Marian Bradshaw ELEM/SCED 663: Advanced Trends in Education July 16, 2015

#3: Content Area Teaching Ideas Assignment

Writing, regardless if it is argumentative, persuasive, or descriptive, is a difficult skill for

students to learn. Descriptive writing requires a certain set of skills, focus, and lots of practice.

Teachers generally use a variety of mini-lessons to help their students learn how to write

descriptively. Some of these lessons revolve around showing not telling, i.e. making stories

come alive. Lesson plans generally have a description of what to do. Besides the explanation of

how to conduct the lesson, most lesson plans today contain Standards and/or Core Curriculum

Standards. In addition, having Learning Outcomes is a common part of lesson planning in

writing. These current trends have to be considered by teachers as they plan their lessons and

instruct students in descriptive writing or in any other task.

The lessons I choose to focus on were on teaching students how to make their writing

come alive with show not tell strategies. Some of these lessons included standards and learning

outcomes while others did not.

Lesson 1: Show Not Tell by the Dade School.net

This first lesson from the Dade School.net, is intended for upper elementary or early

middle school students. The lesson begins with a quick explanation of what show not tell

means. It goes on to give examples of telling sentences and showing sentences. Telling

sentence: It was an unusual cat. Showing sentence: With yellow eyes glowing red, long black

fur that stood on end, a mouth full of sharp pointed teeth that emitted a yowl like a tiger, I

knew that the small animal before me was no ordinary cat. The lesson continues to say that in

developing a story, the writer needs to reveal their character by what they say, think, and do; by

describing them; by what other characters say about them; and by how other characters react to

them. Towards the end of the lesson plan, the guided practice is suggested which includes

walking into the classroom, waving your arms and pacing around with eyes squinted, yelling, I

cant believe this! This isnt fair! At this time, the teacher is supposed to engage in a

conversation with his/her students asking them what they thought happened and record their

responses on a chart. Later on, the students will get some independent practice to convert some

showing sentences and paragraphs into telling sentences and paragraphs: The cake was

delicious (telling sentence that needs to be turned into a showing sentence) or The garden was

beautiful (telling sentence that needs to be turned into a showing paragraph). There were no

learning outcomes or standards addressed in this lesson.

Lesson 2: Show-Me Sentences

The second lesson from Readwritethink.org is intended for grades 6-12. The lessons

author, Lawrence Baines, ph.D, created this recurring lesson for grades 6-12 (this lesson is meant

to be reused during the year to remind students of this effective writing technique). The lesson is

very thorough in that it has an overview, references NCTE/IRA National Standards for the

English Language Arts, indicated student objectives, tells what the materials and resources are

needed (whiteboard or blackboard and handouts) and, finally, outlines the steps in instructions

and activities. The lesson is essentially like the first lesson in that Dr. Baines discusses the idea

of showing rather than telling with the class. He uses the example of a student talking about

being in an automobile accident in a casual conversation. The instructions go on to ask the class

to help rewrite the sentence, The car lands awkwardly, causing it to roll so that it comes alive.

Probing questions to get to a showing sentence include, What does land awkwardly looks like?

Is the car driving itself? and Is there enough detail provided to visualize what happened?

Students are encouraged to include sensory details (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory) and write

a new sentence, which are then shared with the rest of the class. Afterwards, the students are

given a handout, Show-Me Sentences Handout, and are asked to review the first example, by

first reading the telling sentence and then the showing sentence. The students are asked how

they can improve the showing sentence even more. They are then instructed to recreate the

remaining telling sentences by incorporating visual and sensory details. These sentences are

then shared with the class.

Lesson 3: Show Dont Tell Using Action Words

In the third lesson from the University of North Carolina School of Education, intended

for Grades 3-5 grades, starts off with the learning outcomes, followed by the time required,

materials, and activities (including modeling, guided practice, and independent practice). The

lesson plan also included the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, as well as

North Carolina curriculum alignment in English Language Arts. The lesson begins very similarly

to the last two lessons with a discussion of showing v. telling. However, the teacher is

supposed to stress that a good author would use action words to accomplish this: Freddy was

sad (telling) v. Freddy cried (showing).

Next, the teacher is supposed to read the book The One in the Middle Is a Green

Kangaroo by Judy Blume, or something comparable that does a good job of describing the

actions that reveal the characters feelings. Students are supposed to give examples from the

story of how the author uses action words to show how the character feels. After this discussion,

students are to tell a story of someone getting a surprise present (big eyes, hands on face, big O

for a mouth) by using actions and gestures. In the guided practice sections, students are

supposed to fill out a Show dont Tell worksheet with various prompts like, I was shy, I

was embarrassed, etc. Students are encouraged to act out the action for their peers so they can

write down what they are observing in each other. Later on, students are encouraged to relook at

pieces they have written and find places where they tell and not show and revise those spots.

Groups of students are also encouraged to look for other authors who use action verbs to show

dont tell and then share out to the class.

