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Descriptive Writing: Using Art to Inspire description
Write with the senses! Try using art to inspire writers to consider all of the senses. Here, the class is divided in half. Each group looks at one of two images, imagines the senses that would be engaged, and records answers to five...
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Descriptive Writing Using the Book Rumpelstiltskin
Use the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin to teach your third grade class about descriptive writing. Following a teacher read-aloud of the story, the class brainstorms a list of adjectives describing the main character. Students use this list...
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Descriptive Prompt: Precise Language
Incorporate sensory details into a piece of descriptive writing. First, elementary and middle schoolers improve a piece of writing by using precise, vivid language, as well as appropriate word choice. They then listen to a variety of...
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Narrative Writing
Binoculars are used as a metaphor for good descriptive writing. Class members first view a small picture and then an enlarged view of the same image in which the details come into focus. Next, learners examine a paragraph lacking sensory...
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Descriptive Writing
Second graders analyze descriptive writing. In this writing lesson, 2nd graders read a story with a villain, describe the villain in words, and create a Wanted Poster describing him on paper.
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Changing Seasons
Explore expository writing and using precise language in this descriptive paragraph writing lesson. Learners brainstorm prior knowledge about the changing seasons in Ohio. They describe seasonal items, view seasonal pictures from...
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Holistic Lesson Plan - Potato Writing
Eleventh graders, in groups of three, improve their descriptive writing skills by receiving a numbered potato. They write a description of their potato without disclosing the number. Groups take turns trying to guess which potato is...
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Car For Sale!
Car For sale! In this GED prep activity, writers develop a classified advertisement to sell a car. After a discussion of precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language, sellers draft their ad for review, revision and...
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Magical Creatures Land
The opening of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit provides a model of how to use rich details to create a setting. After reading the description of Bilbo Baggins’ abode, young writers create their own magical home for a fantasy creature. The...
Scholastic
Quick as a Cricket Lesson Plan
Teaching young learners about similes is easy as pie with this primary grade language arts lesson. Following a class reading of the children's book, Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood, young readers learn the definition of a simile as...
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Descriptive Writing
Learners create a descriptive paragraph about themselves and use a PowerPoint template to add a picture. Students participate in a brainstorming session of descriptive words to use for their paragraph before beginning their assignment.
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Sentence Modeling
Young writers try their hand at writing descriptive sentences. Learners look at four photographs that are accompanied by sentence frames. Their job is to fill in the frame with appropriate and descriptive words based on the photograph. A...
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Don't Let the Earth Down
Writing a persuasive argument starts with a clear thesis. Using this resource, your class will write a persuasive paper on a conservation issue. They will then transform their argument into a 30-second public service announcement. If...
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Children's Health on the Decline
Demonstrate the importance of children's health with this cross-curricular lesson, which includes elements from health and science as well as expository writing. Middle schoolers develop realistic and obtainable one week health and...
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Persuade the Aliens!
Why do we do what we do? Imagine that people on a faraway planet came to visit Earth. Could you convince them to adopt a custom or behavior that we participate in here? Learners of all ages write persuasive essays. If you're using this...
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Exploring Descriptive Language With Different Parts of Speech
Students practice experiencing writing with appropriate language and incorporating the eight parts of speech. They assess that many words have multiple functions when used in different contexts. Each student free writes in response to a...
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Monster Writings
Fourth graders practice descriptive writing by describing a fictitious monster they created. In this language arts lesson, 4th graders illustrate an image of a monster character they imagine and practice using their vocabulary to...
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Third Grade Writing Lesson #1/Descriptive Prompt
Third graders read aloud a book about a favorite place. They make and share a list of favorite places and then use a graphic organizer to write a description of a favorite place so that the reader can imagine being there.
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Descriptive Prompt
Learners create a detailed self portrait, and then write about their appearance.
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The Sound of…Poetry!
Scritch, scratch, scritch. It's the sound of pupils writing poetry! Focus on sensory language and onomatopoeia with a writing lesson. After listening to some sounds, learners examine a couple of poems that include sound words and then...
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Contemporary Civic-life Issue Research Based Essay
Seventh graders write a five paragraph persuasive essay on a contemporary civic-life issue.
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The Kite Runner: Setting Poem
To gain a deeper understanding of the importance of the settings in The Kite Runner, readers use the provided poem frame to create three poems, one for each of the settings in Hosseini's novel.
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Eye Spy!
Students explore using descriptive words by playing a What Do You See? game, describing items in a Mystery Bag, and using Eye-Spy binoculars on an on-campus field trip. They read the book, I Went Walking, and write descriptions of a...
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Picture This
Students create a descriptive paragraph conveying ideas utilizing a personal photograph as a prompt for their writing. This concept includes the writers emotions, personal issues, education, art and photography. They share insights to...