Adjectives with the Mystery Box

Title: The Mystery Box

Grade: 4 or 5

Subject: Grammar

Purpose:

This activity will use a pre-writing strategy to allow students to produce a list of adjectives before writing. This lesson would be used as a mini lesson before writing workshop. This lesson will be a way for students to develop their own sense of what adjectives are and use them effectively in their own writing.

Objectives:

Students will :
-develop a list of adjectives after engaging in a pre-writing activity.
-compose a piece of writing using their list of adjectives.
-evaluate their writing in pairs.

Materials/Resources:

A descriptive book- novel or picture book
The Mystery Box
Paper
Pencil

Prerequisite Knowledge:

Students will understand nouns and verbs. A formal introduction of adjective will have taken place prior to this mini lesson. Also the students should understand the writing process and how to construct a workable set of prose.

Learning Environment:

The lesson will take place in the classroom as whole class instruction or in learning centers.

Procedure:

Motivation:

-Does anyone remember the book we read earlier today (or yesterday)?” “Well, I’m going to refresh your memory by reading a few pages from that book.”

-Today we are going to learn about adjectives. Sometimes people call them descriptive words.

-Read a passage from the chosen book.

-After reading the passage ask the students what they noticed about the passage.

-"Was it interesting?” “What made the writing interesting?” “What did the author do to make it this way?”

-Explain that writing is much more interesting with adjectives.

-Introduce the Mystery Box to the students. Tell them that there is an object in the box and they will each have an opportunity to place their hand in the box and feel the object.

-Remind students that there is to be no talking!! We don’t want anyone to have his or her experience ruined.

-Ask them to list words that come to mind while they felt the object in the box.

-Take a few minutes to list all the words that came to mind with you were feeling the object. How did it feel in your hands? Please write quietly without disturbing others.

-Wrap up discussion by evoking the words, adjective or descriptive words from the students.

Body:

-After everyone has had the chance to experience the mystery box, students will get with a partner (the person sitting next to them) and discuss their list of words.

-Pairs should discuss what the words all have in common and how they are different.

-The pairs will split up.

-Then explain that each student will compose a piece of writing describing the object in the box.

-The object doesn’t have to be in the box while writing about it. For example- if the student felt a snake in the box the student could write a story about finding a snake and picking in up and putting it in his sisters bed.

-Pair rejoins and share their writing. Then they read each piece of writing without the words from the list.

Conclusion

-Classroom discussion of what the words in the list were.

-How was the writing different when you read it without the words from the list?

-What does this tell us about our writing and how can we make it more descriptive?

-What if I read the piece from _________ without any adjectives?

-What would the words that I need to leave out be? Finalize the idea that descriptive words are necessary to make writing richer?

-Students then return to their desks and writing workshop begins. Encourage
students to try and use adjectives in their writing.