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W.4.3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective
technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
CLL Goals:
Describe characters by how they look, what they do, say, and think, and what others say
about them.
Describe the setting with appropriate detail.
Develop an interesting story with believable characters and a realistic or fantastic plot.
Use a range of descriptive words to enhance meaning.
Objective:
Students will be able to write a snapshot narrative, of a situation either real or imaginary, they
will be able to write descriptive show-me sentences, use their five senses to describe, and help
the readers paint a vivid picture of what is going on in their snapshot narrative.
The BFG by Roald Dahlwe will be reading the first nine pages of this text. The beginning
pages describe the witching hour when the giants go out and hunt for people to eat. The second
chapter describes the Big Friendly Giant (BFG) that happens to catch the main character Sophie
peering out of her window during the witching hour. This mentor text will be used to hook the
students on how great descriptions draw the reader into the book and make the reader feel as if
they are inside of the book with the characters.
Help the teacher identify words or phrases that represent all five senses.
Listen to James and the Giant Peach as the teacher reads aloud. Write down as many
sense-words you can in the graphic organizer as you listen to the story excerpt.
Share out their favorite sense-words or phrases that Dahl used to enhance the imagery of
the scene.
Select a person that stands out in their life. Start to brainstorm descriptive sense-words
and phrases that they can use to enhance the description of this memory.
Mentor Text:
James and the Giant Peach by Roald DahlWe will be reading pages 23-26 from this book.
These pages describe the scene where James is cleaning up the yard around the giant peach in the
nighttime. He finds a hole in the peach and crawls inside. In these pages, Dahl describes the wet
stickiness of the peach as James crawls through, the bittersweet smell of the peach, how sweet
and juicy the peach tasted, the silence of the night, and the mysterious door in the center of the
peach. This excerpt will lend itself well to teach the students how to use all of their senses to
enhance their writing in a meaningful way in which the reader becomes part of the story.
Student Actions:
Students will help the teacher write a snapshot about the trip to the zoo.
They will all individually write sentences on their five senses graphic organizer.
Students will volunteer to read aloud the sentence they want to add to the snapshot. Then
they will go up and write their sentence to the snapshot.
Students will write this down in their writers notebook for future reference.
Teacher Actions:
Today you are going to write a snapshot. You can choose to write about a memory that
stands out in your life, or you can create an imaginary snapshot.
Weve already learned how to use showing sentences and our senses to make our writing
more descriptive, make sure you use these descriptive writing techniques in your
snapshot writing. I will read some more of Roald Dahls work to help get your creative
juices flowing.
As you listen to the story, I would like you to start thinking of possible snapshots you
could write about. If an idea comes to you, feel free to jot it down.
Read Dahls book Matilda. Read the chapter titled The Trunchbull on page 82. Roald
Dahl does a great job of painting vivid snapshots of the characters and scenes in his
novels. He shows the reader what is taking place rather than telling the reader. He also
uses all five of his senses to engulf the reader in his writing and make them feel as if they
were inside of the story.
Model how to write a snapshot of an important memory in your life for the class. Below
is my sample writing of an important memory in my personal narrative.
o My Snapshot Writing (continued from the previous lesson):
My adorable, plump grandmother had mastered the art of baking the most
delicious, chewy, chocolate chip cookies, and she was nice enough to teach me
how to bake them! I can still hear my grandmothers voice sweetly telling me how
much of each ingredient to pour into the mixing bowl while I make cookies today.
After we mixed all of the ingredients, we would pop the cookies in the oven. It
was unbearable to wait for the cookies to bake for nine whole minutes because the
scrumptious, sugary, chocolaty smells filled the entire house. My stomach would
start to grumble as I watched the cookies rise and turn golden brown in the hot
oven.
Student Actions:
Listen to the explanation of what a snapshot is and how to write one.
Have a writers notebook out during the read aloud in order to write down potential
snapshots to write aboutyou can choose a significant memory from your life or you can
make up an imaginary snapshot. Make sure you can incorporate as many of the five
senses as possible for this snapshot writing.
Listen to the teacher read aloud from Dahls book.
Write your own personal snapshot using show-me sentences, five senses, and the best
descriptor words you can think of.
The majority of this lesson will be writing time for students to begin their snapshot
narrative.
Mentor Text:
Matilda by Roald DahlWe will be reading the chapter titled The Trunchbull from this book
because Dahl describes the headmistress of the school Matilda attends. Dahl helps the reader
picture Miss Trunchbull in great detail by saying, Looking at her, you got the feeling that this
was someone who could bend iron bars and tear telephone directories in half. Her face, Im
afraid, was neither a thing of beauty nor a joy for ever. She had an obstinate chin, a cruel mouth
and small arrogant eyes. And as for her clothesthey were, to say the least, extremely odd. She
always had on a brown cotton smock which was pinched in around the waist with a wide leather
belt. This is a great example of a snapshot of a main character that will help the students create
an exact mental image of Miss Trunchbull, similar to what they will do on their own.
Differentiated Instruction
Use dictation as a way to help capture students thoughts and ideas about their writing.
This is especially good for ELLs who arent fully proficient in writing English. Often
times ELLs can speak more than they can write. Dictating what they describe will help
them familiarize themselves with those words and they will be able to remember them
easier if they are self-generated instead of teacher-generated stories.
Struggling writers can use the graphic organizer to construct their snapshot in pieces
before compiling all of the sentences in a logical, flowing way.
Have strong writers peer edit struggling writers so they can help the struggling writers
become stronger writers. This will also help the stronger writers become better at editing
another persons writing.
Provide a word bank for the students who are having difficulties writing their snapshot of
a memory. These words should be descriptive adjectives, sense words and phrases, and
key words that they need help spelling.
o Sense words: see, hear, feel, taste, smell
o Adjectives: bubbly, awesome, beautiful, adorable, dirty, disgusting, dull,
crushing, enormous, excited, free, friendly, huge, hungry, humiliating, icky, lazy,
mad, marvelous, nasty, naughty, etc.
Provide sentence starters to students who are unsure of where to begin.
o I saw the
o I felt
o This person makes me feel
o We heard
o It tasted like