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htm This simple technique for teaching descriptive writing will help re-energizing your students' work, giving them the confidence to take their writing to the next level. Step 1 - Examine a Piece of Poor Writing First, use the overhead projector to show your class an example of typical (i.e. boring) grade level writing. Either use writing samples from previous years of teaching or ask another teacher for examples. It is not recommended to use samples from current students. After reading the piece together, ask the students to describe what they noticed about this piece of writing. The will likely tear it to shreds with valid criticisms! Then, ask the students to raise their hands if they think they sometimes tend to write like this. Most often, every single child raises his or her hand. Now they know whatnot to do.

Step 2 - Show an Example of Strong Writing Next, show them an example of exemplary grade level writing, emphasizing that this student was the same age as them and that they could write like this, too. The kids can then point out all of the amazing techniques this student employed to make his/her writing pack a powerful punch! Show the students how to notice "magic words" that help paint a vivid picture in a reader's mind. Explain to your students that the point of writing is to make your reader see the same exact picture that you had in your head when you wrote the words. So, if you just mention a "dog," how are they going to know the color, size, and personality of the dog you envisioned if you don't tell them specifically?

Use this anticipatory set to build your students' confidence and convince them that they too can, and will, write like this soon.

Use Visualization to Make a Point This next step seems so simple and works so effectively. First, choose a topic for this lesson's creative writing assignment. In my classroom, I use a jungle, but you can use anything that is familiar and interesting to the children. Ask the kids to close their eyes and visualize themselves standing in a particular landscape. Have them look around and notice what's above them, at their feet, behind them, on all sides. What's moving? What is in the background? What colors do they see? What small things and large things do they see? What do they hear, smell, feel, taste? What mood are they in? The more details you solicit, the better this visualization will work.

After the details of the visualization are solidified in their minds, ask them to open their eyes and describe what they saw. Write their responses on a blank overhead or on the board. Coach the students to add "magic words" to their descriptions. Eliminate boring words such as "good," "bad," and "went." Help them mold their sentences into active, energetic works of art. After the first sentence or two, the kids should start doing this more on their own. As an example, this is what my kids came up with when I did this exercise with them: In the Wild Jungle Afterwards, read the descriptions back to the class. It is often stunning how powerful their writing can become in less than an hour! Then go back and analyze what makes this writing awesome and circle the magic words that they had chosen all on their own.

To solidify the impact of this lesson, heap on the praise, saying how you knew they always had this kind of powerful writing in them and how you can't wait to put this up on the classroom web site for their families to see. Tell them that, now, they have no excuse but to produce more powerful and magical writing - writing that's just as exemplary as the outstanding writer's piece we had marveled at earlier.

Looking forward

After you teach this lesson a few times, your students' writing, as a whole, will skyrocket to new heights. Each time, before they write, lead them in visualizing the scene of the story which helps them add details to their sentences. The students will strive to increase their vocabulary so that they can use more and more magical words in their work. Consider banning certain words (good, bad, said, went) and brainstorm magic words to replace these boring old standbys. Hang the new words around the room for the kids to pull from as they write. Set aside a place in the room where they can share "sparkling sentences" from the books they read during silent reading time. Even the most hesitant writers can't wait to share their writing with the class so that they can hear the class's sincere "oohs" and "aahs" as the audience visualizes the unique worlds they create on paper.

[Link]/math How to Teach Descriptive Writing By jpwhickson, eHow Member User-Submitted Article Teaching your child to write clearly is important. Teaching them to write so that others are interested is a gift to your child. You can make lesson that will rival the best private school and you don't need to have a lot of equipment. Using objects and the environment around your home you can teach your child to do more descriptive writing. Read on to learn how to teach descriptive writing. Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions Things You'll Need:

Blindfold Various bottles containing odiferous material Abstract or inkblot Paper Pencil Carl Sandburg's poem "Fog"

1. 1 Begin with a blindfold. Hand the child an object and ask them to describe the object without looking at it. Tell them that they can't use the name of the object but only what it feels like. Record the descriptions. Play them back as you look at the objects together. When you are using this to teach descriptive writing, ask if there are other terms he can think of now that he sees the object. 2. 2 Create a smell-o-write. Cork up several bottles of smells that your child may not know and allow them to describe the odor. Get creative. Ask what color the smell would be if it were a color. Ask why. Ask what animal this would be and why the child would name it that animal. 3. 3 Make a design when you teach descriptive writing. Ask your child to describe what the design looks like and to tell a story about it. Thisexercise is much like the inkblot test and drizzles of ink on a folded card can be used instead of a design. 4. 4 Walk outside. Ask for complete silence. If you are with a group of children this exercise can be used once a week for your relaxation. Sit in a grassy area and ask her to write what it feels like outside. Describe how the breeze or grass feels against her skin. Tell her to describe the landscape using each of her senses. 5. 5 Help your child to look at the world from a different view. Find unusual places to take your child. Go to the top of a building and look at traffic and people moving below. Ask your child to describe what he sees. You can do this verbally or ask him to write it.

