Teach one element at a time. If you work with too many concepts at once, students may not be able to remember which is which. This is especially true of elements that are similar, such as similes and metaphors.
Gather literary examples of the literary elements prior to starting the lessons. For example, to teach alliteration, find a poem that includes a lot of alliteration to give the students as an example. Linking the literature to specific literary elements will help students remember the terms. They can remember “the alliteration poem,” which will help them remember how alliteration works.
Give the students the literary element and its definition before they read the literary example. By knowing what the element is, they can look for it as they read. Being able to identify the application of the literary elements on their own will help students understand the terms and their uses.
Review the elements frequently. Remind the students of past literary elements when they come up in other literary works. For example, if you're studying personification and the story you're teaching uses foreshadowing, remind the students about foreshadowing by pointing it out in the story.
Play games to help reinforce the literary elements. Use games like Jeopardy that allow students to match literary elements with the stories and poems they read. This will help them remember the terms and how they were used.