Literary Terms & Devices – 19 Weekly Lectures, Bell-Ringers or Flipped Content

Welcome to Lit. Term Tuesday – an easy way to start your class each Tuesday (or whatever day you want) with a high-interest bell-ringer lecture featuring classic literary devices paired with modern examples with which your students are certain to identify. (These literary device lectures also work great as flipped content for weekly homework assignments on in-class stations.)

Sure, everyone knows protagonist and antagonist, but have your students learned about anti-heroes (think: Walter White from Breaking Bad, and Dexter) or foils (Jude Law's Watson to Robert Downey Jr.'s Sherlock Holmes)? Freshen up their literary term knowledge with these once-a-week-lectures, ranging from five-to-15 minutes each. From Will Ferrell to Ferris Bueller, there are plenty of examples included in these lectures to help your students relate to the literary techniques used in our greatest classic tales.

This package includes 50 slides covering more than 45 writers' tools, neatly stacked into 19 mini-lectures. Formats include uneditable PowerPoint, Google Slides, and SMARTBoard options.

UPDATE: I've also included links to 19 video presentations (one per weekly lesson) to serve as lecturer notes/prep materials or flipped lesson materials. Feel free to use the videos to prep yourself for the bell-ringer lectures or share them directly with your students and I'll be your weekly virtual guest lecturer.

Most semesters run for 18 weeks, but I included an extra lesson in case you have a bonus Tuesday in your calendar. Have students record notes on each term and then, if desired, test them at the end of the semester as part of your usual semester final exam.

Literary terms/devices covered include: theme, storytelling arc, exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, protagonist, antagonist, anti-hero, foil, point of view, first person, third person limited, third person omniscient, third person objective, rhetoric, ethos, pathos, logos, tone, mood, archetypes, diction, dialect, dialogue, figures of speech, figurative language, idiom, characterization, direct/indirect, static/dynamic, satire, parody, internal monologue, soliloquy, aside, simile, metaphor, extended metaphor, mixed metaphor, symbolism, denotation, connotation, verbal irony, situational irony, dramatic irony, personification, pathetic fallacy, foreshadow, foreshadowing, flashback, hyperbole, paradox.

Click the "Preview" button at the top of the page to take a closer look.

If you like these lessons, be sure to check out my companion weekly grammar lessons, featuring the most common errors committed by middle- and high-school writers: Click here for a set of 19 weekly grammar mini-lessons

Complete the weekly procedures package with Words on Wednesday, an effective way to build high-level vocabulary in your students. Check it out here:

Click here for a set of 19 weekly vocabulary lessons

This product is also included in the budget-priced full-year vol. 1 bundle of bell-ringer lessons. Click HERE for FULL YEAR grammar, lit. term, and vocab. materials

This item is also included in my English 9-10 full-year curriculum. If you already own the full-year download, please do not purchase this item here individually. If you’d like to receive this item plus everything else needed to teach 180 days of English 9 or English 10 at a deeply discounted price, click here to learn more about the full-year curriculum download.

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