My lessons are on descriptive writing. This is the third week in the writing module, so students have a rich foundation at this point.

The lesson objective - Students will be able to describe something without naming it. Their audience will be able to name it based on their description. By the end of the lesson, students will have selected an item and made a brainstorm on how they will describe it using sensory language and adjectives. Acceptable performance will include a written brainstorm in their writer’s notebook.

Assessment - The "assessment" for this lesson is a final draft, written riddle. Students will know the criteria needed in this writing sample and will have gone through recursive writing stages by this point.

Task from Lesson - Students will identify a person, place, or thing at our school that they want to describe. They will begin a brainstorm using sensory language and adjectives to describe their thing.

Who my students are - My class is a multilingual 3rd grade class. They have enjoyed descriptive writing and the creativity that comes with it.

Cognitive Demand/Language Demand -

  • Listening
    • Students will listen as the teacher gives instructions and classmates share. 
    • Students will listen to a reading of “Magnificent Homespun Brown”.
  • Writing
    • Students will write a brainstorm of descriptive words surrounding an item- a person, place, or thing in their school- of their choosing. 
  • Speaking
    • Turning to a partner, students will guess what the author is describing in the text.

Students will articulate a description of a person, place, or thing found at their school. They will then compose a list of descriptive words to illustrate the object.

Resources - Coherence Map (for math)

Epic and ArcBookshelf (for reading)

ChatGPT (ah! Can I admit that?!) - sometimes I just need a succinct answer or quick way to explain something!

Lesson Reflection