It encourages students to use new vocabulary words
It can help students clarify their understanding of new subject matter material
How to teach descriptive writing
There's no one way to teach descriptive writing. That said, teachers can:
Develop descriptive writing skill through modeling and the sharing of quality literature full of descriptive writing.
Include lessons such as the ones listed below throughout the year.
Call students' attention to interesting, descriptive word choices in classroom writing.
According to Book Nuts Reading Club, descriptive writing shares the following characteristics:
Good descriptive writing includes many vivid sensory details that paint a picture and appeals to all of the reader's senses of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste when appropriate. Descriptive writing may also paint pictures of the feelings the person, place or thing invokes in the writer.
Good descriptive writing often makes use of figurative language such as analogies, similes and metaphors to help paint the picture in the reader's mind.
Good descriptive writing uses precise language. General adjectives, nouns, and passive verbs do not have a place in good descriptive writing. Use specific adjectives and nouns and strong action verbs to give life to the picture you are painting in the reader's mind.
Good descriptive writing is organized. Some ways to organize descriptive writing include: chronological (time), spatial (location), and order of importance. When describing a person, you might begin with a physical description, followed by how that person thinks, feels and acts.
Language Arts
The Show-Me Sentences lesson plan from Read Write Think was created for students in grades 6-12. However, elementary teachers can modify the Show-Me sentences to make them interesting for younger students.
The Writing Fix provides a lesson plan for using Roald Dahl's The Twits as a