Lessons in alliteration can be grounds for silliness and laughter. Start your lesson by reciting a variety of tongue twisters, such as “She sells seashells by the seashore” and “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Write the tongue twisters on the board and invite pupils to try to say the phrases as quickly as they can. Ask your pupils why the tongue twisters are so difficult to say. Explain that when a group of words begin with the same letter sound, it is called alliteration. Have your pupils write their own alliterations and share them with the class.
All good stories should have a basic set of literary devices: characterization, plot, conflict and point of view. Characterization is the description of the main characters' traits. The plot is the sequence of events in a story. Conflict is anything that works against the protagonists, or main characters, in the story. Point of view refers to who is telling the story; is it in first person or third person, and if it’s in third person, is the narrator omniscient or speaking from one person’s perspective? Read your pupils a short story. Examples of include “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving and “Rikki Tikki Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling. Discuss the literary devices in the story. Instruct your pupils to write their own short stories. On separate sheets of paper, have them write down how their stories demonstrate the various devices.
Simile and metaphor are literary devices often used in poetry. Both are a way of comparing one thing to another; a simile uses the words “like” or “as,” and a metaphor simply states that one thing is something else. For example, “the man is as tall as a tree” is a simile and “the man is a tall tree” is a metaphor. Write a few examples of simile and metaphor on the board and discuss them with your pupils. Write a poem as a class that uses both similes and metaphors. Have the pupils call out a simile or metaphor and write it on the board. Discuss each with your pupils. Afterward, instruct your pupils to write their own poems, using at least one simile and one metaphor. Have them draw pictures to go with their poems.
Words such as "bang," "squeak," "click" and "buzz" are examples of onomatopoeia. Write these words and other examples of onomatopoeia on the board. Ask your pupils if they know what these words have in common. Say the words and ask them again. Explain that each word represents a sound and that the words themselves sound very similar to the sound they represent. Write a phrase on the board that uses onomatopoeia. For example, write “the wind whistled through the trees” or “the bees buzzed in the garden.” Explain that an author uses onomatopoeia to help a reader understand the sound he is writing about. Have your pupils write their own onomatopoetic phrases or poems and share them with the class.
Personification is a literary device with which your pupils are familiar, whether they realize it or not. It means to give human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals or abstract ideas. Start your lesson by showing your pupils a few minutes of a movie that demonstrates personification. A few examples are “Beauty and the Beast,” “Toy Story” and “Cars.” Discuss how personification is used in the movie. Instruct your pupils to write their own short stories or poems using personification. When they are finished, have them share their work with the class.