Descriptive Writing

 

Hello all!   

We're off again on another exciting writing journey.

Am here this week to share with you another creative and enriching way in which we, as teachers, can promote  good writing skills in our students, to make the experience more exciting, more meaningful, more enjoyable and especially pain-free for them.

Based on this week's very informative and interactive class sessions, our blog post this week will focus on one of the many types of writing that our students often engage in. It will also inform us as to how we could ensure they become competent in such writing task.

This type of writing of which I speak is one that engages the use of the five senses, using sensory words to create in the reader's mind a clear and vivid image of the characters, objects, places, events, experiences and even feelings that he/she may be trying to portray. In other words, it gives detailed descriptions of whatever is being written about.

Can you guess that which I speak of?   

Hmmmmmm.....that sounds very much like descriptive.

Yes! You said it right.👇 

 Look at the two pieces of writing below and tell which one creates a more vivid image in your mind and a true sense of how this experience took place.

1.  Micaela was happy when she looked up and saw her long-lost dad enter the school yard. She quickly and joyfully ran and hugged him tight.

2. When Micaela saw her long -lost dad enter the school yard, her eyes lit up like fireworks on New Years Day. She sprinted across the school yard, sprung into his arms and buried her joy- filled face into his chest.

 If you chose number 2, then you are very well aware of what descriptive writing is or should be.

Our class sessions were centered on readings from chapter 6 of  Gail E Tompkins book "Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product", from which we not only explored what descriptive writing is, but also looked at different techniques that we can teach our students to use and/or apply in their writing. These techniques are said to help the writer to show (present clear images), not tell their writing.

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Such techniques include:

1. Adding specific information -  Students should be taught to add more details to describe 

👉The source of noise they hear. 

(e.g. the loud sound of drumming)

👉Identify specific behaviours and activities  

(e.g. Dad was tired from weeding his garden all day.)

👉Naming and comparing characters 

(e.g. The young detective wondered around curiously like Alice in wonderland.)

👉Identifying the setting 

(e.g. She left her cozy, little cottage in the woods, one rainy, mid Monday  morning, and never returned.)

👉Listing attributes of what is being described. 

(e.g. describing the environment and activities around in which an action is taking place.

She sat quietly in her room. Clothes were all about on chairs and desk. A bird tapped on the        window.

2. Choosing Words Carefully - Students should learn to choose words carefully to  describe their ideas and experiences effectively. This would entail the use of 

          👉specific nouns ( e.g. minivan instead of car)

👉vivid verbs (e.g. sprinted instead of ran)

👉colourful modifiers 

(e.g. the tired old man instead of the old man or slowly walked instead of walked)

           👉synonyms to avoid repetition 

( e.g. using choose and not prefer a second time in this sentence) 

I prefer eating healthy, so I choose to have fruits at snack time.

Students would also want to

          👉avoid "tired" words (e.g. inquisitive instead of curious)

           👉differentiate among similar words 

(e.g. use of the correct homophones in sentences- 

They lost their (not there) way back from the cave.)

3. Sensory Images - Students should learn to include sensory words and expressions into their writing to craft stronger more vivid images.

👀sight (e.g. pale,  rusty, glowing, the innocence of the toddler's freckled face.) 

👂sound (e.g. roar, clink, crackling, the rumble of their empty stomachs.)

👅taste (e.g. stale, spicy, juicy, the delicious taste of the freshly baked cookies.)

👃smell (e.g. moldy, sweaty, decayed, the crisp new smell of the $100 dollar bill.)

✋touch (e.g. gooey, slippery, itchy, the silky feel of these new sheets.)

 

4. Figurative Language: Student should be taught to include figurative language in their writing.

They should: 

          👉Try Personification (e.g. The car crawled up the hill)

👉Incorporate Onomatopoeia (e.g. The sausages sizzled in the hot oil.)

 👉Craft Comparisons (e.g. Joey is as smart as his computer.) 

👉Play with Idioms (e.g. Moving the box was a piece of cake.)

👉Avoid Clichés (e.g. Seeing my mom with my report card, gave me butterflies in my stomach.)

👉Use Hyperbole sparingly (e.g. My shoes were killing me, as I walked down the busy street.) 

 

 5. Dialogue: Incorporating dialogue helps the writer to show the reader exactly what the characters spoke rather than just tell them what was said. To incorporate, writers should:

 👉Make speech pattern distinctive (e.g. giving the characters different voices )

👉Use substitutes for "said" carefully  Do not use too many substitutes for said (e.g. replied, uttered, called, answered), all within the same piece of writing as this can draw more attention to these words rather than on what the characters a re really saying.

👉Punctuate correctly (Use  of quotation marks, commas, question marks, full stops etc. correctly, helps the reader to understand what the characters are saying and get more meaning from the writing.)

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 With such techniques, descriptive writing truly paints a more memorable picture in one's mind, giving readers a real sense of what is happening. According to the author and other experts they help the writer to show what they are saying, not just tell.

Another important aspect of descriptive writing that I explored was assessment. As students are taught to use the techniques above, our role as teachers is to give them feedback on their progress through assessment. Such assessment strategies can be informal in nature, from simple observations to using a checklist and rubrics to ensure that the techniques are being used fairly and effectively.

 One of the things that stood out most for me during these discussions and from my reading assignment was that descriptive reading is a genre by itself (it is in its own category), as well as it is part of the writer’s craft, needed in most, if not all, other types of writing.

It was also noted that descriptive writing can be a phrase, a sentence or a paragraph embedded within a composition, or it can be a composition itself. I liked that we were able to use this knowledge and apply it to a piece of composition piece, getting a deeper understanding of it.

It is also important to note, that like all the other aspects of writing discussed so far, descriptive writing requires fair and adequate feedback if our students are to get it right.

 In further reading of the text chapter and online research I came across additional ideas for teaching and assessing descriptive writing, which I encourage my colleagues to peruse. I believe that such information will better prepare us to teach descriptive writing more effectively. 

So, as I arrive at the end of this post, I would like to point out that we teachers do have a lot to learn about teaching writing. As like all of the other aspects of writing discussed so far in this blog, teaching descriptive writing effectively, will not be by magic. And though it will take much more practice than the time-frame of this course can afford, I truly recommend a training workshop to help us get better acquainted and engaged in a practical experience to show how we can implement these skills in our classrooms. A Writer's Workshop training experience.

Writing continues to be a big struggle in our primary grades, leading up to and continuing on to  secondary and tertiary levels, so I would also recommend that training sessions be held within the schools for other teachers, to help them teach writing.  

To those who are not familiar with the book mentioned in this post, below is a picture of it, that you can either buy online (e.g. Amazon), or borrow at our local teacher resource center, or get from another colleague if possible. A real useful writing resource for teachers.

I also left the links to two websites that I was able to research and get more information on descriptive writing.  Check them out when you can, and I hope they bring you further inspiration and understanding of the effective teaching of descriptive writing. 

 

Descriptive Writing 

What is Descriptive Writing

 

THANKS AGAIN

for reading and commenting on this posts, and for sharing your own ideas on the topic of descriptive writing.

 Also, please check out the other posts within this blog for more information and ideas on this and the other writing topics that were discussed.

BYE😊