Stage 1

Writing Overview for Descriptions

Term 2 2013

Foundation Statement:

Students write simple literary and factual texts on familiar topics for known readers by planning and reviewing their writing. They write using basic grammatical features and conventions of punctuation, showing awareness of different purposes, audiences and subject matter. Students spell using knowledge of sight words, letter-sound correspondence and other strategies. They write using letters of consistent size and slope in NSW Foundation Style. Descriptions focus our attention on the characteristic features of a particular thing. The subject might be a person, a place, or a thing.
While descriptions can occur as stand alone texts, they are often part of a longer text, such as the description of a character or setting in a story or biography. Although they might not always be seen as a distinct text type, it is felt that the ability to describe someone or something in detail is an important skill that can contribute to a number of different text types.

Social Purpose:

Structure:

At this stage, the students should be moving from the simple identification of different characteristics and features to building up a more elaborate picture of the subject. Written descriptions might still take a relatively minimal form: brief identification of the subject with a few lines describing particular characteristics and behaviour. Descriptions include -- an introduction to the subject of the description -- characteristic features of the subject (e.g. physical appearance, qualities, habitual behaviour, significant attributes Grammatical Focus -- adjectives; simple, noun groups; pronouns; verbs (action, feeling and thinking verbs) and adverbs. WS1.9 Plans, reviews and produces a small range of simple literary and factual texts for a variety of purposes on familiar topics for known readers. states the purpose and intended purpose before writing a description contributes to joint construction of texts writes simple descriptions of familiar people and things with two or more details. reads own writing aloud and makes some corrections to clarify meaning writes elementary descriptions reads own writing to the teacher or a peer WS1.10 Produces texts using the basic grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text type. uses adjectives to provide more information about nouns uses pronoun references accurately (I, he, she, it, etc)

Focus Outcomes:

uses different types of verbs (action, thinking, seeing, feeling) in own writing uses most common punctuation marks, eg spaces between words, lower-case and capital letters, full stops experiments with other punctuation marks, eg commas, quotation marks, question marks.

Focus Outcomes:

WS1.11 Uses knowledge of sight words and lettersound correspondences and a variety of strategies to spell familiar words. reads own writing aloud and makes some corrections to clarify meaning. draws on knowledge of sight words and high frequency words when writing a text, eg is, are, the, they, she, he, my, school, home draws on knowledge of common letter patterns and lettersound correspondences when writing a text writes words using blends, letter combinations and long vowel sounds begins to proofread and edit their own texts for publication WS1.14 Identifies the structure of own literary and factual texts and names a limited range of related grammatical features and conventions of written language.
recognises organisational structure of some literary and factual texts discusses functions of different stages of a text distinguishes between naming words and doing words talks about how adjectives describe nouns, how adverbs tell us more about the verb discusses how a description is built up using adjectives, adverbs begins to recognise when the spelling of a word appears inaccurate.

5th Cluster
Selects vocabulary and phrases modelled by the teacher during whole class planning to construct own text. Rereads own text to clarify meaning and make some changes to the text.

6th Cluster
Creates longer texts supported by visual information, e.g. diagrams, maps, graphs on familiar topics for known audiences. Demonstrates elementary proof-reading and editing, e.g.

7th Cluster
States purpose and intended audience before creating texts. Spells words with regular spelling patterns correctly and makes plausible attempts at words with irregular spelling patterns. Applies spelling

8th Cluster
Writing shows evidence of revision, editing and proofreading. Demonstrates a range of spelling strategies to spell unfamiliar words. Produces a range of grammatically accurate

 Uses sentence punctuation and some simple punctuation. Accurately writes simple and compound sentences. Uses a range of adjectives to provide more information about nouns. Writes lower/upper case letters of consistent size and formation in NSW Foundation Style.

circles a word that does not look right. Accurately spells an increasing number of high frequency and topic words. Uses simple punctuation, e.g. full stops, exclamation marks and question marks. Experiments with using some complex sentences to enhance writing.

generalisations when writing. Uses contraction apostrophes and capitals for proper nouns as well as other simple punctuation. Includes different types of verbs using appropriate tense and demonstrates subject-verb agreement. Uses a computer to produce texts with graphics.

sentences. Fluently writes letters of consistent size and formation in NSW Foundation Style.

Assessment Task: Assessment Criteria:

To independently write a simple literary description.

Students can:
discuss the purpose of a description plan before writing use a variety of sentence structures: simple, compound and complex sentences use simple punctuation correctly (capital letters, full stops, commas) use adjectives and simple noun groups (descriptive vocabulary) use pronouns proofread edit: punctuation, sentence structure, spelling.

DESCRIPTIONS
Session 1
Teacher selects a student to feel and describe an object in feely bag.

Week 2
Session 2

Session 3
Teacher reads the description WooHoo a few times. (Slide 6) Students listen and then attempt to draw a picture to match this description. Compare drawn pictures. Are they similar? Why? (Language used is descriptive and
specific.)

