Often, using an easily accessible book to teach a difficult concept works well with middle school students. "Quick as a Cricket" by Audrey Wood, a free verse poem, features clever similes and delightful pictures that are non-threatening for students. After reading the book aloud, students can create their own simile book. They should draw or cut out a picture of an animal and then write a simile that matches up to the animal. This activity can be altered to create a book for other sets of things, such as foods or musical instruments. According to the National Education Association, "When students are actively engaged in their learning, they are processing and retaining information and using higher order thinking."
Writing a simile poem puts a student in touch with the intricate word choice and visual images that poets use. Students can read "Willow and Ginko" by Eve Merriam to illustrate this point. Having pictures or branches from these two types of trees will help students visualize as they begin to read. After reading Merriam's poem several times, students can identify many similes such as "The willow is sleek as a velvet-nosed calf; / The ginkgo is leathery as an old bull." The teacher can lead a discussion about the similes and the students would then write a poem. They should choose their own topic, brainstorm possible connections, and then write a poem using many comparisons. Like Merriam, students might choose to compare two things, such as a willow tree and ginko tree, within the poem itself.
As the National Education Association explains, "Young adolescents want to do things and will do things." Giving middle school students a project-based assignment in which to practice their poetry knowledge will help with retention and understanding. Students can first read several poems containing similes. Robert Burns' "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose," William Wordsworth's "Daffodils" and Christina Rossetti's "Flint" are all good choices. Students can read the poem in small groups and analyze each stanza of the poem. They should identify similes such as "I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills," which is found in "Daffodils." After identifying the similes, the group should create a poster or collage of visual comparisons. For instance, students could cut out a picture of a cloud and a lonely person to depict the simile. Students are responsible for identifying at least seven similes and finding a creative way to express them in pictures.
For middle school students, food is integral to happiness. You can use this love of food to springboard into figurative language. To create a simile sandwich, students list all of the elements that they should put in a sandwich. They can have fun making a detailed list: types of meat, cheese, vegetables and condiments are all included. Then, students can write a simile for each part of the sandwich. They might say "Swiss cheese is as holey as a sponge." Students create a concrete poem using the similes. A concrete poem is a poem that is in the shape of what it is talking about. Students may choose to rewrite or type the original thoughts in a more detailed way.