Descriptive Paragraph

Katherine HowardWriting 1

Turn InYour Observation

Paragraph!

Blue Like Journalsare Due Today too!

Today

• Detail Practice• Paragraph Model• Prewriting - Clustering

Pick a Card

• Don’t show anyone your card.• Write five clues about the noun on individual

notecards. Use as many adjectives as you can. Use your senses to explain the noun.

• Read the sentences to the class and have people guess what the noun is.

• Make sure to use spatial order in presenting your clues.

Example

• It is a beautiful and amazing animal.• It gallops in the sunny hills of an imagery

land.• It has four large hooves with shiny golden

“shoes.”• Its long white mane glistens as the cool

breeze blows it back as it runs.• It has a thin twirling horn between its

glistening dark black eyes.

UNICORN

Pick a Card

• Don’t show anyone your card.• Write five clues about the noun. Use as many

adjectives as you can. Use your senses to explain the noun.

• Read the sentences to the class and have people guess what the noun is.

Details pg 63

Read the following topic sentences for descriptive paragraphs. Then discuss with a partner or group some possible details to describe the place. Next, decide on the best kind of spatial order to use in the description: right to left, left to right, top to bottom, bottom to top, far to near, outside to inside, and so finally. Finally, write your details in spatial order on the lines.

My Banana GardenBehind my childhood home, there is a large piece of land that is

surrounded by banana trees growing in wild disorder. Crowds of banana trees grow freely everywhere. Their green leaves are so thick that sunlight cannot pass through. Underneath the trees, the ground is so moist that wild mushrooms and plants grow there all year around. In the center is a wild field where the children of my village often fly kites. Every evening, just before sunset, some birds arrive to look for a place to rest their tired wings. They want to land in the dark banana garden, but the banana leaves are too wide to make into nests. The birds cry out and then fly away, seeking a better place to nest. During the rainy season, it rains for days and days, and the banana leaves become glossy and slick. The rain also makes the banana garden produce a very strange melody. On rainy days, I used to sit near my window and listen to this wonderful song. Now, whenever I hear the plop-plop-plop of raindrops on the roof my small, tidy apartment in the city, I remember the beautiful, wild banana garden of my childhood.

My Banana Garden

• What is the topic sentence? What is the controlling idea?

• Underline the adjectives and 5 senses.• Find the spatial order words.• How is this paragraph ordered?

Discuss with a partner.

My Banana GardenBehind my childhood home, there is a large piece of land that is

surrounded by banana trees growing in wild disorder. Crowds of banana trees grow freely everywhere. Their green leaves are so thick that sunlight cannot pass through. Underneath the trees, the ground is so moist that wild mushrooms and plants grow there all year around. In the center is a wild field where the children of my village often fly kites. Every evening, just before sunset, some birds arrive to look for a place to rest their tired wings. They want to land in the dark banana garden, but the banana leaves are too wide to make into nests. The birds cry out and then fly away, seeking a better place to nest. During the rainy season, it rains for days and days, and the banana leaves become glossy and slick. The rain also makes the banana garden produce a very strange melody. On rainy days, I used to sit near my window and listen to this wonderful song. Now, whenever I hear the plop-plop-plop of raindrops on the roof my small, tidy apartment in the city, I remember the beautiful, wild banana garden of my childhood.

My Banana GardenBehind my childhood home, there is a large piece of land that is

surrounded by banana trees growing in wild disorder. Crowds of banana trees grow freely everywhere. Their green leaves are so thick that sunlight cannot pass through. Underneath the trees, the ground is so moist that wild mushrooms and plants grow there all year around. In the center is a wild field where the children of my village often fly kites. Every evening, just before sunset, some birds arrive to look for a place to rest their tired wings. They want to land in the dark banana garden, but the banana leaves are too wide to make into nests. The birds cry out and then fly away, seeking a better place to nest. During the rainy season, it rains for days and days, and the banana leaves become glossy and slick. The rain also makes the banana garden produce a very strange melody. On rainy days, I used to sit near my window and listen to this wonderful song. Now, whenever I hear the plop-plop-plop of raindrops on the roof my small, tidy apartment in the city, I remember the beautiful, wild banana garden of my childhood.

My Banana GardenBehind my childhood home, there is a large piece of land that is

surrounded by banana trees growing in wild disorder. Crowds of banana trees grow freely everywhere. Their green leaves are so thick that sunlight cannot pass through. Underneath the trees, the ground is so moist that wild mushrooms and plants grow there all year around. In the center is a wild field where the children of my village often fly kites. Every evening, just before sunset, some birds arrive to look for a place to rest their tired wings. They want to land in the dark banana garden, but the banana leaves are too wide to make into nests. The birds cry out and then fly away, seeking a better place to nest. During the rainy season, it rains for days and days, and the banana leaves become glossy and slick. The rain also makes the banana garden produce a very strange melody. On rainy days, I used to sit near my window and listen to this wonderful song. Now, whenever I hear the plop-plop-plop of raindrops on the roof my small, tidy apartment in the city, I remember the beautiful, wild banana garden of my childhood.

Behind to in frontPast to Present

Word DictionaryWORD:WORD:Guess: Definition

Connection Sentence

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

Sketch/Image:

purpose

Purpose

There are three reasons to write:• inform• change someone’s mind (persuade)• entertain

The internet has a wide variety of writing pieces that people look at and read for many purposes.

Where Do You See Descriptive Writing?

Reviews• People describe if the food is good and how the atmosphere is.

www.zagat.com - restaurant reviews

• Students describe how the teacher teaches and what things he/she does to make her/his class good or not.

www.ratemyprofessor.com - teacher reviews

• Vacationers express the reasons to go on a vacation to that specific place.

www.tripadvisor.com - vacation reviews

• Movie critics describe if the movie is worth going to see or not.www.rottentomatoes.com - movie reviews

Prompt

Review a restaurant. Describe your favorite restaurant. Make a topic sentence with a controlling idea. Include support sentences and details. Make sure to end with a conclusion. Use adjectives and your five senses to paint a picture of the restaurant. Organize the paragraph using spatial order. Check your capitalization. Write at least 150 words.

Prewriting Technique #2

pg 72Clustering

When you cluster, you start by writing yur topic in a circle in the middle of your paper. As you think of related ideas, you write these ideas into smaller circles around the first circle. The related ideas in each small circle may produce even more ideas and therefore more circles around it. When you have run out of ideas, you r paper might look something like the following model on this page.

You Try It

Your Favorite Restaurant

outside

inside

food

Homework:Complete the sheet

and finish your cluster. Then write a

paragraph describing your

favorite restaurant. This is your second

grade.

Continue to write in your Like Journals!

Conferences next week! Bring your

paragraph!