Students given a blank sheet of paper and fold it in half. Teacher reads description 1 of Puck Wudgie (Slide 3 - limited use of adjectives). Students attempt to draw a picture of Record the 3 words used to describe the feel of each object on the Puck Wudgie in the top half of their sheet. board. Select 6 students to show their drawing. Do they all look the same? Object is shown to the class. Why not? Can we think of 3 more adjectives to describe this object. Teacher reads description 2 of E.g. apple smooth, round, hard Puck Wudgie (Slide 4 - more - red, shiny, looks adjectives used). Students attempt to delicious draw another picture on the bottom Repeat the above till all the objects half of their page. Select 6 students to show their attempted drawing. Do in the they look alike? Are there greater feely bag are described. similarities between these drawings than the ones before? Why? Show description sample of Wild Thing (Slide 1). Read it to the class and ask them what is the authors intent of writing this text? What is the author trying to do? Highlight as a class, the words that give us information about Read the description of Puck Wudgie 2 (Slide 4) and show the picture (Slide 5). What words tell us what Puck Wudgie looks like? Students circle

Read the book Aliens Love Underpants. Display the picture of an alien (Slide 7). Show and explain features and structure of a description (Slide 8).Jointly construct a description of the alien beginning with its legs and working upwards to its head. Encourage students to use two or more adjectives to describe each feature of the alien. Tell students that descriptions are very important especially if we want to

the Wild Thing. Show description sample 2. Highlight descriptive language used (Slide 2).

these words in red. Explain to the students that these words give us moir information about a participant in a text, ie about nouns. These words that give us more information about nouns are called adjectives. When two or more adjectives are used to describe a noun these are called noun groups.

communicate the same image to others. Descriptions can be used in narratives, recounts and information reports. Teacher begins writing a narrative and adds the jointly constructed description to show the importance of descriptions in narratives.
E.g. This is my alien friend, Zooby. He comes from a nearby planet named Plunovia. Every Friday about 4pm Zooby visits me in my treehouse. I tell him about my adventures at school and he tells me about his. Zooby has

Resources:

Feely bag containing apple, spikey ball, toy car, fluffy toy, sponge with scourer on one side, lego block, sharp pencil. Notebook: Slide 1 Wild Thing Notebook: Slide 2 The Hail Storm

Resources:

Notebook: Slide 3 - Puck Wudgie 1 Notebook: Slides 4 & 5 - Puck Wudgie 2

Resources:

Notebook: Slide 6 Woo-Hoo Book: Aliens Love Underpants Notebook: Slide 7 Alien Notebook: Slide 8 Features & structure of a description

DESCRIPTIONS
Session 1
Show descriptions poster (Slide 9). Display a copy in the classroom to constantly refer to. Read joint description written in last session. Does the description contain the features on the poster? Select students to circle the adjectives and underline the pronouns. Discuss the physical features described. Students work in groups of 3. They are given an A3 copy of an alien and

Week 3
Session 2
Teacher models drawing an alien on the board. Firstly select and cut out a body shape from the coloured paper given. Then using the other sheets as stimulus, draw the other body features (ie legs, arms, face, tail, etc). Students design their own alien. They select and cut out a body shape as the starting point. Then they draw the other features. They may copy ideas from the given sheets. Refer to the alien designed by the teacher.

Session 3
Read jointly constructed description of the teachers alien (from previously session). Write the heading leg. Students brainstorm adjectives that can be used to describe the legs and feet of an alien. Students refer to their alien drawing. They write one or two sentences describing the legs/feet of their alien. Write the heading arms on board.

jointly write a description. Groups share their written descriptions.

Re-read Puck Wudgie 2 and previous sample descriptions (Slides 4, 1& 2). Record highlighted adjectives onto paper and display in the room. Groups highlight the number of adjectives used in their description. Reward the group that has used the most adjectives and has the better written dedscription.

Jointly construct an introduction for this alien and a description. Remind children its best to start from the legs up or head down. E.g. This is my alien Oobla. He comes from the planet Oobla Toobla. Everyone on this planet likes to wear green socks. He has an enormous, round belly with four very long arms either side etc.

Brainstorm adjectives to describe the arms and fingers of an alien. Students write one or two sentences describing the arms/fingers of their alien. Do the same for the body (tail) and head (eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hair).

Students write their own introduction for their own alien. They may copy the same sentence starters as the teacher. They do not write a description independently yet. They will do so in the next session after being scaffolded. Resources: Resources: Notebook: Slide 9 - Description poster Sheet with different body shapes Joint construction of alien written in copied onto coloured paper previous session Sheets of other physical A3 pictures of Aliens from book Aliens characteristics for students to copy Love Underpants Art/blank A3 blank paper Notebook: Slides 1,2,& 4 - Puck Notebook: Slide 10 - Writing proforma Wudgie 2, etc

Resources: Joint construction describing teachers alien (from previous session) Pictures of aliens created by the students Writing proforma sheet for each student

DESCRIPTIONS
Session 1
Teacher randomly selects a students alien description. As a class, proof read and edit this childs work. Refer to C.U.P.S. chart. (Slides 11 & 12) C capitals U understanding P punctuation

Week 4
Session 2
Read the text The Lost Child (Slide 13)

Session 3
Independently or in pairs children draw a picture of another lost child/person or they find a picture of a child /person in a magazine.. Write a description of what this lost person looks like.

