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Lesson Overview:
Students will explore how to use the elements of fiction to enhance and develop their writing. Students will learn how authors manipulate time and space, mood, and spatial order in descriptions of settings.
Length of Lesson:
Three 45-minute periods
Instructional Objectives:
Students will:
- demonstrate ability to write for the purpose of expressing personal ideas.
- explore the elements of fiction: setting, character, and plot.
- write for a variety of audiences: peers, teachers, parents, school-wide community, etc.
Supplies:
- A short passage from an illustrated children’s book (of the teacher’s choosing) that describes a setting.
- Drawing paper
- Pens
- Markers and/or colored pencils
- Ruled paper
Instructional Plan:
Read a passage from an illustrated children’s book that introduces the setting. Do not show students the illustration. Have students sketch the setting, based on the information in the description. Allow students to share the pictures. Have them explain why they drew the setting the way that they did. What words or phrases influenced their interpretation amd depiction of the setting? Show the illustration in the book. Discuss similarities and differences among the all of the drawings.
Establish with students that setting, one of the elements of fiction, is the time and place of the action of a story. (For the elements of fiction, see the ReadWriteThink lesson, Book Report Alternative: The Elements of Fiction.) The setting may be specific and detailed and introduced at the very beginning of the story, or it may be merely suggested through the use of details scattered throughout the story. Customs, manners, clothing, scenery, weather, geography, buildings, and methods of transportation are all part of setting. The importance of setting differs from story to story. Sometimes the setting is fairly unimportant, as in most fables. In other stories, the setting is very important. It may have an effect on the events of the plot, reveal character, or create a certain atmosphere. Discuss the specific elements of setting, which are outlined below.
Time and Place
Read the following passage to students:
On a rainy November morning in 1776, a soldier trod a solitary path along a road in western Virginia. His gait was slow, and his face—barely visible beneath untold layers of grime—betrayed an anguished, exhausted expression.
Ask students the following:
- Where does the story take place? What details tell you this?
- When do the events of this story take place? What clues tell you so
Have students complete one of the following writing activities:
- Write a description of a place—real or imaginary—that you would like to visit. The description should include the name of the place, as well as a description of the inhabitants, the landscape, the weather, and any other factors that might be important to developing an understanding of this place.
- Write two descriptions of the same place—for example, your home. The first description should be told from the perspective of a child, and the second should be written as if an adult were viewing the home.
- Write a description of a favorite person in a natural setting that seems "right" for that person’s character. Then write a description of a person who doesn’t fit into a natural setting.
- Authors often use similes and metaphors to describe the setting in a vivid and colorful way. For example, a writer might say, "The thunder claps stampeded across the sky like a herd of wild buffalo." Write a description of a weather phenomenon using an animal to make the description more vivid.
- Write a description of an ideal outdoor spot—real or imagined. Use vivid details to describe light, water, plants, rocks, etc. Incorporate personification.
Mood
Establish with students that the setting can help develop and establish the mood of a story. A vivid description of the setting will help the reader to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch the environment of the story.
Share with students the following passage:
It was a cold and cheerless evening. The fog seemed to hover over the street, clutching the buildings, the streetlamps—the entire city—in a damp, icy grip. If one were to stand still, passers-by would emerge briefly from the gloom, only to disappear from view after taking just a few steps. These ghostly apparitions tormented James as he impatiently waited for his valet to return with his carriage.
(Note: For another good example of an author’s use of setting to create mood, see Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Have students read and respond to representative passages describing London on Christmas Eve.)
Ask students the following:
- What sensory details does the author use to draw the reader into the setting?
- What mood do these details help create?
Have students complete one of the following writing activities:
- Post a picture of a group of people, perhaps in a city or town or at a public event such as a baseball game. Have each student write two descriptions of the scene, one happy and the other sad or ominous.
- Describe a familiar place, such as a classroom or a mall, under two different sets of circumstances, such as day and night, summer and winter, or crowded and empty.
- Write a description of a festive holiday scene. Use details that appeal to your reader’s five senses. Your reader should be able to visualize a picture of holiday foods, music, colors, etc., that is appropriate to the mood you are trying to create. Next, try writing a description of a dreary or scary holiday scene. Be sure to use appropriate sensory details again. The smells, tastes, sounds, objects, etc., should be very different from those you picked for your "festive" description. Can you create a story that grows out of one or both of these descriptions?
- Think of a natural setting that has affected you. The place may be one you visited on vacation once, one you visit frequently, or perhaps it is even your backyard. How does this place affect your thoughts, feelings, mood, and actions? Write an autobiographical piece describing how this setting interacts with your thoughts and/or the actions of your characters.
Spatial Order
Establish with students that there are several ways to organize a description of a place. You could start at the right and move to the left. You could start at the top and move to the bottom. Or you could start at the place closest to you and move to the place farthest from you, as in the following passage:
The door of the mansion dwarfed anyone who approached it. Even the tallest visitors had to reach up high to grasp the ornate door knocker (which surely was made of solid gold). The door swung open into a grand hallway, with floors of spotless pink marble. The walls were covered in gigantic mirrors, so that the foyer appeared to be at least three times larger than its already impressive size. At the end of the hallway, a grand white staircase spiraled up and up—so far that you might have expected an angel to greet you when you reached the top. But that was not so. The stairs actually led to a large, but surprisingly ordinary looking hallway with slightly worn, green carpeting and a long row of nearly identical doors. It almost resembled a hotel.
(Note: For another good example of a setting description that establishes spatial order, see J.R.R. Tolkein’s description of a hobbit hole inThe Hobbit.)
Have students complete the following writing activity:
Describe a place that is familiar to you. Organize your description from either right to left, top to bottom, or closest to farthest point from you. Choose the spatial order that makes your description easiest to understand.
Allow time for students to share one or more of their writing assignments with a classmate(s). You may wish to group students in pairs, having one student read a setting description while his/her partner sketches the scene described. Students should analyze the drawing to see where their interpretations were similar, where they differed, and why.
Assessment:
Assessment of student writing will occur through the social dynamics of the classroom (peer response, cooperative learning, student-teacher conferences, discussions, etc.). A scoring rubric and checklist will be developed with students to help evaluate their writing. See the Standards for Rubrics sheet for reference.
Extensions:
Create a literary magazine for the class, in which students’ drawings and stories can be published.
Sources:
Print:
- Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
- Klugerman, Rita, et al. Globe Writing Program, Book A. Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Globe Book Company, 1989.
- Gregory, Cynde. Childmade: Awakening Children to Creative Writing. Barrytown,
NY: Station Hill Press, 1990.
- Hubert, Karen M. Teaching and Writing Popular Fiction. New York: Teachers
& Writers Collaborative, 1976.
- Mellon, Nancy, Storytelling and the Art of Imagination, Rockport, MA:
Element, Inc., 1992.
- Millet, Nancy C., and Raymond J. Rodrigues. Explorations in Literature.
Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman and Company, 1989.
- Rico, Gabriele Lusser. Writing the Natural Way. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher,
Inc., 1983.
- Tolkein, J.R.R. The Hobbit. New York: Random House, 1981.
- Willis, Meredith Sue. Blazing Pencils. New York: Teachers & Writers
Collaborative, 1990.
- Willis, Meredith Sue, Personal Fiction Writing. New York: Teachers &
Writers Collaborative, 1984.
- "Writing." Delran, NJ: Weekly Reader Company. November 1993, December 1993,
March 1994, April 1994, October 1994, March 1995, September 1995, April/May
1995, February 1996, and March 1996.
Web:
Authors:
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Kathy Cook, Teacher
Thomas Pullen Arts Magnet School
Landover, MD
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