Students will engage in the preliminary stages of the writing process during this session. At the end of this lesson, students are going to:
- Determine the aim of their writing.
- Determine the target audience for their writing.
- Employ topic generation and development techniques with the explicit goal of Illustrating your point through description.
- Examine a well-written passage that illustrates the significance of location.

- What function does writing serve in our daily lives?
- How can we improve our writing skills?
- To what extent does the writing process influence the quality of the writing?

- Writing Process: The stages of writing (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing). These stages are recursive rather than linear. For example, the writer might brainstorm and draft, step back and make changes, then write more. 
- Description: Words used to evoke images in the reader’s mind. 
- Topic: The subject matter with which a writer is working in a particular piece of writing. 
- Purpose: The reason or reasons why a person composes a particular piece of writing. Different types of purpose include the following: to express, to describe, to explore/learn, to entertain, to inform, to explain, to argue, to persuade, to evaluate, to problem solve, and to mediate. However, it should also be emphasized that writers often combine purposes in a single piece of writing. 
- Audience: The intended readers of a particular piece of writing. 
- Prewriting: The initial writing stage of gathering ideas and information and planning writing. Students may sketch, brainstorm, or use webs, outlines, or lists to generate and organize ideas. 
- Sensory Detail: Specific details relative to sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste working together in harmony to create concrete images and strengthen writing. 
- Metaphor: A literary device in which two different objects are compared by analogy (i.e., “The lake is a mirror.”). 
- Simile: A literary device in which two unlike things are compared, using words such as like or as (e.g., “Her cheeks were as pink as roses.”).

- copies of the Your Important Place: Prewriting handout (see L-C-1-1_Your Important Place Prewriting in the Resources folder)
- copies of the excerpt (or a display of it on a large screen) from pages 2–3 of The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson. Harper & Row, 1955. A paragraph from this text is available at http://womenshistory.pbworks.com/Carson-Intro. 

- Make sure to concentrate on using description to convey a point during the lesson. Observing the groups as they discuss Carson's passage will aid in identifying any individuals who may require additional assistance later. 
- Should students encounter difficulties in choosing a location for their writing, instruct them to recall instances in which they were ecstatic (obtaining a pet, winning a race, performing well in a recital, hanging out with friends), and then pinpoint the location of those moments (an animal shelter or pet shop, a track, an auditorium, a swimming pool/someone's house). 
- Assist students who are struggling with the looping exercise by posing location-related queries. (What were they able to see, hear, smell, touch, or taste?) 
- Seeing students work with the handouts will also reveal who is struggling to come up with an appropriate idea and/or details. Make sure that students who have been struggling with the assignment understand it if they start working on the sensory details during class.

Explicit instruction, modeling, scaffolding, and active engagement 
W: Students are aware that they will be writing a piece of original writing about how a specific location affects them, and that it will be published (for example, on the class website, bulletin board, literary magazine, newsletter, or assignment collection). In the first section, they highlight the importance of sensory details in a description and offer some examples of their own. 
H: Because they choose places that are meaningful to them as possible writing topics, students have a personal connection to the work. They investigate one of them by eliciting information about it. 
E: Students study and practice one prewriting technique (looping); they also look at an example of the kind of writing that professionals have written. 
R: Students are able to reconsider and hone their topic through the looping exercise and the sensory detail assignment. 
E: Before starting to write, students choose topics and the best details to include. 
T: Students write both individually and collectively while debating in small groups and as a class. Students who might find it challenging to analyze the Carson piece do so in groups so they can figure out what makes the reading effective. 
O: The lesson starts with a personal connection, group work allows all students to participate, and topic choice allows students to learn how to write effective descriptions while pursuing a personal interest. 

Focus Question: How can we produce a descriptive piece of writing using the prewriting process?

To demonstrate how a location has affected them, students will start working on a piece of original writing.

Present the students with the Your Important Place: Prewriting handout (L-C-1-1_Your Important Place Prewriting) and inform them that they will be writing a description to support a point in a short while and that their work will be published for both their classmates and a wider audience. Assure them that the handout will aid in their preparation for composing the description.

"First of all, I would like you to consider a specific location that has held significance for you due to its influence on you. You might select a basketball court because that's where you felt most comfortable, or a hillside where you enjoyed going sledding. After all, it gave you a sense of freedom. I have a severe fear of heights, so if I had to choose a place to write about it, I would describe the top of a stalled Ferris wheel. Now, using the paper I provided, choose a location that has meaning for you and write a sentence describing how it has affected you." Give it a few minutes, then go on, saying, "For now, set that aside—we'll revisit it later—and let's see how a professional writer articulated the significance of a unique location."

