Sensory Details
E.Q.- How do I engage my reader?
How do I include sensory details in my writing?
Learning Targets: We can refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says and when making inferences from the text. RL 4.1
Display the first essential questions. Tell students that our job as a writer is to help our readers visualize as they read our narratives. Adding sensory details and concrete language makes our writing come alive and engages our reader. We do this with adjectives and verbs. Several read aloud books that illustrate language with sensory details are Night in the Country by Cynthia Rylant, Owl Moon by Jane Yoland, and Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher. Reading these books and examining the language may give students a good idea about the use of sensory details. Teacher may read book aloud first time for listening, but on second read, pause and record sensory details on sheet found below.
(Adding Written Detail)
Display the following sentence on chart paper: ‘The cat ran’. Ask students what words we might add to help the reader visualize. Have students make suggestions, adding on and changing. You may end up with more than one sentence. That’s fine. After modeling with the whole class provide simple sentences on sentence strips. Allow students to work in pairs adding and changing the sentences. Remind students that their job is to provide a picture in the minds of their readers. Several suggestions for sentences are:
- The girl is cute.
- The boy is a baseball player.
- Her mother called.
- The puppy plays.
- The rain fell.
Have students share their expanded sentences pointing out any sensory details and the use of adjectives and verbs. Tell students it is their job to go back and add or revise their narratives(from portfolios) and appeal to their reader by adding sensory details to develop their story. Students answer the essential question by turning and talking to a partner.
Display the second essential question. Explain to students the meaning of ‘concrete language’. Concrete language is language that is specific, strong, and real. Just like sensory details it gives our readers a clear picture of what is happening in our narrative.
Display the following sentence on chart paper:
- The boy went to the store.
Ask students to add specific language to make the sentence more concrete. You may prompt students by asking “What is the name of the of the boy?”, “What store?”, Can you supply a better verb?”, “How did the boy go to the store?” You may have students practice in pairs with other sentences placed on sentence strips in which they add concrete, specific language. Students share their sentences. Students return to their narrative and add concrete, specific language to their writing. Students answer the essential question by turning and talking to a partner.
**The about instructional activities may serve as formative assessments.
Part two-Sensory Details and Mythology
Students will read selected Greek Myth . Students will then go through the story using the sensory detail sheet to record details found. This activity allows more practice.
Following this activity, students will then apply sensory details to one of their writing pieces in student portfolio.
ELACC4RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).Sense / Descriptive Detail
Sight
Sound
Touch
Taste
Smell
Standards:
ELACC4W10: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
ELACC4W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences
d. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely
Craft and StructureELACC4RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).
Reading Literature 4.1refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says and when making inferences from the text. RL 4.1
Sight/ Sound
/ Smell
/ Taste
/ Touch/Feel
Standards:
Craft and StructureELACC4RL4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including those that allude to significant characters found in mythology (e.g., Herculean).