Esther Forbes' award-winning Revolutionary War novel, Johnny Tremain and excerpts from Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine are used to model how imagery brings alive the setting of a story. The young writers then craft their own descriptive setting for a historical novel.

Additional Tags

english language arts

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Classroom Considerations

• Consider expanding the concept of setting to include time and place and asking readers to indicate details that place the story in Boston at the time of the Revolutionary War
• The lesson assumes that each participant has a copy of Forbes's novel

Pros

• Prewriting activities, a writing checklist, a revision sheet, and a rubric are provided for the descriptive writing assignment
• All required materials are included

Cons

• An additional exercise, one in which writers consider the historical framework of the setting they plan to describe, and then brainstorm details that would reveal the time and place of this setting, would scaffold for the assignment