Looking to introduce essential literary skills to your middle school students this semester?
On the hunt for new, student-centered activities created by teachers, for teachers?
The search is over. Here are three standards-aligned activities you can use in your next ELA lesson…
Understanding Symbolism
Learning Objective: To understand how symbolism can reveal aspects of a character in a text.
Symbolism can be difficult to teach.
Even after your students are comfortable with the idea of using one thing to represent another, they might instead fall into a pattern of calling everything and anything ‘a symbol’.
That’s where this exercise comes in. Begin by asking your students to choose a character from a well-known fairy tale or story, such as Robin Hood, the Wicked Witch, or Cinderella.
Next, hand out plain T-shirts (or anything else with a nice blank surface) and ask them to draw three pictures representing their chosen character.
Use the finished designs to reinforce your discussions on symbolism. You could go around the room, and ask each student why they chose each image, or have them write down what it reveals about their character.
Compare and Contrast: Characters
Learning Objective: To analyze how an author can develop and contrast the points of view of different characters in a text.
When we talk about the people in our lives, we don’t just state facts about them. We share funny stories they’ve told, how they make us feel, and things that remind us of them.
In this exercise, have your middle school students approach literary characters in the same way!
To start, have each student select a pair of well-known characters (for example, the Wicked Witch and Cinderella, or Captain Hook and Peter Pan). Ask them to list out all of the known traits of each character.
Then, have them work independently (or in small groups) to create a playlist of six songs - three per character) - that they think capture the different traits of each character.
For each character, they should write down why they chose each song, and how their choices relate to the character traits they’ve identified.
Click here to access our full ELA Toolkit, which includes ‘stretch’, ‘simplify’, and ‘adapt’ extensions for each exercise!
Cathy Rigby (Peter Pan) | Peter Pan (BroadwayHD) | © Craig Schwartz
Classroom Starter Activity
Learning Objective: To analyze how particular incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
Looking for a quick bell-ringer to kick off the lesson? Give your students a ‘scary’ situation, and then ask them to suggest events or incidents that could make it ‘comedic’.
For example, maybe a shadow or a beast is lurking around the corner… Getting closer and closer… That turns out to be a cute, fluffy kitten!
Then, ask the class to imagine two potential characters - these can be the same characters they created their music playlist for! - and ask them how each character would react in this situation. Ask them what their response tells them about each character.
You could also ask a few students to read out the same short story, but in a different tone of voice. One might use a happy, cheerful tone, while another might read it loudly and angrily. Ask the class how the way the story is told affects their interpretation.
Enhance this activity with this story recital of Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart, with added insights into the writer's tone!
Looking for more ELA Core Skills Exercises?
These exercises have been adapted from DT+ resources, and are available (along with two additional activities!) as part of our Middle School ELA Toolkit.
Plus! Your toolkit comes with exclusive free trial access to the DT+ platform, so you can further enhance your lessons with a rich selection of poetry and story recitals, literary analysis, study guides, and more...
If you are already a DT+ customer, you can access all of these activities and resources now as part of your subscription.