Teaching Writing: Children

Lesson 3: Teaching Descriptive Writing

Have you ever picked up a book, and been so caught up in the words that you felt like you were right there in the story? Have you ever read a book and felt like there was a movie playing in your head? If so, you have experienced good descriptive writing.

What is Description?

When students add description to their writing, they are adding words that make a vivid impression on the reader or listener, and words that allow the reader be able to picture his mind the objects or places being described.

We all use description every day. It is how we detail all of the events in our lives. Students who learn to use descriptive words well will find that their writing comes alive. The details, colors, shapes, smells, and sounds we hear can all be a part of a good descriptive paragraph.

Here is a good way to introduce the need for good description to your students. First, gather up as many different kinds of pencils as you can find. If you have a well-stocked writing table, that should be easy. You want to try to have different colors of lead, sizes and lengths, decorations, with and without erasers, and any other interesting pencils that you might have. Arrange these on a desk at the front of the room and begin your lesson by asking a volunteer to bring you "the pencil" from the table. You will probably get one of two reactions - either of which will open the door to a mini-lesson on description. The volunteer may come up to the desk and look, and ask you "which one"? In that case, she has noticed that there are many choices and you didn't provide enough information. Respond by adding a detail that is common to several pencils, such as size. Again, you may get the question, "which long one"? Continue in this manner, discussing the need for more detail and the value of good description with students.

The other reaction may be that the volunteer takes any pencil and hands it to you. In that case, you may respond with something like, "No, I meant the short one", or another attribute that is common to several pencils, but not to the one the child has brought you. Go through a similar procedure as described above, again being sure to discuss the importance of details to enable the student to pick out the "correct" pencil.

You may wish to further demonstrate on the chalkboard or the chart. Put up a simple sentence such as The boys run. Have students suggest descriptive words for the boys and add them to the sentence. Your finished sentence may be something like The tall, hungry, redheaded, 4th grade boys run. Challenge your students to make up their own versions, and see who can come up with the longest sentence!

This is a perfect time to bring up a discussion of the choice of descriptive words. Students often want to choose over used words such as "good" or "big" for their descriptions. Introducing a thesaurus here is a helpful idea!

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