"'Attracted to Girls Like Honey Draws Flies.' And That Is a Simile!"

Yep, that's a real student statement from a small-group discussion.  In this lesson, students are jigsawing to build their understanding of various characters in their assigned reading.  Each student became an expert on one character, identifying the dialogue and other characterization tools used by the author.  Then, the students get together to share their summaries.

And, how about a simile of my own creation to summarize this pic:  We are having fun in English like it's a circus (OK, it's not that great:)).  Seriously, the classroom is "TPed" as a visual reminder of the strategy TPCASTT.