LESSON TWO: Exploring Sensory Details in Fiction and Nonfiction Text
LESSON DESCRIPTION
Students explain examples of sensory details within the context of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
GRADE-LEVEL EXPECTATIONS
R2B Explain examples of sensory details and figurative language within the context of poetry and prose.
R3B Explain examples of sensory details and figurative language within the context of nonfiction text.
LESSON MATERIALS
§ Sources of literature
§ Supplies
§ Handouts provided
§ Words to know
o figurative language
o nonfiction
o graphic organizer
o sensory details
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT Assessment Scoring Guide
Students complete a What Am I? card. Scoring Guide provided.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Randomly choose a few students. Blindfold students, give them each an object, and ask them to use their senses to answer the following questions.
§ What does it feel like?
§ What does it smell like?
§ What does it taste like?
§ What does it sound like?
§ What does it look like?
Model the use of the Five Senses Cluster Map graphic organizer by recording their descriptive words. Discuss how authors use sensory words in their writing to make it more interesting and realistic to the reader. Students guess what the object is.
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Questions for Students
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What are the five senses? What are sensory details? Are sensory details important? Explain. Can missing one of your senses affect your life? Explain.
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2. Read aloud a poem with sensory details such as “Spring Wind” by Kristine O’Connell in The Great Frog Race or “Will You?” by Eve Merriam in Side by Side Poems to Read Together.
3. Provide written sensory detail phrases to the students. Students record the phrase on their Five Senses Cluster Map graphic organizer.
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Idea
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smelling of lavender: Is that something that you can taste, touch, see, smell, and/or hear? Explain what the phrase means.
softly fluttering the curtains: Is that something that you can taste, touch, see, smell, and/or hear? Explain what the phrase means.
Buzzing bees: Is that something that you can taste, touch, see, smell, and/or hear? Explain what the phrase means.
Crunching snow: Is that something that you can taste, touch, see, smell, and/or hear? Explain what the phrase means.
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4. Students choose an object in the classroom to describe using sensory details. Using a What Am I? Card, students list a clue for each of the five senses.
What Am I?
Sight I am brown and cone-shaped.
Smell I smell piney and fresh.
Touch I feel sticky, prickly, and hard.
Sound I sound crunchy when dropped or stepped on.
Taste I should not be tasted.
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Questions for Students
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Can you always use all five senses to describe? Do sensory words help text seem more realistic? Explain.
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