Content Area:

 

• Language Arts                                

 

Grade Level:

 

• Fourth Grade

 

Whole group or small group (number of students):

 

• Whole Class (18 students)

 

Colorado Academic Standard (with learning outcomes): 

 

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)

 

Content Objective:

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• After the lesson, students will be able to accurately define and use descriptive vocabulary in their writing about found objects in the classroom.

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Learning Target:

 

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

• I will be able to use sensory words defined in class to write descriptive events.

 

Language Objective:

 

• Students will be able to use sensory image words, such as vibrant or pungent, both orally and written to describe objects in the classroom (or outside).

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Assessment:

 

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

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Vocabulary being addressed (identified as Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3):

 

Tier 2 and 3 Words

• Murky

• Pungent

• Turbulent

• Serene

• Deafening

• Vibrant

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Materials needed: 

 

• Objects for students to feel and be able to write descriptive words with (orange, slime, lego, stuffed animal, etc.)

• Paper bags (for the objects)

• Pencils

• Paper

• Dictionaries and Chromebooks

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Step by Step Lesson: 

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Connection to prior work/ introduction to lesson

• The students will come in to the classroom and sit at their regular tables. Set out bags that have the objects in them that the students will be feeling and then guessing what they are. Tell them that today they will be talking about sensory images and how you can be descriptive in your writing. Explain to them that they have done really great in their past writing. Connect that they have been learning about writing narratives, and how the teacher has been conferencing with students about their narratives. In these conferences, the teacher has given feedback that they could work on being more descriptive about the events in their narratives. So, they will be working on learning more descriptive words that they can use for writing in the future. They will start working on being descriptive and writing with descriptive words. So, have them get out their writing journals to write down what they think each object is. With their table, they will work as a team to figure out what each object is. One person at a time will feel one object and then describe it as best as they can to their group members. Then, they will decide as a group what the object is, and move on to the next object. There will be four objects on the table, so all four students will get a chance to feel one of the objects. When everyone is done with each object and has decided on what they think it is, they will share to the class. Then, the teacher will reveal what each object is. The teacher will then explain that they had to be very descriptive with their words in order to find out what the object was.

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Instruction 

• 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 descriptive words they know of or have used before in their writing. Write them down on the board.

 

Modeling

• For this, the teacher will model defining a descriptive word and then using it in their writing on the board. Take the word “Gloomy” and write it on the board. Ask students to share what they think the word means. After some answers, write down the actual definition of the word. Then ask them how we would write the word in a sentence. Then, come up with a sentence. 

 

Independent practice

• Then, have the students will work on defining the descriptive words in a folded chart (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 and draw a picture of it. When they are done, they will talk with their table-mates and discuss what they all said.

• Have the students write their own descriptions of objects (using the Sensory Images page found below) in the classroom (or outside, depending on weather) that they pick out. Have student 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. 

 

Differentiation

• The students will be working in groups, so the students that are struggling will be able to cover the misconceptions with their peers. All of the different activities also are very visual and hands-on, which can help the students as well. If they are still having trouble, the teacher can go over and help cover anything confusing. For the students that need more of a challenge, the teacher will give them more of a structured prompt of writing a short narrative where they need to use descriptive words to describe the events as they unfold.

 

Lesson closure/ debrief​

• Have them share out what they wrote the group, and have them share what words in their writing are descriptive words. 

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