Circle the adjectives as a class. Students circle adjectives on their own copy. Students read of The Lost Child and draw a

S - spelling Do the same with another three written texts. Explain to students the importance of proofreading and correcting work. All authors do it. Students proofread and edit their work. This can be done in pairs. Students circle all the adjectives in their description. Does their description match their alien created picture?

picture of this child. What did the jumper look like? What did the jumper look like? What did the jeans have on them? How tall was the girl? What did she look like? Students independently circle all the adjectives and underline the pronouns in red used in this text. These words give us information about who is participating in this text.

Proofread and edit written text using C.U.P.S. chart. Students share the description of their lost person with the class.

Resources: Enlarged copies of students alien descriptions Notebook: Slides 11 & 12 -Editing posters C.U.P.S.

Resources: Notebook: Slide 13 - The Lost Child Worksheet - The Lost Child with given description for each student

Resources: Worksheet - The Lost Person for each child/pair to write a description C.U.P.S. posters

DESCRIPTIONS
Session 1
Show A3 picture of dog looking creature to the class (Slide 14). Jointly construct an introduction using sentence starter Once upon a time

Week 5
Session 2
Students use the coloured dog looking creature picture from the previous session. Students write a detailed

Session 3
Final assessment - Students write descriptions independently . Topics can include an advertisement in the newspaper selling a car or another item, a poster to be displayed around the school

 Students write their own introduction using the same or another sentence starter (including who, what, where). Select students to share their written introduction to the class. As a class, brainstorm words to describe what this dog creature looks like. Record on paper for use in next session. Students are given their own copy of the dog looking creature. They colour it in using any colours.

description of this creature. Remind them to begin describing the body, tail, legs and then head. Remind students to use many adjectives so their description can be interesting and the reader can visualize this creature. Students proofread and edit written text using C.U.P.S. chart. They circle in red all the adjectives and pronouns in their written description.

describing a lost shoe, pencil case or pet. other transport that they are going to sell independently. Students proofread and edit written text using C.U.P.S. chart.

Resources: Notebook: Slide 14 picture of dog looking creature Writing assessment description sheet for each student Copy of dog looking creature for each student

Resources: Writing assessment sheet used in previous session C.U.P.S. posters

Resources: Writing assessment description sheet for each student C.U.P.S. posters

Puck Wudgie - 1 This characters name is Puck-Wudgie. It has a head, eyes with eyelashes, a nose and a mouth with a grin. On its ears it has earrings. Its hair and neck are both long. It has a stomach with a belly button, four arms and two legs. PuckWudgie loves to dance all night to music.

Puck-Wudgie - 2 This characters name is Puck- Wudgie. It has a fat head, big bulgy eyes with long eyelashes, a pig-like nose, and a wide mouth with a big silly grin. On its enormous ears it has long dangling earrings with frills. Its hair and neck are both long. It has a round stomach with a little belly button, four stubby arms and two stubby legs. It loves to dance all night to punk music.

Description -

WOO-HOO

This is my character named Woo-Hoo. She has a large, round belly with two little belly buttons in the centre, one on top of the other. On the right side of her body/belly, Woo-Hoo has three skinny, long arms with six plump, fingers on each arm. On the left side of her body, she has a very long, curled up tail with vertical stripes. Woo-Hoo has two elephant like stubby ,wide legs with two webbed feet on each leg. She has no neck but has a triangular shaped small head, with two square ears and a tiny, zig zag mouth. Her eyes are blue and enormous with squiggly, short eyelashes. Woo-Hoo has no nose. She is wearing a humungus,

polkadot, cowboy hat.

Descriptions focus on the characteristic features of a particular thing.

They describe someone, some place or something in detail.

Descriptions include:

an introduction to the subject of the description characteristic features of the subject

Written in the present tense

(e.g. physical appearance, qualities, habitual behaviour, significant attributes)

Grammatical features:

Use of adjectives and simple noun groups Use of pronouns Use of action verbs, feeling verbs and thinking verbs Use of adverbs

(Does each sentence begin with a capital letter?)

C capitals

U understanding
(Does each sentence make sense?)

P punctuation S spelling

(Does each sentence end with a full stop/question mark? Are commas used?)

(Have you checked the spelling of words and attempted difficult words?)

Name: _____________________________

Date: _____________

Description
Introduction (who, what, where)
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Description (body, legs, arms, head)

____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

The Lost Child

Attention shoppers. We have a lost child at the information desk on Level 1.

She is wearing a red jumper with a picture of three pink teddy bears on the front and blue jeans with yellow patches on the knees.

She is approximately 100 centimetres tall; has long brown hair tied in a pony tail; and has a small scar on her left arm.

She was found outside the toy store on Level 3.

Name: _____________________________

Date: _____________

Writing Assessment Description Term 2

Introduction:
______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________

Description:
______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________

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