Jessica: Second Grade: Using Descriptive Language

By: Jessica Herrmann

Mentor Text Selection: The Night I Followed the Dog by Nina Laden

Writing Skill: Students will examine this mentor text and use it as an example for adding descriptive words and details to their writing. Students will learn that they can use mentor texts to improve their own writing pieces.

Connection to Six Traits: Word Choice-Using descriptive words that create a mental image.

Mentor Text Summary:

The Night I Followed My Dog is a book about a boy who thinks he has an uninteresting dog, but one day sees him come out of a limousine in a tux. When his dog came in the house, he was normal. So the next night the boy decides to follow his dog. This takes him on a great adventure where he finds there is a place where all of the dogs in the city hangout at night. This place is where dogs sing, dance, and dress like humans. The dog discovers the boy followed him and explains that he owns the building. The boy soon discovers that he has a cool dog after all.

Purpose for Mentor Text Selection: This book is humorous, interesting, and creative. This book serves as a great example for using descriptive language in writing. The author, who is also the illustrator, decided to turn some of the words into pictures. Many of these words are descriptive words. As the picture shows above, the letters in “wagging” looks as if they are tails that are wagging. The word “funny” is writing in a silly way. A limousine is drawn around the word “limousine.”

Some of the following are descriptive words that students will find in the book: ordinary, exotic, boring, dark, huge, fancy, red, empty, brass, mean, funny, etc.

Lesson Plan:

***Please note it is important that students are exposed to the book first for enjoyment before being asked to study the text. The teacher must find an opportunity prior to or at the beginning of the lesson to read the book to students so that they can enjoy it. Then it can be used as a reread for students to examine how the author wrote using descriptive language. ***Students should have previously written at least one story to examine during this lesson.

1. The lesson will begin with a discussion of descriptive language. There will be a discussion of what it means to describe something. Students will share what they think it means to describe something. The teacher will use this discussion to assess the students’ understanding and background knowledge of descriptive language. In addition, the teacher will guide students to adjust their thinking if necessary. Students will brainstorm on chart paper words or phrases that describe things.

2. The teacher will then pick an item in the room and the students will practice describing it using their five senses. This process will be repeated as needed. As students think of more descriptive words, these words will be added to the class chart.

3. Next, the teacher will explain the idea of using an author’s work as a model to improve writing. Also, the teacher will explain to students that they will be examining The Night I Followed the Dog to see examples of a writing piece that contains descriptive writing. The teacher will explain to the students that they will be examining at least one of their previously written stories and adjust it by adding descriptive words or phrases. Explaining this will help students know why they are studying this mentor text.

4. The teacher will read the story to the students. (As noted above this should be a reread of the story). The teacher will stop every two pages and students will share some examples of descriptive words and phrases that are in the book. The teacher will add these words to the class list. The teacher will ask students to share what they notice about the words in the story. This will encourage a discussion of how the author turned her words into pictures to enhance her descriptive writing and to help the reader visualize the story.

5. At the end of the story, there will be a discussion of the descriptive words and phrases that the author used and what that story would have been like if those descriptive words would not have been included. The teacher will read a couple of pages leaving out the descriptive words so that the students can actually hear the difference in the story.

6. The assignment will be explained to students. Students will be required to add at least five descriptive words or phrases to their writing piece. At least three words must be turned into a drawing just like Nina Laden modeled in her book. In addition, students must illustrate at least one picture to go with their stories. Students will look in their writing notebooks for a story they have written previously. Students will decide where they want to add description in their stories and indicate these places by drawing a star. Students will look at the class list of descriptive words to help them add their descriptions as they rewrite their stories. The teacher will walk around to monitor and provide assistance to students. Their stories will later be combined into a class book.

Possible Lesson Extensions:

-Students can study other books that model writing with descriptive language.

-Students can write clues describing themselves. The class will then have to guess which description goes with which classmate.

Second Grade Ohio Academic Content Standards, Benchmarks, and Indicators for Writing:

Writing Processes Standard

Benchmarks:

C. Use organizers to clarify ideas for writing assignments. (lists)

D. Use revision strategies and resources to improve ideas and content, organization, word choice and detail.

Indicators:

4. Use organizational strategies (e.g., lists) to plan writing.

11. Add descriptive words and details

Nina Laden

Links to Additional Information:

Nina Laden’s Official Homepage

Information about The Night I Followed My Dog

Nina Laden Short Bio