Lesson Plan for Wednesday, April 3, 2013: English 202, 3rd and 7th hour

Lesson Objective/s: Students will learn about and practice using descriptive language in writing, focusing especially on sensory details. They will also be asked to think about sensory descriptions in terms of similes and metaphors, and the connection between senses and memory. This lesson will give students the tools to write their first short story in this creative writing unit. State Standard/s: CC.9-10.W.3.d Text Types and Purposes: Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. CC.9-10.W.3 Text Types and Purposes: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. ELD Standard/s: Students will read and write, focusing on both critical and creative thinking. They will practice finding and using similes and metaphors. Formative Assessment/s: Students will turn in their work from the two stations from this lesson. Summative Assessment/s: Students will be writing a short memoir of a significant event in their life from two sensory perspectives sight and one of the four other senses (touch, taste, sound, smell). Instructor: _________Alexandra Bell____________________________ Topic: _______Sensory Details in Creative Writing______________ Subject: ____English_______ Check box if part of a larger unit: _X_ Where does the lesson fit in: Begin _X_ Middle __ End __ Duration of Lesson: ______50 minutes_____________ Grade__10___ Other adult involved in instruction: (Check appropriate) Paraeducator ____ co-teacher___X____ volunteer _____ LESSON PLAN & PROCEDURES
Lesson Elements
Lesson Introduction (connect & build background knowledge) Identify Formative Assessment as it occurs in the lesson Time What are the students doing? What is other adult doing? Check for Understanding Materials

1. Put the Vitamin on the overhead. 2. Take attendance 3. Give students the trivia question 4. Go over the Vitamin 5. Pass out Vocabulary 26 packets!

5-10 mins

Coming into class and beginning to write down the Vitamin and answer the trivia question.

Observing

Vitamin Trivia Question

Lesson Body Direct Instruction

1. 7th hour has one performance that needs to go today. They

25-

Observing

Love of

should present, and it should be filmed, if possible. 2. Wrap up Love of Life. The message of the story is that appreciating your senses, focusing on taste and touch/texture and sight and smell and sound, is what makes you love life. Primal connection/way we interact/basic elements of life, but often overlooked. 3. Students will go to two stations, starting at one and switching after 10 minutes. >At the food station, they will read the clip of the article, Creative Cheesemongers Pen Clever Descriptions, read the descriptions of cheese from Cheese and Crackers, and taste different cheeses, trying to come up with their own unique description (is it sweet and smooth like Justin Biebers voice? etc) http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/dining/creativecheesemongers-pen-cleverdescriptions.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 They may also choose to discuss taste using the store-bought candy. >At the smell table, have students brainstorm a list of their favorite smells. What, if any, memories are attached to these smells? Why do they enjoy them so much? How can they describe the smell? They should write a paragraph describing the smell in detailed, unique ways. See below for the documents used at each center. 1. Pass out folders, and give students the rest of class to decorate them. If they want to decorate it at home, or do not want to decorate it, they can work on the longest sentence or adding/changing their food description. 2. For homework, have students try to come up with the longest sentence they can, using descriptive language. Take a simple sentence and go into more depth (Jane saw Kim at the mall to Jane, a well-dressed, sharp-eyed girl with a purpose but an exasperated sigh as she struggled to walk on her crutches, paused to readjust her brown leather purse on her shoulder and suddenly saw across the throng of harried mallgoers her friend, Kim, and when their bright green eyes met, Kim gave a yell of delight and loped over to hug her friend.

