MacKenzie Frakes

March 22nd
Signature of CT:

Mentor Text Writing Lesson Plan Assignment

PART ONE: THE LESSON

A. TITLE OF LESSON: Descriptive language mini lesson

B. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING

Writing

4.7 The student will write cohesively for a variety of purposes.

c) Use a variety of pre-writing strategies.

i) Utilize elements of style, including word choice and sentence variation.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES

UNDERSTAND – Students will understand the importance of descriptive language and

its effect on the imagery in one’s written work.

KNOW – Students will know how to describe descriptive language. Students will know
several examples of descriptive language and its purpose in written work. Students will
also know how the author in the mentor text incorporated descriptive language in their
text to assist the reader in visualizing the setting and action.

DO – Students will use descriptive language when creating and describing their own
character. Students will create a narrative based on their made up character, incorporating
descriptive language and characteristics of their character.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING

I will assess student learning and comprehension through observation and discussion of the
mentor text. During the small group discussion, I will take notes of student comments to analyze
in order to assess whether they have grasped the objectives of describing and identifying
descriptive language. While the students are working, I will ask each child to point out one
example of descriptive language they included in their narrative and to explain to me how it is
beneficial to their writing. I will collect the students’ written work at the end of the lesson to use
for assessment. I have created a rubric based on the correlative Virginia Standards of Learning as
well as the objectives for this lesson. Attached to this lesson plan is the rubric and observation
form I will use during my mini lesson.

PART TWO: LESSON PLAN PROCEDURE

A. CONTEXT OF LESSON
MacKenzie Frakes
March 22nd
Signature of CT:
I will be teaching students, in a small group setting, about incorporating descriptive language
into our written works. There will be three small groups each lasting 25 minutes. I will be using
the mentor text The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies for this mini lesson. I chose this text,
as every student in Augusta County read this book during the month of February to promote
literacy learning at home. Therefore, I know the students in my practicum setting are familiar
with this book and the storyline is still fresh in their minds.

I will read sections from the first and second chapters of The Lemonade War to the students in
my small group, which highlight descriptive language to describe sounds, actions and
movements that occur between the main characters. After reading the excerpts, students will
“think, pair, and share.” Students will take time to individually think about what the author did
well in the excerpts, turn to a partner to hear their ideas, and then return to the whole group to
share their thinking. I will reiterate that we are going to focus on descriptive language in our
activity for the day.

The idea for this mini lesson came about from a conversation I had with my “flip teacher.”
Because my CT only teaches math and science, I will be going into the flip teacher’s classroom
during language arts instruction to conduct this small group activity. During our discussion, my
flip teacher shared with me that the students could work on descriptive language as part of their
written work. Based on the provided lesson plan examples and through my personal research on
writing mini lessons, I created the activity for this lesson on my own. This activity allows for
student creativity with regard to the illustrative portion of the activity, which is not always
implemented in the fourth grade classroom.

B. MATERIALS NEEDED

 Excerpt from The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies

 Brainstorming and lined narrative sheet
 Pencils
 Crayons
 Colored Pencils
 Markers

C. PROCEDURE


CONNECT After students are chosen to be in my small group,
I will introduce the mentor text. “Today we are
Time: 5 minutes going to be talking about this book you all have
already read, The Lemonade War! Before I tell you
about today’s activity, who can give me a short
Before
summary of what this book is about?” Call on a
student to share. “Today we are going to learn
about a writing strategy. A writing strategy is
something we use as writers to make sure we write
stories that are interesting, but also help us
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March 22nd
Signature of CT:
improve our writing abilities. Today’s writing
strategy involves using descriptive language. Who
can tell me what they think descriptive language
might be?” Call on students to share ideas.
“Descriptive language is when we using very
specific words to describe an action, feeling,
sound, etc. If I were to jump on a pogo stick, what
might that sound like to you?” Have students share
different sounds.

