Curated OER
Sensory Details
Students observe their environment and write detailed, sensory-specific sentences about that environment. This instructional activity can be extended to include the creation of a personalized story or movie of the experience (student...
Curated OER
Locational Writing
Pupils go outside to the playground and write a piece in the style of beat poets based on what they see and hear outside.
Curated OER
Essential Elements of Habitat
First graders compare their local area with the Belize landscape. They construct maps of the school area, adding descriptive information. They write haiku poems about their favorite outside places.
Curated OER
How Do Authors Use Imagery to Shape Their Writing?
Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their...
Curated OER
The Personal Narrative - Part 3
Let's peer edit! Have your writers exchange their personal narratives with another learner! While peer editing, they will look for any missing information and identify strong details. They can practice literary analysis skills using a...
E Reading Worksheets
Don't Tell. Show!
As part of a study of narrative writing, young story tellers are asked to revise 20 telling sentences and create showing ones.
Curated OER
Describe a Journey
Students describe the sensory experience of a character's journey in an essay. In this precise details writing lesson, students explain the effects on the senses of weather, time of day, landscape, and other...
Curated OER
Setting Worksheet
Set your class up for success with writing descriptive settings with these two graphic organizers. On the first page, writers note specifc details about their chosen setting and comment on how each character views the setting. The second...
T. Smith Publishing
Your Five Senses
Using the five senses is a creative way to write descriptively. Learners read 25 words, both nouns and verbs, and place them into the category labeled with the correct sense.
Curated OER
Reading a Classic Novel
Charles Dickens offers an excellent example of sensory writing in this reading comprehension worksheet. Learners read excerpts from the novel Hard Times in which he describes the New England industrial city of Coketown. They...
Curated OER
From Light to Dark and Back
Experiment with light and dark in a series of interactive activities that lead up to reading and writing poetry. Class members have the opportunity to observe their feelings while sitting in the light and dark and to play with shadow...
Curated OER
Things Fall Apart: Research, Writing & Presentation Project
A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few...
Welcome to Ms Bosello's Class!
Alliteration Worksheet
Alliteration and imagery are two vital parts of any well-written poem. Encourage your young poets to include these devices with a set of activities designed to get them thinking, writing, and creating.
Curated OER
Mandy
Third graders read Barbara D. Booth's, "Mandy" while noting each time they read a sensory detail. They read about the young girl in the story who is hard of hearing and determine how her other senses are heightened. Also, they determine...
Curated OER
Color Poems
Students describe colors. In this descriptive writing lesson, students brainstorm color descriptions using all of the senses except sight. Students write poems including similes, sensory images, and interesting word choice. Examples are...
Curated OER
Crafting Poetry: A Sensory Journey
Tenth graders experiment with poetry devices to write poems. In this poetry lesson, 10th graders participate in learning stations. Students create a word pool and select a word from the list to create a line of poetry. Students complete...
Curated OER
Poetry: What's on Your Plate (Part 2)
Students write a short paragraph using strong descriptions. In this using modifiers lesson, students define modifier, adjective, adverb, metaphor, and simile. Students then write a journal entry in which they write about a...
Curated OER
Car For Sale!
Car For sale! In this GED prep lesson plan, 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...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Using Maps to Inspire Personal Narratives
A solid description of one way to teach narrative writing, this resource outlines the writing process from concept to completion. Class members create concept maps of moments in their lives and follow the writing process to publish their...
ETFO
Free Verse Poetry Rubric
Follow poetry instruction with a four-category rubric designed to guide budding poets' writing of free verse poetry.
Curated OER
Maniac Magee: Found Poem
Instruct your readers to scrounge through the pages of Maniac Magee in search for descriptive passages or words they may use to write poetry. As they look for meaningful, sensory descriptors in Jerry Spinelli's novel, readers...
Curated OER
Describing Paintings: Calm or Stormy
Young writers use nouns, verbs, and adjectives to describe details in two paintings. One depicts a sunny landscape, and the other shows a cloudier view. They write a narrative inspired by the paintings, paying attention to transitional...
Curated OER
The Personal Narrative - Part One
Read to write! The class lists sensory details based on the plot of a story they have recently read. They create a drawing of a bracelet and use the bracelet's jewels or charms to list sensory details included in the story. They then use...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1, Unit 2, Lesson 4
The fourth instructional activity in this narrative writing unit focuses on how Leslie Marmon Silko uses telling details and sensory language in her "Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit" to bring alive the people of Laguna Pueblo and...