We read a few picture books in class and hunted for examples of memorable language - figurative language, similes, metaphors, sensory detail, imagery, etc. Then as a group we presented our findings to the class on the smart board.
Our writing topic is to write a paragraph about our favorite place, favorite season, or favorite holiday - a topic that is easy to write about using memorable language, rather than a trip to the science museum or an essay on George Washington (although you could integrate memorable language into those essays as well).
Remember the layers of a paragraph that we talked about in class, and if you need help visualizing, picture the hamburger paragraph template that I showed you. The top bun is the topic sentence/lead and the inside parts of the hamburger are the support, and the bottom bun is the concluding sentence.
October 16, 2008
October 15, 2008
Adding Memorable Details
There are many picture books that use figurative language and details that appeal to the senses to help get their message across. As a class, we're going to take a look at a few of these books and note what examples of figurative language or sensory detail we find in them. Once we've discussed the memorable details used in the picture books, we can work on how to integrate this language into our own writing.
Since we are in the midst of our expository writing unit, I'd like us to choose an information-giving prompt, such as a writing piece about our favorite place or our favorite season. We can model after Patricia MacLachlan’s story "All the Places to Love" for two reasons. In this story, the author uses a great deal of description, but also provides a great example of another skill we can work on - sentence fluency. She places prepositional phrases in a variety of places in sentences (beginning, middle, and end) and varies how she starts her sentences and her sentence length.
I'll demonstrate my technique to use sentence variety and include memorable details while we're in class, and then we'll type our writing piece on Friday, October 17 in computer lab 220.
Since we are in the midst of our expository writing unit, I'd like us to choose an information-giving prompt, such as a writing piece about our favorite place or our favorite season. We can model after Patricia MacLachlan’s story "All the Places to Love" for two reasons. In this story, the author uses a great deal of description, but also provides a great example of another skill we can work on - sentence fluency. She places prepositional phrases in a variety of places in sentences (beginning, middle, and end) and varies how she starts her sentences and her sentence length.
I'll demonstrate my technique to use sentence variety and include memorable details while we're in class, and then we'll type our writing piece on Friday, October 17 in computer lab 220.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)