6. 6 Put together a list of nouns. The nouns can be anything. Put them all in a hat together and allow your child to draw two words out. Compare the two nouns in as many ways as possible. Make a second list contrasting the two. Ask your child to create a story that uses one of the nouns as a main character using the comparison list or contrasting list words to describe the character. 7. 7 Take advantage of the weather. Together create lists of words that describe the weather you have that day. Go through the list and see if there are two animals that also have the same characteristics. Read Carl Sandburg's poem, "Fog" during this lesson.

Read more: How to Teach Descriptive Writing | [Link][Link] Writing By Mollye Miller, eHow Contributor updated: January 1, 2011 Kids generally are interested in and intrigued about the world around them. However, it often takes a patient, knowledgeable and creative writing instructor to draw out descriptive writing from students. When thinking up ideas for teaching descriptive writing, assigning writing topics students are interested in -- like favorite hobbies and stories about their families -- is an ideal way to start inspiring detail-filled writing, Difficulty: Moderately Challenging Instructions 1. 1 Give students a writing assignment about something they know about through experience or through a book or story you just read as a class. For instance, ask students to write about their bedrooms at home or at a relative's house. Or let students choose to write about a hobby or a topic they are knowledgeable about, like horseback riding, how tropical fruits grow or their

moms or dads. 2. 2 Compliment detailed writing. When a student hands in a piece of writing with moderate description, like giving colors of things and average physical descriptions, compliment the work for its strengths, but push for more description. 3. 3 Encourage description by expressing interest in the topic the student writes about. For instance, avoid commenting on papers with vague messages like "more description here" or "develop this sentence." Instead, write "Wow! Riding horses sounds fun -- tell me more about what the horses in the stable look, smell, sound and feel like." Or pose questions like, "Your little sister seems to have a sense of humor. What kinds of jokes or stories does she tell?" to genuinely encourage more description. 4. 4 Inspire with literature. Choose short story writers, fiction authors and essayists to show how effective descriptive writing is in describing a world on a page. Pick from authors like Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka, Kurt Vonnegut, Julio Cortazar and Flannery O'Connor and poets like Sappho, William Carlos Williams and Robert Graves. 5. 5 Develop a detail incentive, so you treat every detail in a story or essay as an amazing attribute. For example, if a student describes her bedroom as having "white and pink wallpaper" you can praise the student for her effort. However, if the student writes instead that her bedroom wallpaper "has coral pink unicorns standing in a white snowy field" reward the student with glowing compliments. 6. 6 Meet with students individually to discuss writing habits. Some students write in more detail naturally; others are shy with details and need encouragement from their teachers to open up and show their world through writing. Write encouraging, inspiring comments on papers and stories to bolster confidence. Mark stars, check marks, or another optimistic mark on sentences where a student writes descriptively or makes a stronger effort to write in detail.

Read more: How to Teach Kids Descriptive Writing | [Link] [Link] How To Teach Descriptive Writing By Olivia Cooper Ads by Google Improve Teaching Skills Earn a Degree or Masters in Education Leadership online [Link]/distance Free TOEFL Practice Tests Reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Learn your score now. [Link] Teaching English Online TESOL/TEFL accredited by Tesl Canada & ACTDEC UK. From $275! [Link]/Tefl Visualize, Analyze Notes Twig helps you refine your ideas. Keep your notes linked. $79 [Link]/Twig/ Go on a writing adventure We guide you to creative liberation 8 weeks, 18 fun assignments, $995 [Link]/online-course Descriptive writing aims to cater to the reader's imagination. It aims to create a picture in the reader's mind. Being able to write in a descriptive manner calls for the writer's excellent observation skills. Teaching writing students this kind of writing requires your own attention to

details. Here are some ways that can help you teach descriptive writing: 1. Your goal is awakening your writer's imagination and sense of observation and to help him put it into words, sentences and paragraphs. Remember, teaching descriptive writing is similar to assisting your student in finding his eye for detail. 2. To start with, find either a place or an object where you intend to put focus with your student.
3. If you have chosen a place, you can let the student experience it by actually being

there or by using a picture. Allow an amount of time for your student to observe the place. Tell him to pay attention to each element's part. Encourage him to note each noun that he can find. When he is able to come up with a list add a single adjective beside each noun. Example. "A bird", and then "A red bird". He can then add other words, like a verb, "A red bird flying", or an adverb "A red bird flying swiftly". He can continue doing so with the other listed nouns. By proper use of conjunctions, he can connect ideas and words to form a cohesive paragraph. When the paragraph is finished, your student will then realize that he has created a descriptive piece on how the place looks like.