As I prepared to do a descriptive writing piece, I wondered how to make it more exciting because this is one unit that the students already loved. I took a simple assignment from Hot Fudge Monday by Randy Larson. It was about describing a character who permanently glued airplanes to a runaway in Denver and the Big Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster in EuroDisney in France. It came with a list of facial features and adjectives to describe them.
The only way I could think to make it more exciting was to dress as a police officer. I had a blue dress shirt that was perfect so I only had to add a costume police hat and badge. The students thought the badge was real. As they entered the room, I projected a picture of a police station in France.
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| Police Selfie* {I apologize for all these selfie pictures. Just so you know, I am not addicted to selfies. Well, maybe I am. :-)} |
For part one of the lesson, students spent time reviewing the different adjectives and choosing the ones they wanted. We would explain ones that some had never heard of. Many loved choosing the worse adjectives to make the most hideous criminal they could. For part two, students drafted their descriptive paragraph making sure to put them in a logical order. Since the criminal was unnamed, we called him "GlueBoy".
The third part is always a favorite of the students. Students turn into sketch artists and eye witnesses. They make a blockade so they can not see what the "sketch artist" is drawing while the "eye witness" gives their description. The "eye witness" revises their writing if the sketch artist asks for more specific details. The noise of shock and laughs fill the room as the students show off the drawings of GlueBoy to the eye witnesses. Once the drawings are complete, they swap papers to edit for grammar and spelling.
The fourth part, the students write their final descriptions and create a wanted poster to go along with it. On this poster, it gives them a chance to draw their GlueBoy themselves.
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