1. Point out the use of assonance in any poem you choose or in the following stanza:

I am the wind
that blows your window curtains
apart, the wind that blows the leaves
off the trees and onto the dry grass.

Anthony Mejia, age 13

2. Ask students (singly or in pairs) to go over a poem they’ve written, noting the use of assonance they find.

Lesson is from the WritersCorps book “Jump Write In!”

1. Create a deck of 10 word cards for each student in your class by writing the names of different body parts (nose, head, elbow, backbone, and so on) on individual three-by-five-inch index cards. It’s a good idea to choose the body parts yourself, thus avoiding any sexual or scatological references.

2. Ask each participant to select 5 cards from her deck.

3. Ask students to write a chant using the words on their cards:

Praise my head because…
Praise my feet because…
Praise my nose because…
Praise my spirit because…
Praise my backbone because…

From the WritersCorps book “Jump Write In!”