“We’re going to see how the author, Jacqueline

Davies, uses descriptive language in her book. I
am going to read a few pages from The Lemonade
War and I want you to pay really close attention to
how the author uses descriptive language. After I
finish reading, I will give you a few minutes to
think to yourself and then discuss with a partner
how she used this writing strategy and why you
think it might be important to use in your writing.”
TEACH Read pages 1 – 6. “Turn to a partner and discuss
what descriptive language you heard when I read
Time: 15 minutes these pages.” While students are talking, jot down
notes on observation form to assess their
comprehension of the topic. “Who can share what
you and your partner talked about?” Allow
volunteers to share. “Now I want you to turn to
your partner and take one minute to talk about why
descriptive language is important when we’re
writing. Go!” Allow one minute for student
thinking. “Who would like to share?” Students
share. “Before we begin our activity, does anyone
have any questions about using descriptive
During language?” Allow a few minutes for questions.

“Okay, we are now going to do our silent activity.

This means we are not working with a partner, I
want you to be creative on your own. First you are
going to draw a picture of a made up character.
You are going to write about this character
afterwards, so keep that in mind. After you have
finished drawing, in the blank space on your page
either on the sides or underneath your drawing, I
want you to use some words to describe your
character. On the back of this sheet you are going
to write a small story or passage about your
character. Use the descriptive words you used to
MacKenzie Frakes
March 22nd
Signature of CT:
describe your character when writing your
sentences. I’m looking for at least five to six
sentences. Remember our writing strategy for the
day. We want to include descriptive language! I
am going to check that you included at least four
examples of descriptive language in your story.
Once every one has finished we are going to group
back together and discuss our stories. Any
questions?” Answer any last minute questions.
ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT As students work at their desks, I will walk around
and conference with them on their ideas, while
taking notes on what I observe from each student.
After LINK Once students have completed their activity sheet,
they will have an opportunity to share their stories
Time: 5 minutes with their peers. “Turn to your partner from earlier
and share with each other how you chose to use
descriptive language when writing about your
fictional character.” Students will share with each
other. “Who would like to share with our group
how they incorporated descriptive language?”
Have the volunteers share. “Today we used the
book The Lemonade War to show us how we can
use descriptive language to make our writing
better. Who can tell me one thing you’ve learned
about why we should use descriptive language?”
Students will respond with appropriate answers.
“Descriptive language helps us picture what is
happening in the story and what sounds may be
heard from the actions of the characters. This
makes our writing more interesting to those who
are reading it!”

D. DIFFERENTIATION

Because the written narrative portion of the activity will be done individually, I will be able to
monitor student progress through observation. If a student seems to be struggling, I will ask them
individually about their made up character. I will have the struggling student describe their
character and the action that they are doing. From there, I can help brainstorm descriptive
characteristics and language that the student can use for their narrative. If the student is not
grasping the concept of descriptive language or cannot identify examples of descriptive
language, I will ask the student questions such as “what would it sound like if I dropped an egg
on the ground?” Questions like this will help the student think of words to describe sound, which
can be used in their narrative.

E. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO
ABOUT IT?
MacKenzie Frakes
March 22nd
Signature of CT:
Students may struggle with identifying descriptive language in the excerpts from the mentor text.
If this is the case, I will make sure to identify the descriptive language from the passage. I will
also provide other examples of descriptive language by asking students questions such as “what
would it sound like if _____” or “what would it look like if I _____.” These types of open-ended
questions allow for students to be creative and brainstorm how they would describe certain
events. This type of thinking will help struggling students with the first steps of mastering this
writing strategy. If students take too much time creating their fictional character, I will instruct
them to move on to the writing portion of the activity so that we have ample time to share at the
end.
MacKenzie Frakes
March 22nd
Signature of CT:
Activity Sheet

CREATIVE NARRATIVE WRITING:

BRAINSTORMING
Character development
Draw a picture of your character in action. In the empty space, include
descriptive words or phrases about what your character is doing.

Main character’s name: _____________________________________________

MacKenzie Frakes
March 22nd
Signature of CT:

Write a narrative about your character,

including the descriptive words and phrases
about their actions:

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