Unit Content Objectives
The curriculum “Painting Pictures with Words: The Art of Sensory Imagery in Narrative Writing” is designed for ELL students from grades fifth through eighth. The goal of the curriculum is for students to write concrete descriptive adjectives, specifically those associated with the five senses to be developed through multiple culturally-relevant lessons. The length of the narrative could be a paragraph or an essay. My curriculum includes AZELLA data, mentor sentences, tactile centers, descriptive sentences, and book projects. Above all, the goal is for students to have an exciting experience learning about the art of sensory writing and revision. “The Art of Writing and Revision” Yale National Initiative (YNI) seminar paved a clear expectation for the need to review and revise written narratives. It is important to understand the writing process and revision. Revision is a crucial stage for strengthening writing techniques. The writer's voice can determine whether a written narrative is compelling. The unit’s several examples of written genres–fiction, poetry, and drama–from different authors will allow the students’ exposure to diverse voices and themes. Reading the different genres and analyzing their craft can help students craft their own written narratives. The process of switching roles and becoming a student in the YNI seminar was essential for me to understand the different techniques of writing. A great example of the learning process came from participants' first hand experience as a reader, writer, listener, and speaker.
The lesson will target the productive communication skills (speaking and writing) for the targeted English language development class. Productive communication skills are applied when students speak and write to communicate. Productive communication skills will be enhanced by applying various strategies. Several strategies in the unit include culturally responsive teaching, vocabulary development using sensory adjectives, language rich environment, collaborative grouping, active listening, asking questions, and oral fluency activities. The units will integrate writing and speaking activities for each lesson. Targeting the productive communication skills are essential for language acquisition and preparing the students for the AZELLA re-assessment. The unit will target ELP standard 3 and 10. Standard 3 indicator 2 will target narrative techniques and precise language to compose narrative writing. Standard 10 indicator 9 will target descriptive adjectives. To target standard 3 and 10, students will have to write narratives. First, students will begin by writing a couple of sentences that describe an object using sensory adjectives. Next, students will write one paragraph narratives that describe pictures using sensory adjectives. Finally, students will write a five paragraph narrative essay using sensory adjectives. The progression of scaffolding will differentiate and support the various levels of language proficiency for each student.
How did I determine data from AZELLA re-assessment scores to be used for the curriculum? Before I designed the curriculum, I analyzed the 2025 AZELLA re-assessment data. The data informed me that about 70% of students need to increase their productive communication (speaking and writing) skills. According to the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), students who are proficient need to score between 250 to 400.6 My students scored between 100 and 249. This means that my students are at the basic and intermediate level. Based on the low scores, I determined that I need to focus on descriptive writing to enhance narrative writing for all students. The data scores help me determine what I should focus on during whole class instruction throughout the school year. Descriptive writing is targeted by scaffolding short sentences into a 250 word paragraph. Students will need to describe the illustration using language associated with each of the five senses. Eventually, students will have to write a narrative essay. Targeting the standards by breaking them down into parts is important for student learning.
Standard 3 and 10 are decomposed into parts for effective student learning. ELP standard 3 asks students to compose a written narrative that includes narrative techniques and precise language. I broke the standard into two parts–narrative techniques and precise language. Therefore, I chose to use descriptive writing as the technique to help students write narratives for the AZELLA re-assessment. Students are asked to write a paragraph about the pictures given to them. They also have to write a narrative essay from a prompt given. The descriptive writing technique is essential for students to use when describing a picture or writing a narrative essay. The next part of standard 3 is to compose narratives using precise language. The precise language I chose to focus on are concrete sensory adjectives. ELP standard 10 focuses on frequently occurring adjectives. Therefore, the sensory adjectives the students use will help students write descriptive paragraphs about a picture or narrative essay.
Reading and writing are fundamentally interconnected. Students need to be shown strategies to to comprehend written language and write narratives that are similar to the story they read. Several lessons were created to give students the experience of practicing productive communication skills. Scaffolding lessons that begin from concrete activities to abstract activities are implemented for students to conceptualize writing techniques. Most importantly, the lessons are designed to engage all students of different learning styles and proficiency levels. The unit is created to target productive communication skills using reading, listening, speaking and writing skills. For example, in lesson four, students will practice descriptive writing by completing the conclusion of the story they read. First, students will read a story that includes the exposition, rising action, and climax. However, the story will not have a falling action and resolution. In the next task of the same lesson, students will answer comprehension questions about various events in the story. In the third task of the same lesson, students will have to complete the story. The students will be asked to complete the story by writing how the character solves the problem and write the end of the story between 250 to 500 words. In the final task, students will write a short summary of the story they created and orally summarize it. Students will be required to use sensory adjectives or phrases to complete the ending of the story. Students are able to use the descriptive writing technique and use precise sensory imagery adjectives to write a paragraph. Why so many tasks for one lesson? The AZELLA re-assessment requires students to read, write, and orally summarize a story. Therefore, creating several tasks enables students to think critically about how reading and writing are fundamentally connected. I have used this same strategy for my students in the previous school year. More than 50% of students have increased their level of language proficiency.
