Kelly Maiello Topic: Writing Mini-Lesson, Grade 5, writing with adjectives Standards: W.5.

3- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. Objectives: Students will add adjectives to a narrative to make it more descriptive. Rationale: Students will be able to write more descriptively by adding adjectives to their own writing. They can use adjectives not only in narratives but other genres of writing. Writing more descriptively will help students develop as writers, and students will be more aware of descriptive writing as a reader too. Materials: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott ODell Procedure: 1. Lesson Introduction: a. Last time we reviewed adverbs with Miss G. Can someone tell me what an adverb is? (call on ONE student) Right, an adverb is a word modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb, and is sometimes seen with a ly at the end. b. Okay writers, today we are going to learn how to use adjectives to help make our writing more vivid. Many of you are reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott ODell for guided reading groups. Im going to show you passage from this book that really shows how good writers use adjectives. An adjective is a word that describes (or modifies) a noun. Good writers, like ODell, use lots of adjectives so their readers can clearly visualize what theyre writing. 2. Teach and Model a. (Write passage on chart paper so students can read along with me) Here are some sentences from this book Many Luscious Lollypops which uses a lot of adjectives. Here is one: A wet and soggy, drizzly day, rainy, wintery and gray. Now, as the reader, you can really see and feel this type of day, right? The adjectives in this sentence are wet, soggy, drizzly, rainy, wintery and gray, which are all describing the type of weather it is.

b. Lets try another one: A mesmerizing, colorful and glittering display of Christmas ornaments. Here the ornaments are being described by mesmerizing, colorful and glittering. c. (passout handout with passage typed) So now lets read a passage from Island of the Blue Dolphins and I wasnt you to circle the adjectives in the passage and then underline the noun it is describing: The ship was so large, many times the size of our biggest canoes. It had two tall masts and between them stood a young man with blue eyes and a black beard. He was the chieftain of the white men, for he began to shout orders which they quickly obeyed. (page 36) d. So going one sentence at a time, who can tell me what the adjectives are in the first sentence? Yes, large and biggest, because they describe the size of the ship and the canoes. What about the next sentence? Yes, tall describes the masts, young, blue and black all describe the man on the ship. 3. Guided Practice a. Now pair up with the person sitting across from you (or groups of three if necessary), and in your writers notebooks I want you to write a descriptive sentence with your partner. Im going to give you a word and you need to write a descriptive sentence with adjectives about this object. The word is duck, so write a descriptive sentence with your partner about the duck(s). b. (Allow students to write for 30 seconds to1 minute) What were some examples of adjectives you used to describe the ducks? 4. Independent Practice a. Now that weve tried this together, I want you to take out the narratives we were working on the other day. Try to find at least four places where you can add adjectives. 5. Assessment a. Students will be successful if they accurately add at least four adjectives to their narratives. If time allows, ask several students to share an example of where they added an adjective.

Circle the adjectives in the passage below and underline the noun it is describing.

The ship was so large, many times the size of our biggest canoes. It had two tall masts and between them stood a young man with blue eyes and a black beard. He was the chieftain of the white men, for he began to shout orders which they quickly obeyed. Island of the Blue Dolphins, page 36