These three lessons were all very similar with some merits to each of them, particularly

lesson 3. The trigram graphic organizer below visually shows how the lessons overlapped. Here

are some of the commonalities that I could not include in my graphic organizer:

A: Lessons 1 and 2: Students practice writing sentences.

B:Lessons 1 and 3: These lessons involved a physical action. In lesson 1, it was a teacher

acting out a scene; in lesson 3, it was the students acting out for each other.

C: Lessons 2 and 3: These lessons both had very detailed lessons that included standards,

student objectives/learning outcomes, materials and resources, and a handout for practice.

D: All lessons: All lessons discussed what show v. tell is and all had some practice

involved in recreating sentences from telling to showing.

In all of the lessons, very little technology was utilized, minus the first one that used a

power point presentation. Mostly these lessons involved pen and paper and a whiteboard/

blackboard very low tech equipment.

Comparison of the Three Lessons

Lesson 1: Show Not Tell by the Dade School.net (brown circle)

Lesson 2: Show-Me Sentences (blue circle)

Lesson 3: Show Dont Tell Using Action Words (green circle)

Lesson 1 -explanation -examples -a powerpoint presentation Lesson 2 -contains an overview -sensory details and imagery -extension activity (write a narrative and peer review)

B D

Lesson 3 -using action verbs -use of a model text -student dramatization of sentences -relook at previous work and revise for action verbs -teacher highlight areas for improvement -continued referencing in other books

A

C

Restructuring lessons

If I were to restructure these lessons for my middle school EAL students, I would do a

number of things. These lessons provide a basic introduction to descriptive writing, but I would

expand upon them to include more cooperative strategies, more technology, and more self-

assessment. I would keep the standards that lessons 2 and 3 outlined as standards. Standards are

what guide instruction and what holds teachers accountable to themselves and to their students;

they are one of the most significant trends in curriculum and instruction.

First of all, I would make the lesson more experiential and more student-centered. A

series of four lessons by Victoria Polega, Make a Splash! Using Dramatic Experience to

Explore the Moment from Readwritethink.org has some good ideas to make teaching about

descriptive language more alive and dramatic. In her first lesson, she utilizes dramatic,

unexpected scenes involving students (student-centered classroom). She also uses a model text

like Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos and Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson

Haddix, amongst others to introduce texts that are rich in sensory details, images, and

vocabulary. excerpt[s] should make students feel like they are experiencing the moment with

the character. These novels are very appealing to middle school students.

In Ms. Polegas second lesson, she again uses drama (social-emotional learning) to

introduce the lesson by exaggerating the greatness of a sentence that is really boring writing.

She then instructs the teacher to have students compare the boring sentence to Jack Gantos

description of that same scene (critical thinking). As she states in her lesson plan: Invite

students to consider the authors craft by discussing what Jack Gantos does to make his readers

feel like they are in math class with Joey, experiencing everything that he is experiencing.

Secondly, I would infuse more technology into the lesson, one of the current trends under

Trends in Curriculum and Instruction. I would have students work with a partner of their choice

to create a Google Doc where they can work on concurrently and collaboratively. In that Google

Doc, they would cooperatively write a story together. This activity would fulfill their individual

needs in learning, specifically critical thinking, creativity, and social-emotional learning.

Students love working together and this would be the perfect opportunity for them to do so in an

academic setting.

As they are creating their story, I would infuse several lessons from Nancie Atwells

Lessons That Change Writers handbook and binder. These lessons would be very useful to guide

students as they learn about descriptive writing. Lesson 9 The Rule of So What? Lesson 10

Thoughts and Feelings, Lesson 12 Narrative Leads, and lesson 18 Movie Behind My

Mind would be particularly helpful to guide students as they compose their story.

Finally, I would have students self-edit their story. This would be practice in self-

assessment. They would use a rubric that we as a whole class would have created together (self-

assessment). I would also encourage them to use a number of the web-based tools to polish their

writing (technology trend). Two of those tools would be Analyzemywriting.com (to analyze their

writing for mistakes and readability level) and Hemingway (deep analysis tool, especially for

passive voice since their writing should be in active voice).

Later, I would have them peer-edit other pairs story and give them feedback. This

would act as authentic assessment as its coming from their peers, whom they have a lot of

respect for. This peer-editing process fulfills the social-emotional learning, critical thinking and

creativity needs of middle school students while keeping it student-centered, as the students are

the ones who are the center of the learning process.

Citations Atwell, N. (2002). Lessons that change writers. Portsmouth, NH: Firsthand/Heinemann. Make a Splash! Using Dramatic Experience to Explode the Moment - ReadWriteThink. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2015. goo.gl/jIAuj8 Sample Lesson for Show Not Tell (n.d). Retrieved July 16, 2015. goo.gl/QkBol0 Show-Me Sentences - ReadWriteThink. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2015. goo.gl/hbBT1o Show, don't tell: Using action words. (n.d.). Retrieved July 16, 2015. http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4028