This Lesson's Title:

Let Me Show
You Nature

creating a "showing" paragraph about a natural object

This lesson was built for WritingFix after being proposed by Nevada teacher Joni Martindale at an AT&T-sponsored in-service class for teachers.

The intended "mentor text" to be used when teaching this on-line lesson is the chapter book Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. Before writing, students should listen to and discuss the writing style of this book's author, especially chapter 2.

Check out Sarah, Plain and Tall at Amazon.com.

If you are a Washoe County teacher, click here to search for this book at the county library.

Three-Sentence Overview of this Lesson:

The writer will create a descriptive paragraph that describes an object or a place in nature.   As Patricia MacLachlan does in Sarah, Plain and Tall, the writer will paint a verbal picture of an object or place in nature, using carefully chosen adjectives, especially color and texture words.  Writers will then read their writings aloud to partners, and partners will attempt to draw the objects or places based on the author's carefully chosen words. Teachers: click here to read the entire lesson plan.

6-Trait Overview for this Lesson:

The focus trait in this writing assignment is word choice; each writer will incorporate interesting adjectives by focusing on color, texture, and sound words.  The support trait in this assignment is sentence fluency; the writer will strive to create a descriptive paragraph that uses sentences that begin with different words and that have different lengths.