A Sensory Walk

Sensory details can enhance the reading experience, especially during a guided imagery reading. Young readers close their eyes and listen to a passage from Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons before responding to discussion questions and...

Picture books provide the impetus for a study of how authors make plots seem real and characters interesting. After reading several books, class members list the techniques the authors used to enliven their stories and then craft their...

The second in a series of nine exercises designed to develop songwriting skills introduces the idea of elaboration. After a close reading and discussion of the elaborations in Vanessa Hudgens' "Sneakernight," young songwriters practice...

Home in on the quote on this page to explore setting, the author's and character's voices, and plot in Willa Cather's My Antonia. Pupils draw a picture of what is described in the quote, discuss the content, and make connections to their...

The practice of developing lyrics by elaborating with sensory details and examples continues in the third lesson on songwriting. This time class members examine Jesse McCartney's "How Do You Sleep?" Using procedures established in the...

Using their keen eyes and ears, learners build story observation skills which they will use to create sensory detail in their art. They note all of the things they observed on a walk, categorize them by sense, and then use the same skill...

Sensory details show the story instead of telling it. Emerging writers discuss ways to convey sensory details. They practice adding sensory details in a graphic organizer before adding details to their own scripts.

A great way to reinforce descriptive writing, this lesson serves as an exploration of adjectives and sensory words. First, pupils describe a family tradition using as many sensory details as they can. Then, they try to draw a scene from...

Have your writers identify and use words that appeal to the senses. They create a chart of sensory words and record some of their favorites, then write a journal entry in which they describe eating at a restaurant using sensory details....

 Learners describe the sensory experience of a character's journey in an essay.  In this precise details writing lesson, students explain the effects on the senses of weather, time of day, landscape, and other experiences.  Learners use...