Figurative+Language

Kelly Bordner**
 * Using Figurative Language - Alliteration and Simile

The sixth grade teachers in my school like for me to reinforce lessons that are being taught in their classrooms. Therefore, they often come to me and ask me to do a lesson with the students when they come to the library each week. Most often the lessons correlate with the language arts standards that are addressed each quarter. My school system has quarterly standards that are taught and tested each 9 week grading period. Recently one of the teachers asked me to do a lesson on figurative language to correlate with standard 6.1.3. We subscibe to Unitestreaming, a video streaming service, so I went there first to look for a short video that would address this topic. I found a 5 minute video about polar penguins that explains alliteration and simile. I incorporated this into my learning space. Students watch the video clip and then are asked to define the two terms. Next students are given several examples of figurative language and then asked to identify it on their own. Lastly, students create their own sentences with alliteration and simile. I included a web address at the bottom of the last slide to allow students to read further about penguins.

This starter could be changed to teach other writing concepts like paragraph writing (Powerful Paragraphs below) with new media inserted.

I think these learning spaces are a great way to let students work on their own. I think students will like the fact that they get to use the computer and don't have to do another worksheet. It will definitely give them a sense of power over their learning.