Connotation and Denotation Engaging Activities for Middle School and High School
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The connotation and denotation of a word can be very different. The activities in this plan help students understand the distinction between the two and takes your students' learning further into diction and tone.
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Students will . . .
► clarify the difference in connotation of several sets of words and then move on to "Degrees of Intensity" worksheet. Upon completion, students will move swiftly from student to student to complete the connotation lesson, so they get out of their seats and engage with one another. This a very enjoyable and unique lesson for teaching connotation, denotation, diction, and tone as well as their effect on the reader.
► "Diction: Delightful or Derogatory" sheet for students to contemplate connotation.
► Tone fun - a quick look at tone through a drama-type activity.
► complete "Word Choice Makes All the Difference!" This activity comes in two levels. The first one is for an honors or advanced group, and it uses a short excerpt from Patrick Henry's "Speech to the Virginia Convention." Students will write synonyms for underlined words in the excerpt (denotation) and select another word to fit. They will analyze the effectiveness of their choices (connotation) as well as the impact their choices had on tone. The second activity is for a younger or struggling group. They will do the exact same thing, but they will use a fictional passage instead with easier words. The same skills are assessed in both activities.
This lesson includes classroom talk, scaffolding, analyzing, comparing, assessing, and more.
If you have my "Descriptive Writing is Delicious" unit, then you already have all activities on connotation and denotation except for the last one which comes in two levels. Visit Descriptive Writing is Delicious to check it out.
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