Lesson Plan
Lesson 8: Dressing Up Sentences for Narrative Writing
60 minutes | Suitable for Grades: 1 - 2A 60 minute lesson in which students will use descriptive language to add additional detail to sentences.
This lesson plan includes the following resources:
Lesson Plan
Tuning In
- Watch the Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives Song video on YouTube. After watching, ask the students:
- What is a noun?
- What is a verb?
- What is an adjective?
- Watch the Adverbs Song on YouTube. After watching, ask the students:
- What is an adverb?
- Explain to the students that it is important to use describing words (adjectives and adverbs) when writing stories. This makes the story more interesting and exciting for the reader. It also helps the reader to create pictures in their minds of what is happening in the story.
Teacher Instruction
- Project the Dressing Up a Sentence Template on the board. Read the headings on the table to the class and encourage the students to identify the columns which refer to describing words (adjectives and adverbs). Explain that it is these words that can add interesting information to sentences.
- Pick a sentence from the flashcards provided in the resource. Demonstrate how to ‘dress up’ a sentence by adding descriptive language e.g. ‘The dog sat’ can be transformed into ‘The large smelly dog sat quietly on the sofa’. Repeat this process with a few simple sentences, encouraging the students to suggest adjectives and adverbs which make the sentence more interesting.
Guided/Independent Learning
- Provide each student with a laminated copy of the template and a whiteboard marker. Select one sentence from the flashcards and write it on the board. Invite the students to dress up the chosen sentence by themselves, then share their sentence with the class.
- Allow each student to pick another simple sentence flash card, then independently write a ‘dressed up’ version of the sentence on their laminated template. Encourage the students to share their ‘old’ and ‘new’ sentences with the class.
Wrapping Up
- Revise the content of the lesson. Ask the students:
- What are adjectives and adverbs?
- How do these describing words make a story more interesting?
- What would happen if authors didn’t use these words in their story?
Differentiation
Extending Students
- Allow more capable writers to write additional dressed up sentences using the black and white version of the template.
Supporting Students
- Allow students who find writing challenging to create 'dressed up' sentences in a small group with adult support.
Assessment Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
- used strategic whole class or individual questioning
- observed student participation during learning activities
- recorded student progress on a checklist
- annotated student work samples
- collected and reviewed student work samples
- facilitated whole class or peer feedback sessions
- encouraged student self-reflection
- administered formal assessment tasks.
NSW Curriculum alignment
- EN1-9B
Uses basic grammatical features, punctuation conventions and vocabulary appropriate to the type of text when responding to and composing texts
Victorian Curriculum alignment
- VCELA179
Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things (nouns, including pronouns), happenings and states (verbs), qualities (adjectives) and details such as when, where and how (adverbs)
- VCELA216
Understand that nouns represent people, places, things and ideas and include common, proper, concrete or abstract, and that noun groups/phrases can be expanded using articles and adjectives
Australian Curriculum alignment
- ACELA1452
Explore differences in words that represent people, places and things (nouns, including pronouns), happenings and states (verbs), qualities (adjectives) and details such as when, where and how (adverbs)Elaborationstalking about effective words that d...
- ACELA1468
Understand that nouns represent people, places, concrete objects and abstract concepts; that there are three types of nouns: common, proper and pronouns; and that noun groups/phrases can be expanded using articles and adjectivesElaborationsexploring ...
Find more resources for these topics
EnglishParts of SpeechNounsVerbsAdjectivesAdverbsWritingNarrative Writing
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Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I was unable to watch the Adverb song. It states that it is no longer available.
Alana Stewart · Oct 6th, 2019
Hi Alana,
Thanks so much for noticing this error on one of our resources.
I have fixed the error and the video can now be accessed again.
If there is anything else I can assist you with, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Kristian · Oct 8th, 2019