Writing Minilesson
Topic: The importance of including adjectives in writing
Grade Level: 3rd or 4th grade
Objective: TSWBAT add adjectives to a sentence to make it more appealing and interesting.
MO Standards: Goal 2 #2, Communication Arts #1
Students with Special Needs: To serve students with special needs that may not be able to see or write, you could bring objects in to have them touch and feel to describe their detail.
Materials: Black and white picture of a person, colored picture of a person, group activity—worksheet of sentences with words written on index card, another worksheet of sentences
Procedure:
Introduce the Topic:
• I was grading everyone’s journals for the week and have been noticing that everyone could use some help or ideas to make their writing a bit more interesting.
• One way to add appeal to your story is by adding adjectives.
• What is an adjective?
• Look at this picture of a person (show black and white picture), is it very interesting?
• How could we make this picture more appealing?
• Add color to the picture and relate this to how adding adjectives in our writing improves it.
Share Examples:
• Write sentences on the board, leaving spaces for adjective use in the second sentence:
“I ran down the road to the lake.”
“I quickly ran down the bumpy road to the sparkling lake.”
Provide Information:
• Using adjectives helps us add “color” to our writing, just like I showed you with the picture.
Supervise Practice:
• Hand out a group activity. This includes a worksheet of “plain” sentences and index cards with examples of different adjectives. The group as a whole can re-write the sentences using the examples.
Reflect on Learning:
• What is an adjective?
Objective 2: As the students engage in think, pair, share activities they will refer to the text to complete the assignment. They will learn from each other, receive feedback, and will also have a chance to engage in public speaking while discussing the story. This instructional strategy will encourage the students to reflect about the questions, share their ideas with their partner, fill out a worksheet with 5 questions, and then share their ideas with the rest of the class. Some of the questions on the worksheet will include:
However, it wasn’t until the construction of the Eiffel Tower that stirred Americans. “The [Eiffel] tower not only assured the eternal fame of its designer, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, but also offered graphic proof that France had edged out the United States for dominance in the realm of iron and steel, despite the Brooklyn Bridge, the Horseshoe Curve, and other Undeniable accomplishments of American engineers.” (pg.15). Americans were baffled, how could France be ahead of the race that America started? Discussions of a fair to be built in Chicago were announced, the same men who were responsible for the rebuilding of Chicago after the Great Fire of 1871 would be on the committee for building this great fair (pg.16). This fair would be a display of modern or ancient times. Being that there was one in Paris, it was only right for America to have one, and the goal was for it to be bigger and better. Once approved by government officials and personnel on the committee, there was a decision to construct The Chicago’s World Fair; which would also be referred to as the World’s Columbian Exposition. The lead architects Daniel Burnham and John Root knew that failure wasn’t an option. They could not let the nation’s honor or reputation become tarnished (pg.33). Burnham and Root had the job of insuring the nation’s egotism and prominence by exceeding the expectations of civilians. This was an extremely hard job, for both Burnham and Root this would be their biggest challenge, yet they would excel due to their expertise and power to imagine and
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The birthmark present on Georgiana’s face symbolizes many different things, such as the idea of unattainable perfection of nature even while knowing the inevitable consequences it holds. The main character Aylmer is obsessed with removing
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The visual description of a text is the perfect way to wrap the reader’s senses into the story.
These design principles may use color variations to communicate or show emphasis, hierarchy or structure (Keogh, 2015).
He brings her a potion that he says cannot fail. He shows her how it cures a geranium of blots. She drinks the liquid and sleeps. Aylmer watches her with tenderness but also as if he is watching a scientific experiment unfold. Gradually the birthmark fades. Aminadab laughs. Georgiana wakes, sees herself in the mirror, and tells Aylmer not to feel bad about rejecting “the best the earth could offer.” Then she dies.
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here imagery and alliteration are both used to create a very vibrant opening line that will appeal to the reader." (An
...ewed things while writing the novel. It is very important to examine the context of when something is written and this helped with that immensely.