Dana Woods

November 18, 2016

Grade: 6th
English Language Arts and Creative Arts- Integrated Lesson
Narrative Illustrations and Descriptive Text

Utah Core Objectives:

Language Arts:
 Reading: Literature Standard 1: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the
text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
 Writing Standard 3: d. Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and
sensory language to convey experiences and events.

Creative Arts Objectives:

 Convey Mood through illustration.
 Depict Characters.
 Develop an awareness of special relationships and negative space.

Personal Objectives:
As a reflection of their hard work with writing narratives, students will explore
illustrating a cover for their stories. Students will choose one quote which supports their
illustration and which provides vivid language. Students will also revisit and define which
aspect of their narratives is depicted (i.e, character, climax, etc.)

Materials: Medusa excerpt copies, narratives, work-sheet, water colors, colored pencils, paper,
cups, water.

Key Vocabulary: descriptive details, vivid and sensory language, gist.

Before the lesson:

1. Gather student’s attention, ask students to review class rules.
2. Provide a summary of the lesson. Explain expectations: “We are going to explore a
piece of writing, together and choose a quote with vivid and sensory language to
support an illustration. After this, you will repeat the process with your own
narratives and chose a quote. Then, we will create our own illustrations for the
covers of your Narratives.”

Phase I: Exploration and Explanation

Review terms and Assess prior knowledge.
a. Through discussion, revisit concepts about vivid language, and about
characters and plot development.
Reading:
1. Introduce an excerpt about Medusa, and refer to her Character from their
previous reading, “The Lightening Thief.”
2. Together read Medusa excerpt. This text is displayed with doc cam on board
for all to follow along.
a. Students will follow along silently, but when I pause, they will fill in
the next word verbally together.
b. When I come to vivid sensory language, I will stop to point this out
and have them close their eyes and imagine as I re-read.
3. We will break into a think-pair-share with “elbow buddies” and each group
will choose a line with descriptive text they think would best support an
illustrations.
4. We will come back together to share ideas and have a group discussion
about which quotes were chosen, and how they support ideas for
illustrations.
5. Together we will chose a quote, and then (on doc cam/projector) write down
the quote and chose which part of the story this is from: character, climax,
etc.

Transition to Phase II:

1. Present worksheet and explain each step, while asking students questions,
and measuring understanding. (Worksheet attached).

2. Present the illustration I have done and present quote I have chosen and
explain how to connect quote with cover illustration.
a. Discuss art concepts: using negative space and using colors and
movement to create mood.

Phase II: Guided Practice

1. Pass out papers and art materials. (Illustrations will be attached to quotes.)
2. Check-in with students about their understanding of assignment. Provide answers
to questions and any additional support and scaffolding and guidance.

Phase III: Independent Practice/Assessment

 Students will independently find quotes from their own narratives.
 Students will complete worksheets with chosen quotes.
 Students will paint or draw illustrations for their narratives.

Assessment:
Together with my mentor teacher, we will assess the assignment looking for effort and
completion of task.
 Dana Woods
EDUC 363
Learning Guide 1: Reflection

Overall, I was very happy with how this assignment went. I was given the opportunity to

teach this lesson not just once but three times, to each rotation of 6th grade students. The

biggest issue I ran into was with timing. This problem varied per each class. For the first class,

students had very little time to complete the art/illustration part of the assignment. The second

class had sufficient time for all of the assignments. And lastly, the third class had too much time

for all of the work, in this case I think that I had over-adjusted to allow for additional time.

Students were engaged and had fun creating their final products! Art was a strong way to

differentiate for some of the learners who had differing abilities/disabilities.

Another problem that arose was with students having copies of their narratives or being

finished with their narratives. During the week, they had started to type their narratives using

the school laptops—to which there is limited access. For some of these students the only

completed versions of their stories were still on the laptops and had not been printed. Because

of this some students did not have texts to work with to find a quote. To supplement this, we

decided it was best to have them write either from memory or create an original line which

used descriptive, vivid sensory language. One of the students who did not have a copy of her

narrative became incredibly engaged in this, asking for help thinking of synonyms for certain

words. One of these specific words we came up with together was “grotesque.” Her final

sentence was wonderful! Her teacher commented that her original narrative was not full of this

type of language—so to me this felt like a success.