Read aloud the passage from The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson to the class. Ask students to name the influence this location had on Carson ("the poignant beauty of things that are ephemeral"). After that, assign them to groups of two or three and have them identify how she illustrates it—for example, by emphasizing a lot of details that will soon disappear, using sensory details, metaphors, and similes, or by preparing the reader for deep thought in the opening paragraph. As you move through the classroom, assist anyone who is having difficulties. Briefly discuss your thoughts with the other groups, then find out what aspects of the piece they find effective. Gather the lists of all the groups. (An additional or substitute task would be to apply the same analysis to a superb student place description. You can be sure you have suitable examples for writing assignments if you compile a bank of student choices.)

After that, practice prewriting and looping. "You've already mentioned one specific location that affected you. You're going to list a few more now, so you can write about something you find interesting. List them on your handout; it will take a few minutes. Think back to instances where you were joyful or thrilled. Consider locations that have evoked strong emotions in you, such as Rachel Carson."

Give students time to write and then say, “Pick any one of the places you’ve thought of so far and—starting right under your list––write nonstop about it for the next five minutes. Don’t worry about wording, spelling, or anything else—just write down everything you remember about the place and its effect on you, and don’t stop until I tell you to.” Help students who are having trouble getting started by asking questions. (What is it about this place that someone would notice first? Looking around this place from left to right, what do you see? Which hues and/or textures catch your attention? Is anything moving? If yes, what or who is in motion? What do you hear?)

Say, "Now, read what you have written," after five minutes. Give students a minute to review their work and comment. "After that, highlight a detail you've included that you think is interesting or that you should add more details to. For example, you might be at a basketball game, and someone has mentioned the vibrant, boisterous crowd. You find that detail appealing. After you've circled that, write about the crowd nonstop for the next five minutes, including any memories you may have of it." After giving the class five minutes, instruct them to pause, go over everything they have written, and circle the parts that most appeal to them. Say, "Now, briefly explain why this location is significant to you in the sentence at the bottom. Describe the effect it had on you."

Students can reconsider and hone their topic through the looping exercise. Say, "Now, enumerate five or more sensory elements that best characterize your location. Make an effort to engage your senses—taste, touch, smell, hearing, and sight—though obviously not all of them will be effective in your specific location." The upcoming lesson will have this as its starting point.

Extension:

Ask students to look over some of their favorite books, stories, or student papers that you have provided. Have them choose words that they think work especially well and write them in a shared notebook or on a board. As the semester goes on, add words to this word bank.
Discuss the five senses with students using magazine cutouts that you've laminated so you can use them again. Show a picture of a snow scene, for example, to the class and ask them to identify which sense it appeals to (most likely sight and touch). Next, ask them to think of some words or phrases that would best convey the scene to those senses (e.g., "blanket of white," "icy cold"). Post the ideas of the students on the board so that they are visible to all. Place the ideas, if at all possible, on a bulletin board so that they will always be accessible. Choose images that will allow students to recognize and discuss a variety of descriptive words and phrases.
Ask students to work in pairs or small groups. Present a photo to a single group member. Give them three minutes to describe the contents of the picture in detail. The describer is the only one who can speak; dialogue is not necessary. Furthermore, it's not a guessing game. It would be appropriate for the describer to state that the picture shows a dinner table setting on a red tablecloth. Walk around the room and emphasize that the person speaking should use as many colors, sizes, shapes, textures, proportions, and words that relate to space as possible to accurately paint a picture in the audience's mind. Next, have the describer show the picture to the group or partner when the allotted time has elapsed (or extend it a little if necessary). The first response is usually a groan, indicating that the listener's mental image and the describer's description are different. Remarks such as "I expected to find that there were people seated at the table" or "You didn't say the candlesticks were purple and over a foot tall!" are likely to be common. Allow the individual conversations to conclude on their own.
Regroup and discuss the difficulties of transferring a word picture (exactly) into the mind of a reader with the entire class. If you can project the pictures onto the classroom wall or screen, this exercise is even more effective. The describer should look at the picture, while the partner or partners should turn their backs on it. Once the timer goes off, you can heighten the tension by declaring, "Okay, time's up. Those of you facing away from the screen should now have a pretty good idea of what you're going to see when you turn around, right? Okay, please turn around." Before you conclude the exercise, allow students to switch roles and take turns being the listener or the describer a few times. They will want to complete at least three rounds of this one because it's entertaining.