this lesson, students will distinguish the literal and non-literal meanings of verbal and written content in different contexts. The lesson targets third-fourth grade students. Learners will demonstrate an understanding of idioms by using context clues in the sentences to help figure out the meanings of idioms, by drawing out idioms without using words or letters, by creating greeting cards, and by creating a costume to portray their chosen idiom.

This mini-unit is an introduction to poetry and can be used in middle school or early high school. Each lesson should take about an hour and covers basic such as: Prose vs. Poetry, Traditional vs. Organic Poetry, poetry structure, figurative language and sound devices, context clues, tone, and meaning. Several examples of poems are provided along with notes, guided practice, and indepent assessments. 

 The attached Remote Learning Plan is designed for Grade 7 English Language Arts students. Students will learn the different literary terms found in literature and poetry. They will have opportunity to practice their understanding of these terms by playing a number of online games. Students will then determine which literary device is being used in lines of literature and poetry through the practice at the end of lesson. This Remote Learning Plan addresses the following NDE Standard: NE LA 7.1.6.cIt is expected that this Remote Learning Plan will take students 90 minutes to complete.

Introduces practice and theory of literary criticism. Seminar focuses on topics such as the history of critical methods and techniques, and the continuity of certain subjects in literary history. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Topic: Theory and Use of Figurative Language. This seminar offers a course of readings in lyric poetry. It aims to enhance the student's capacity to understand the nature of poetic language and the enjoyment of poetic texts by treating poems as messages to be deciphered. The seminar will briefly touch upon the history of theories of figurative language since Aristotle and it will attend to the development of those theories during the last thirty years, noting the manner in which they tended to consider figures of speech distinct from normative or literal expression, and it will devote particular attention to the rise of theories that quarrel with this distinction. The seminar also aims to communicate a rough sense of the history of English-speaking poetry since the early modern period. Some attention will be paid as well to the use of metaphor in science.

Students will display their understanding of the symbolism and references that Dr. King used to enrich his famous speech on August 28, 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by constructing a "jackdaw," a collection of documents and objects.

 This lesson plan was created by Jani Randall, a sixth grade teacher for Elkhorn Public Schools in Nebraska.   The attached lesson plan is designed for students in grades 5-7.  Students will define and identify metaphors.  They will then create a free verse poem using metaphors.   This lesson plan addresses the following NDE Standard: NE LA 6.1.5 CIt is expected that this lesson will take 45 minutes to complete.

This free video series provides definitions of literary terms in English literature to students and teachers. It also offers examples of how these literary devices can be applied to poems, plays, novels, and short stories. We are in the process of translating the videos into Spanish and many of them now contain these subtitles.

Keri McAllister uses technology, workstations, and a lot of choice to turn her students loose on a unit on poetry. In workstations students watch "poetry in motion" videos, create a podcast about their chosen poet, and post reflections on a chosen poem on their class blog.

Students evaluate the impact of sensory language and figurative language in poetry, and determine the overall meaning of the poem using the outdoor classroom as a context for their writing.

OverviewThis remote hyperdoc activity was created by Katlyn Powers on July 26, 2020. The attached hyperdoc & lesson plan is designed for high school ELA students. Students will analyze and evaluate the elements of Smith's poem, build background knowledge to clarify and deepen understanding of metaphors, and use relevant evidence from a variety of sources to assist in analysis and reflection of Smith's poem. This lesson plan addresses the following NDE standards: NE.LA 10.1.5.C, NE.LA 10.1.5.D, NE.LA 10.1.6.C, NE.LA 10.1.6.I, NE.LA 10.1.6.M, NE.LA 10.2.2.BThis hyperdoc will take students approximately 90 minutes to complete.

Students learn how scientific terms are formed using Latin and Greek roots, prefixes and suffixes, and on that basis, learn to make an educated guess about the meaning of a word. Students are introduced to the role played by metaphor in language development.

The goal of this activity is for students to develop visual literacy. They learn how images are manipulated for a powerful effect and how a photograph can make the invisible (pollutants that form acid rain) visible (through the damage they cause). The specific objective is to write captions for photographs.

This lecture introduces figurative language or "figures of speech"--including metaphor, simile, and personification--and provides examples of their use in everyday, literary, and academic writing.  The lecture is offered here in three different formats: video with captions, video without captions, and a text transcript.