1 5Th Grade: Power Lesson 1 Title: What Is Imagery? Focus: Using Imagery in Narrative Writing Standard(S): ELAGSE5W3: Write

5th Grade: Power Lesson 1 Title: What is Imagery? Focus: Using imagery in narrative writing Standard(s):

ELAGSE5W3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences. d. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely. Target: I can add figurative language into my writing to create strong imagery. Part 1: Lesson Introduction (5 minutes) Explain to the class that we are going to study how authors purposely use imagery in their writing so that readers can have a “real” experience as they read. Authors write to appeal to a reader’s senses, which is what imagery does---it is writing that appeals to our senses. Explain that imagery will seldom appeal to all five senses at the same time. It is used to appeal to our senses as we make “mental pictures” in our minds when we read. Imagery is most often used in poetry but can appear in any creative writing. Part 2: Mini-lesson/Teacher modeling (10 minutes) For example purposes only, we are going to use the text Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg. Tell the students that they are going to listen to a read-aloud of this story. The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD40MGyodk0 . The story will take about 7 minutes. Tell the class that you want them to imagine as many things as they can: Tell them to imagine what the ants saw, what they heard, what they smelled, what they touched, and what they tasted. After listening to the story, give them a couple of minutes to jot down any of the things that stood out to them. Part 3: Guided practice (10 minutes) The guided practice part of the lesson will focus on three screenshots of pages from the mentor text, Two Bad Ants. Each picture is accompanied by a few questions. It is not necessary for the students to write down the questions or the answers. Use this part of the lesson to emphasize how the author uses imagery within this mentor text.

5th grade Power Lesson #1 Imagery/Narrative Writing

Describe how the crystal tasted to the ant queen. (“She deemed it the most delicious food she had ever tasted. Nothing could make her happier than to have much, much more.”)

Describe how the news traveled. (“The news traveled swiftly through the tunnels of the ant world.”)

Describe how the ants felt about doing work to make the queen happy. (“The ants understood. They were eager to gather more crystals because the queen was the mother of them all. Her happiness made the whole ant nest a happy place.”)

Describe the ants as they stopped and listened for spiders. (“More than once the line of ants stopped and anxiously listened for the sounds of hungry spiders.”)

Describe the call of the crickets. (“But all they heard was the call of crickets echoing through the woods like distant thunder.”)

Describe the dew that fell on the ants. (“Without warning, huge cold drops fell on the marching ants.”)

Describe the light in the woods made by the firefly. (“A firefly passed overhead that, for an instant, lit up the woods with a blinding flash of blue-green light.”)

5th grade Power Lesson #1 Imagery/Narrative Writing

Describe the mountain the ants saw. (“At the edge of the forest stood a mountain. The ants looked up and could not see its peak. It seemed to reach right to the heavens.”)

Describe how the wind made the ants feel. (“The wind whistled through the cracks of the mountain’s face. The ants could feel its force bending their delicate antennae. Their legs grew weak as they struggled upward. At last they reached a ledge and crawled through a narrow tunnel.”)

Part 4: Independent work time (20 minutes) During independent work time, students will be assisting the author of Two Bad Ants by adding description where needed in the story. Focusing on the three story frames used in the guided part of the lesson, instruct the students to go back and look at how the author used imagery. Next, they should determine how the story could be improved by adding more imagery in the descriptions wherever they feel that more details would add to the descriptions. Before beginning this task, ask the students which of the three story frames had the best imagery as far as being able to feel and hear. Point out that the very last description of the wind is very strong with imagery. Students should complete the following:

1. Look at the first picture above. We know that the queen ant ate the crystal. Describe how it tasted. Insert the sentence you would write to make this action have more imagery. 2. Look at the second picture above. It tells of the hungry spiders. Describe what hungry spiders must sound like to an ant’s ears. Describe how the ants must feel about the hungry spiders. Write a sentence or two that could be inserted onto this page to add to the imagery. 3. Look at the third picture above. It describes in great detail how the ants feel as they climb the mountain and push against the strong wind. Add details that reveal how the wind sounds to the ants. Describe how the ants felt physically when they left the feeling of the strong wind and crawled into the narrow tunnel. Did they feel wind? Write a few sentences that could be inserted onto this page that would make the imagery stronger.

5th grade Power Lesson #1 Imagery/Narrative Writing

Part 5: Review Assessment (10 minutes) Review & Closing (5 minutes) Take time during the assessment for each Using the following screenshot from the student to share one sentence he/she mentor text, read it aloud to the class. inserted into the mentor text. While this does not have to have a “grade,” give credit at your own discretion. For example, you may want to take up all papers and read the examples and give feedback individually. Since this is a learning task, students may or may not show mastery at this level. Encourage challenge in this area and praise all attempts.

Focus on the imagery the author uses here. Compare this page to the text below:

The ants fell into a chamber and got wet. They landed on old food. There was a lot of noise and the chamber started to spin. The ants were spinning in old food and rain. It all stopped quickly. The ants were hurt and climbed out of the chamber.

End the lesson with a comparison of the page without imagery to the way the author wrote it. Discuss the power of imagery.

Part 6: Extensions Enrichment Support Gather several poems that are rich with Students who struggle with this concept can imagery. Challenge the students to analyze be given extra help similar to the closing of the imagery within each poem. Students the lesson. Use examples of excerpts from should annotate on their copy of the poem stories that have great imagery and rewrite

5th grade Power Lesson #1 Imagery/Narrative Writing

and then use their annotations to write a simple and direct samples of these same short paper telling of the imagery present excerpts. For example, choose great within the poem. They should focus on why examples of imagery and then rewrite these the author would have chosen the imagery very plainly. Have the students match the he/she did and why this was important to the great excerpts with the plain rewrites. Have meaning of the poem. them explain WHY the excerpts are so much better than the plain rewrites. They should be guided to think about how the excerpts help them see, feel, taste, hear, or smell while they are reading and how this is missing in the plain rewrites. Finally, support them as they attempt to add imagery in much the same way as the lesson did with the mentor text.

5th grade Power Lesson #1 Imagery/Narrative Writing