30 mins

Life copies Food Article Station instructio ns

Guided Practice

5-10

Observing

HW written on board

Taste
This station focuses around describing taste. Whether you ultimately want to sample the cheeses or the candy, read the article below about creative descriptions of unique tastes. Then, taste your respective choice (cheeses or candy). Come up with a short paragraph description that captures the taste in a unique way (and unlike Mr. Johnson in the article, I think you can relate it to Taylor Swift or Justin Bieber if you want to). If the owner of Cheese and Crackers, where I bought this cheese, likes your description, he will use it in his store and you will win a free sandwich! If, however, you dislike cheese, describe the candy provided. Excerpt from In the Dairy Case, Ripe Prose or Creative Cheesemongers Pen Clever Descriptions by Jeff Gordinier, publi shed in the New York Times. They can tell you about torment. They can describe long, frustrating hours sitting in dark, stinky basements and caves, pen in hand, trying to get the flow of the words just right. They can tell you, too, about how it feels to be engulfed in a blaze of inspiration. Theyll describe the delirium of bliss when the right lines come. Like all writers, they are keenly aware of the competition, and envy eats away at them when they detect, in one of their comrades, a candle-flicker of genius. We speak, naturally, of cheesemongers. Although not universally acknowledged as members of New Yorks creative class, the people who sell cheese arguably deserve a place of recognition alongside the poets and the playwrights, the folk singers and the indie screenwriters. In case you havent noticed, some of the most amusing and captivating writing in the city is being produced in the service of cheese. Consider, for starters, Martin Johnson, 52, who manages the cheese, charcuterie and other treats at Gastronomie 491, a market and cafe on the Upper West Side. Look into the display case that Mr. Johnson oversees there, and your first response may be confusion. So many cheeses, so many names. Adelegger, Mr. Johnson said the other day. Does that really mean anything to you? Well, no. Exactly, he said. Even if you learn that Adelegger is Bavarian and that it is made of raw cows milk fine, but what does it taste like? Mr. Johnson conveys the flavor this way, on a small sign in that display case: Just think of a scene in a movie where the lead actress, obviously one of the greats, turns around slowly and walks away from the camera taking your entire attention with her. Now do you want some Adelegger? If so, then Mr. Johnson has done his job, which is to use lyrical wit and subtle cultural references to lure customers into taking home a wedge of the rare and unfamiliar cheeses that he adores.

Mr. Johnsons labels have a following, in part because they practically dare you to suss out the allusions hes dropping. In the Adelegger sign, he said, The actress I was thinking of is Maggie Cheung, and the movie is In the Mood for Love. For Calcagno, he has opted for rock n roll: Big and floral in the very best way possible, this firm Sardinian sheep has the cool unaffected strut of Mick in his prime, Lou in middle age or Polly Jean today. At Saxelby Cheesemongers, on the Lower East Side, the signs are jotted down, like postcards from a vacationing friend, in Anne Saxelbys own handwriting, and the descriptions seem to capture her winsome, Midwestern sense of enthusiasm in real time. Of one goat cheese from Vermont, Ms. Saxelby, 31, has written, My reaction when I first tried this cheese was: Dear God. Yes, it was nearly the perfect cheese. It all reflects her personality, said Sophie Slesinger, a member of the Saxelby team. It is not as hip or lewd as some of the stuff out there, but it still gets the point across. We keep it a little more family-friendly. (In reality, the cheese signs have been composed by countless people over the years, but each shop has its own idiosyncratic voice, usually a reflection of the person in charge.) If it occasionally seems as if the citys reigning cheesemongers haul around the souls of frustrated artists, thats probably because many do. Behind the counter at your neighborhood shop youre highly likely to encounter dancers, musicians, poets and journalists who happen to have a fixation on fermented dairy products. Were artsy, dorky people, Ms. Bealert said. Take Mr. Johnson from Gastronomie 491, who has written about jazz for an array of publications, including The Wall Street Journal. He, like many of his fellow cheese pundits, has standards to uphold when hes composing his fromagic odes. He works hard to make sure his signs are both approachable and erudite. Allusions to Alvin Ailey and Argo? No problem. But I dont want to associate Taylor Swift with cheese, he said. Im sorry.

Bedford Cheese Shop Andante Dairy Nocturne Icelandic ponies. Japanese cats on the Internet. Yawning puppies. Toddlers who give each other hugs. Goats climbing all over everything. Pink and green macaroons. Red pandas. Sparkly nail polish. Do you get where Im going? Cute things. This cheese is so perfect and cute and delicious you just want to marry it. Or buy one and eat it.

Gastronomie 491 Seaver Brook Blue Sprawling, earthy and kind of overpowering, this Vermonter is the death metal band among the otherwise dulcet varieties of blue. Go for it, you only live once.

Cheese and Crackers (in Champaign)

Smell
Yesterday, Google released Google Nose as an April Fools Day Joke. You can look at their spoof below. It touches on an important fact though sight, sound, taste, texture are talked a lot in society, and they are things we are constantly noticing (how smooth our phones are, how bad the cafeteria food tastes, how nice the sky looks now the sun is out again, etc). Smell, however, is often left out (partially because, as Google points out, you cant experience it via phone, computer, or TV). Smells are a unique aspect of life though! Certain smells are often linked to significant experiences, special places, and important people in our lives. The smell of the perfume my aunt wears reminds me instantly of fun childhood memories, of her house in Colorado, and of things I connect with seeing her (adventures, relaxing family time, love and comfort, etc). When I travel, I often buy a new hand lotion there so that when I use it at home, the smell reminds me of my time in that trip and that place. Now, think about smells that are important to you. What smells do you associate with happiness? Or with sadness? Are there certain smells you associate with certain people or places? Spend one paragraph describing this smell in depth.