Grade Level: Fourth Grade                                                                                                                                                         Teacher: Ashley Kienitz

 

Content Area: Reading, Writing, and Communicating

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Timeframe: 50 minute lesson

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Colorado Academic Standards: 

Fourth Grade, Standard 3. Writing and Composition 

3. Write engaging, real or imagined narratives using descriptive details and dialogue to convey a sequence of related events. 

d. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely. (CCSS: W.4.3d)

 

ISTE Standard:

Standard 7: Global Collaborator 

Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

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Objective: 

• After the lesson, students will be able to accurately define descriptive vocabulary by creating a Mindmeister where they will define the word, draw/attach a picture, and use the word in a sentence.

• After the lesson, students will accurately use descriptive vocabulary in their writing to create sensory images for the readers by writing paragraph descriptions of an object they found in the classroom.

 

Learning Target: 

• I can write sensory images by using descriptive words about different objects in the classroom.

• I will be able to define, write a sentence using, and drawing a picture of sensory words using MindMeister.

 

Assessment:

• Students will be writing descriptions of objects that they will find in the classroom using sensory image words that were defined in class.

 

Materials: 

• Pencil

• Paper

• Chromebooks

  • MindMeister

  • Google Doc

  • Google Classroom

• Dictionaries

 

Inquiry Questions or Big Picture Statement: 

• How does word choice create a visual image for the reader?

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Step-by-Step Lesson Process: 

Introduction:

**(the students will need to have their chromebooks, with their google drives pulled up with MindMeister already connected to their google drive)**

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• Pull up a picture of pancakes, with syrup on them, on the computer to project it in front of the class. The teacher will lead the students in basically a Think-Pair-Share. Ask the students to think for a moment about what words come to mind with this image, specifically what descriptive words. Share with them what descriptive words are: They are words that help visualize, describe, and explain something. Tell them that they can use adjectives, adverbs, and and words like colors. Explain to them that these words appeal to the senses, which is what they will be discussing later in the lesson. Give them about a minute to think about what descriptive words come to mind and to really study the picture. Then, ask them to type (just in a new google doc) all of the descriptive words they just thought about. Have them think up as many as they can in about a minute or two. Then, have them pair up with a student next to them and talk with them about the words they wrote. Once both partners have shared, then have the students share out what words they said to the whole class. 

• Bring up MindMeister on Google Drive, and make a mind map of the words that they say branching off of the word Pancakes (and a picture of the pancakes). Type them all up as each student says them, and put words together that are similar (example linked and shown down below). Then, share this document with them as an example for what they will be doing later in the lesson.

• Link to Pancake MindMeister: https://www.mindmeister.com/1250923178?t=Uv4NvcYqDO

 

Mini Lesson:

**(make sure to set up a google doc that is shared with all of the students before you start, where you will be adding all of the words that they say. It will be a helpful list they will be able to use in their writing whenever they need it)**

 

• Share with them that they will be learning about different sensory images and descriptive words. Ask them what they think sensory images might be. Then, share with them that sensory image is when a reader combines their schema and the information in the text to create an image in their mind, usually using the five senses (visual, smell, taste, sound, touch or feeling). Explain to them that sensory words are are descriptive because they describe how we experience the world: how we smell, see, hear, feel or taste something. Then, ask them to share some other descriptive words they know of (other than the ones used for the introductory activity) or have used before in their writing. Create a new google doc (that should be shared with the students before the lesson) where you will add all of the words that they share that are descriptive (and add all of the ones they said from the introductory activity).

• Share with them that there are many words that you can use to describe, and how some of these words they may not know. Explain to them that they will be looking up sensory image/descriptive words that they do not know, and defining them. 

• For this, the teacher will model defining a descriptive word and then using it in their writing. Create a new MindMeister. Take the word “Gloomy” and type it in a new bubble. Ask the students to share what they think the word means. After some answers, type the actual definition of the word in a bubble branching off from the word. Then ask them how we would write the word in a sentence. Then, type up the sentence they came up with (if it fits the word. If not, then just create your own) branching off of the word. Then, look up a picture to attach or draw a picture that the teacher can add to the word.

 

Check for Understanding:

• Throughout the lesson, use a thumbs up and thumbs down check to make sure they are understanding. Ask them if there are any questions as well. 

 

Guided Practice:

• Then, have the students work together with their table groups on defining at least six descriptive words (they can use a dictionary or a chromebook, but they must put the definition in their own words). They will have to define the word, draw/attach a picture of it to the MindMeiser, and write a sentence.

 

Check for Understanding:

• Explain to the students that now they know some extra words to describe, they will now be using them (and other sensory image/descriptive words) to describe one object found in the room. They will have a couple minutes to find their object and write down any descriptive words they have as they look at it, touch it, listen to it and smell it. Then, they will type, in a google doc, complete sentences to create a paragraph describing their object. They will then share these writings in their google classroom (the code that the students can use to get in will pop up when you open the teacher’s google classroom) and read the other students’ work. Then, they will comment on at least one to give them comments and feedback.

• Check that the students understand the directions by asking them for a fist to 5, where a fist is no understanding of this at all and a 5 as they understand completely.

 

Practice/Application:

• Have the students write their own descriptions of objects, using MindMeiser, found in the classroom that they pick out. Have students pick out one object or thing that they want to write about, and have them describe it with the sensory image words (ones that we talked about and other words they would like to use). Ask them to describe where they were found, what they look like, smell like, feel like, etc. They will type it up and then upload it in google classroom (as discussed above.    

 

Share/Debrief/Closure:

• Have them upload their writing in google classroom, and then give feedback to one other student. Then, give any students who want to share time to read what they wrote to the class, and have them share what words in their writing are descriptive words.

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