Name Cassidy Taber Grade Level: 4

Writing Mini-Lesson Template

Mini Lesson Topic SOL: 4.5—The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts,
narrative nonfiction texts, and poetry.
g) Identify sensory words.
b) Describe how the choice of language, setting, characters, and information contributes to
the author's purpose.

Objective: This collection of texts invites authors’ crafts into the fourth grade classroom to
provide valuable examples of imagery that will enhance the reading and writing abilities of
students. The book selections were chosen to show young writers how authors use
figurative language to create imagery in their books.
-Multiple picture books
Materials -Sentence strips
-Anchor chart paper
-Markers
-Writing paper
-Pencils
-Crayons
Connection: Last time, we talked about imagery and how authors use our 5 senses to appeal to the
 Tell them what you reader. This is engaging to the reader because it makes us feel emmersed in the book as if
taught in the we are actually experiencing what is being described. This is what makes us want to keep
previous lesson. reading!
 How does this idea
connect?
 Today, we are diving deeper into imagery with authors' usage of figurative language. We
Explicit Instruction: are going to look at a lot books in our text set that use figurative language in order to
 Tell them what you achieve imagery within their writing.
will teach today. You might be asking yourself, "Ms. Taber, what is figurative language?" You have heard
 Show them figurative language all your life, you probably just didn't know it! Phrases like "her face is
examples of how red as a tomato" or "the sun was smiling down on us" are both common examples of
others use the figurative language.
technique(s). Figurative language comes in different forms. We are going to talk about 3 different forms
of figurative language today: similes, onomatopoeia, and personification.
--Similes are when you are comparing two things using the words like or as. For example:
"he's as tall as a sycamore tree." The phrase is comparing a tall man to a sycamore tree
because we all know that sycamore trees are very tall. This relates to imagery in our lesson
today because it paints a vivid picture in your mind of just how tall this man is. Now, is he
really as tall as a sycamore tree? Of course not. We just want to create the picture in
someone's mind that this man is abnormally tall.
--Personification is when you give human like qualities to something that isn't human. For
example: "the stars winked in the night sky". Can stars wink their eyes like a human? No!
They don't have eyes! However, anyone who has seen stars in the night sky knows what the
phrase is talking about when it says the stars winked because that’s what it looks like and it
creates an image in the mind of the reader.
--Onomatopoeia is when you express words as sounds. For example: "the fire truck made a
loud WEE-OO, WEE-OO, WEE-OO noise as it raced by". We can hear in our brains exactly
what is being talked about , can't we?
Are there any questions about the three types figurative language we are discussing today?
There are more forms of figurative language, however, we are only going over three of
them today.
To get you practicing with differentiating each of these forms of figurative language, I am
Guided Practice: going to have you all do a sentence sort. We will do a few together and then we will break
 Engage them in off into partners.
practicing you’re The sentences I am going to give you are from our imagery text set. I want you to read the
your and/or sentence and figure out what type of figurative language it is and place it under that
other(s). category. Of course, there are only 3 categories: personification, simile, and hyperbole.
Then, I want you to put one of these picture cut outs by the sentence to show which of the
five senses the imagery in this sentence appeals to (cut outs are of a mouth, ears, a nose,
hands, and eyes). Does this make sense to everyone? Let's try two together:
1. The sentence strip says: "He tossed the gingerbread cowboy into the air like a flapjack on
a griddle" -The Gingerbread Cowboy. Take a minute to think, and then raise your hand
when you think you know which form of figurative language this sentence goes under. Yes!
It is a simile. Why? It compares two things using the words 'like' or 'as'. Go ahead and slide
that sentence strip under the simile category. The next step I want you to think about is
what senses did this sentence appeal to? We are now tying in what we learned last time
with what we are learning today. Yes! I would agree that this sentence appeals to the sense
of sight because we can see in our mind what it looks like when someone flips a flapjack. Go
ahead and put the picture of the eyes next to that sentence.
2. Let's do one more together. The sentence says, "Thump-p, thump-p, ERRRRRRRCH!!"
-Piggie Pie. Raise your hand if you know which of the three figurative language category this
should go under? Yes! It is onomatopoeia. This sentence is making a sound. Go ahead and
put the body part cut out next to this sentence of which sense are being targeted. If you put
the ears, you are certainly correct. We can literally hear this sentence! What does it sound
like to you? I think it sounds like Gritch the witch's broom stick coming in for a landing!
Go ahead and grab a partner and complete the next two sentences together with the your
senses cards and then we will go over them together.
(At this point in the guided practice I would watch all pairs carefully and see if there's any
 confusion and help where it's needed).
Independent Practice: You all did amazing with that activity. At this point it doesn't seem like anyone is confused
 Remind students about figurative language and imagery. I just want to ask you again why were are talking
how the teaching about figurative language and imagery together? Yes! Figurative language is used a lot to
point can be used in help create imagery and paint that mental picture in our readers' minds.
independent For the last part of our lesson today, I want to read you another book in our text set that we
writing. haven't yet read. It is called Hello Harvest Moon and it is full of beautiful imagery and
 Link mini-lesson and figurative language. When we are done with the book, I want you to pick out a sentence
writing lives. that has one of our three forms of figurative language in it and I want you to draw a picture
of it and write the sentence beneath it and what form of figurative language and senses it
appeals to. Then, I want you to make your own sentence up about the picture using one of
the three forms of figurative language we learned about today. We will have time to share
for anyone who wishes to. First, let me show you an example that is non-related to the
book we are about to read. I am pulling this sentence from the book in our text set Honey:
"The clouds cracked and grumbled in a heavy sky" This sentence shows personification by
saying that the clouds "grumbled" and it appealed to my sense of hearing. My version of
the sentence is also going to have personification except I'm going to say "the clouds
sounded angry in the stormy sky".
* Teacher reads Hello Harvest Moon *
I have a copy of this book for each of you to look through now that we have read the whole
thing. You can look inside of the book to recap and pick out a sentence with figurative
language that stands out to you. First you are going to write the book's sentence down.
Then, you are going to tell me what form of figurative language it shows and what senses it
appeals to. Finally, write your own figurative language sentence. When all of this is
complete, then you may color. You have about 10 minutes to complete this. Does anyone
have any questions?
* When ten minutes is up, students will share with the group *
Groups Wrap Up: Before we wrap up our lesson, why did we talk about figurative language today?
 Restate the teaching Yes, because it helps us create imagery as writers and helps us appeal to the five senses.
point. Another question for you, what are the three types of figurative we learned about today?
 Ask: Did you try Personification, onomatopoeia, and simile!
what was taught? What does each form of figurative language do?
Did it work for you? Do you think that you will use figurative language in your own writing from now on?
How will it affect You all did amazing, I am so impressed with how much you learned in such a short amount
your future writing? of time.

Self Check:

I modeled writing for the students.

I used a mentor text.

I used excerpts from the mentor texts.

I provided details as to what I was doing for each stage of the lesson.

I provided details as to what the students were doing for each stage of the lesson.