I am taking an online professional development course on "The Six Traits of Writing" in order to renew my teaching license. On of my assignments was to write a strategy, tip, lesson that had to do with the course content. So... I thought I would share what I wrote here:
Here is a lesson I would do for word choice:
Before the lesson started, I would write a poorly descriptive passage. It might be something simple like, “I live in a small house in the country. At the beginning of the lesson, I would tell the students that we were going to explore the importance of word choice as I pass out drawing paper and crayons/color pencils/markers.
I would say that great authors use just the right words in their writing. Those words make it easy to create pictures in our mind and feel like we are right in the story. The better the author is at using just the right words, the closer the readers will get in seeing the same picture in their minds. I would explain, “We are going to experiment with using just the right words today. I am going to read you a description I wrote of where I live and I want you to draw it.” Then, I would read the above description. I would tell them to put in as much detail as possible to show a great picture of what I read.
After students have finished their drawings, I would gather them together to share what they have drawn. We would look at each drawing and discuss the wide variety of drawings. I would ask guiding questions about why the pictures were so different and what would have helped to make the pictures look more alike. I would ask if they had a clear picture of where I lived in their mind or if they had to do some guessing to create the picture.
Together we would create a better descriptive passage based upon the students’ feedback and ideas during the discussion. I would write the new description on chart paper.
Once the description was rewritten to be more clear and descriptive, I would read it to the students again. I would have them turn over their paper and draw another picture. We would then share them again. They should be closer to being the same picture this time.
To follow up, I might even bring in a picture of my home to discuss how close we got in our rewritten description. I might hide the rewritten description and ask students to write a description based upon the picture. Then, have them share them and ask students to share something they liked about their peers’ descriptions.
*This lesson would probably work best for grades 3 through 6. However, it can be modified to work with any grade.
Here is a lesson I would do for word choice:
Before the lesson started, I would write a poorly descriptive passage. It might be something simple like, “I live in a small house in the country. At the beginning of the lesson, I would tell the students that we were going to explore the importance of word choice as I pass out drawing paper and crayons/color pencils/markers.
I would say that great authors use just the right words in their writing. Those words make it easy to create pictures in our mind and feel like we are right in the story. The better the author is at using just the right words, the closer the readers will get in seeing the same picture in their minds. I would explain, “We are going to experiment with using just the right words today. I am going to read you a description I wrote of where I live and I want you to draw it.” Then, I would read the above description. I would tell them to put in as much detail as possible to show a great picture of what I read.
After students have finished their drawings, I would gather them together to share what they have drawn. We would look at each drawing and discuss the wide variety of drawings. I would ask guiding questions about why the pictures were so different and what would have helped to make the pictures look more alike. I would ask if they had a clear picture of where I lived in their mind or if they had to do some guessing to create the picture.
Together we would create a better descriptive passage based upon the students’ feedback and ideas during the discussion. I would write the new description on chart paper.
Once the description was rewritten to be more clear and descriptive, I would read it to the students again. I would have them turn over their paper and draw another picture. We would then share them again. They should be closer to being the same picture this time.
To follow up, I might even bring in a picture of my home to discuss how close we got in our rewritten description. I might hide the rewritten description and ask students to write a description based upon the picture. Then, have them share them and ask students to share something they liked about their peers’ descriptions.
*This lesson would probably work best for grades 3 through 6. However, it can be modified to work with any grade.
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