This unit plan focuses on students communicating descriptively through their writing. The grade level for this plan ranges from first to third grade and takes three weeks, with 2-3 periods spent weekly. The essential question of this unit for the students to learn is, "How can I communicate so others will understand?"
Students, by the end of the unit, will create their own monsters through both a drawing and a paragraph describing their monster. Through descriptive paragraphs, they will email their creation to a partner, using words to help "paint a picture" in their partner's mind. They will also be emailed a descriptive paragraph from their partner. Students then read their partner's paragraph and draw their own picture of their partner's monster according to the description they are reading. Their illustrations are then "scanned and swapped". This shows students the power of writing and language and teaches them more about descriptive words and skills.
Before this project begins, two children's books are read and discussed with the students. The first book, The Judge by Harvey Zemach, is used to show how words can paint a picture. At the end of the book, before the last page is read, the students will draw a picture of "the horrible creature coming this way" from the reading. They will post their pictures around the room and discuss how people view and comprehend things differently and how they were able to use the author's description of the monster to draw their pictures. They can discuss specific words that the author used to describe the monster that helped them picture it in their head. The second book, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, introduces the use of adjectives. After discussing and teaching the definition of the word "adjective, students are shown pictures of the monsters from the book and are asked to come up with adjective to describe the monster. They will also use the story, Shrek, to help imagine and picture what the character looks like in their head as the book is read. Each of these stories ties into the topic of "monsters" and helps students learn about descriptive writing.
At the end of the unit, a class discussion about the lesson is given. Students can reflect on how powerful words can be, the pictures language and writing can create in your mind, and how people see things differently. Students can also discuss the essential question, "How can I communicate so others with understand?"
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The quiz is entitled, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"
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| Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day | | | | |
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