Amber LaFerriere

CIED 3253

10/14/15

Writing Concept: Developing Writing

Strategy or Skill: Describing a Character
Grade level: 4th Grade
Objective: Students will be able to write descriptions of characters so that the reader can picture them in
their head.
Common Core State Standard/PASS: Common Core standard W.3 Write narratives to develop real or
imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
D. Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely.
4.RL.3. Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in
the text (e.g., a characters thoughts, words, or actions).
Prior knowledge: (What students already know)
Students already know how to write a narrative and identify details.

Observations/Rationale: (Before Lesson) What did you notice in your students work that let you
know this lesson was necessary?
I noticed that students writings lacked descriptions of characters that allowed the readers to picture the
character in their head.

Mentor Text: The People of Sparks (the second Book of Ember) by Jeanne DuPrau
Lesson from Mentor Text: Show students examples of character descriptions in a text
Materials: The People of Sparks, writers notebooks, images of people/characters
Student Groups (whole/small group/partners): Students will work in as a whole group during the
modeling of the lesson, individually during the first part of active engagement, and will come back to a
whole group to finish the lesson
Mini Lesson Format:

Connect (Engagement): Good morning students! Ive been noticing that in our narrative writing,
we have not been doing a good job at describing our characters in depth. Just because you know
what your friend or mom or other character looks like, doesnt mean your reader does. If I say, I
love my grandma. We have fun, does everyone have the same image in their heads? Probably not,

because I didnt give any descriptive details. Today, Im going to share a passage from The People
of Sparks (the second book of Ember) by Jeanne Duprau. Lets make sure to pay special attention
to the character descriptions in the book. Jot down some of the character descriptions that you hear
in your writers notebook as we go along. *read passage*

Teach (Model/Explain) Who would like to share part of the character description that we heard in
this passage? *share descriptions* Does everyone have a clear idea of how the characters in the
book look? Lets practice changing my character description from before. Instead of writing I
love my grandma. We have fun, I could write My grandma is a lot of fun. She wears big bright
colored shirts covered in polka dots. She loves to paint, so there is always paint stained on her
wrinkly hands (usually blue her favorite color). Her gray curly hair looks like a birds nest. Her
face crinkles so much when she smiles I cant see her eyes anymore. This gives us a much better
picture of what my grandma looks like because I used a lot of character description.

Active Engagement (student(s) try it out): Lets get out our writers notebooks and practice this
on our own. I have pictures of some different people on the SmartBoard. Choose one of them and
write a detailed character description of him or her on the next clean page of your writers
notebook. Make sure you keep your choice a secret. *have students write descriptions* Okay,
lets have a few of you share your descriptions. Dont tell us who you chose. After the description
is read, well all try to figure out which person was being described. *have students share. If right
answer cant be found, have students suggest other details that could be added to identify the
character*

Link/Closure (Articulating the expectation that students will now use this skill/strategy when
reading or writing) Today we learned the importance of adding character details to our writing.
When we write, we want to be sure our readers can picture our characters in their head. A good
question to ask yourself when writing a character description is could someone draw a good
picture of this person based on the details you used. You can use this skill when writing future
narratives or by going back and adding details to a story youve already written.