The goal of the entire unit is for students to write a narrative with sensory imagery adjectives. I will use the Understanding by Design:Backward Design framework to plan the unit.8 Each lesson will follow a pattern: learning objectives, assessments, and learning activities. The lessons will be scaffolded into five parts. The final assessment will be a project. Each lesson will have an objective focused on descriptive sensory adjectives. After each lesson, there will be formative and summative assessments. Formative assessments include feedback and stakes with multiple opportunities of improvement. Summative assessments will be used for grading incorrect and correct responses and feedback to improve the next writing assignment. The assessments vary from open-ended, complex, or authentic based on the students' understanding of the concepts. Finally, the classroom learning activities and tasks are designed to hook and engage students. Most lessons are student-centered with my guidance to learn the lesson goals. I will include a summary for each lesson. The classroom activities are detailed objectives.
Assessment
For the summative assessment project, students will write a narrative paragraph that describes what will happen next after reading a short story. The short historical fiction story students will read is Navajo Long Walk written by Nancy M. Armstrong.9 In summary, the story is a fictional account of a young boy’s challenging journey pertaining to the Navajo Long Walk. The student will be asked to complete the story by writing what will happen next. It is important for students to understand the plot of the story. When students write the remaining story, it is important to point out they may have to include the problem, climax, falling action, and resolution or they could need to write the climax, falling action, and resolution. The students’ paragraphs should be at least between 275 and 550 words. Students do have to include descriptive sensory adjectives in their story. Students will have the opportunity to revise their story using a rubric to guide them. After the revision process, students will design and create a custom eBook in Canva. Students will design an illustration that matches their story and place their writing piece inside. Students will create a class eBook project and print it to take home.
Lesson 1 Summary
To prepare students for writing a descriptive paragraph using sensory adjectives, the unit implements a variety of mentor texts to give students background knowledge of how adjectives can be used for writing (including poetry with sensory phrases) in three student-centered centers. The three centers will have copies of the text. The key is to focus on concrete words such as adjectives that describe the five senses. Students will be asked to identify the concrete words or sensory phrases from a short passage with the group they have been assigned to. Students will have the opportunity to proceed through three centers. Each center is designed to use Bloom’s Taxonomy questions that guide the student’s cognitive abilities. Each center is differentiated for all levels of learners. Students will work in collaborative groups to complete each center. Lesson 1’s objectives will include content and language objectives for the ELL students.
Lesson 2 Summary
Lesson 2 will involve different stations, one for each of the five senses. Students will need to rotate from one station to the next to experience and be exposed to adjectives that describe the objects in each station with their group. The groups will be divided into five sensory centers that support kinesthetic learning. Each center will have a set of adjectives that describe one of the five senses the center is assigned. The 1st center will focus on the sense of smell adjectives. The 2nd center will focus on tasting adjectives. The 3rd center will focus on the sense of hearing adjectives. The 4th center will focus on the sense of touch adjectives. The 5th center will focus on the sense of visual adjectives. Students will have the opportunity to read the words to describe an object. Students will be asked to write descriptions of the objects using the adjectives provided in each station. After all students have completed the stations, they will have the opportunity to read what they wrote with a different partner. The other partner will listen and write what the other partner wrote. To make it culturally responsive, I will have students taste corn blue mush, listen to Navajo songs, feel the texture of corn, smell juniper leaves, and visually describe juniper leaves, orange peel, and blue corn meal.
Lesson 3 Summary
The third lesson will have students describe what is happening in the illustration. They will use the sensory adjectives to describe the illustration. Students will use the list of descriptive words to describe an illustration created by Navajo artist R.C. Gorman. With a partner, and from an illustration provided, students will write one sentence for what they see, one sentence for what they smell, one sentence for what they hear, one sentence for what they taste, and one sentence for what they feel. Each sentence will be used to describe the illustration. After that, students will use the five sentences they wrote to describe what is happening in the illustration. The students will write one paragraph that describes what is happening in the illustration. The purpose of writing the five sentences is to have the students think about how they can use the sensory adjectives to describe what is happening in the picture. After partners have created a paragraph, they will create a PowerPoint presentation to show other students what they wrote to describe the picture. As students are presenting, the rest of the students will highlight the descriptive words used. To make the lesson culturally responsive, I will have students describe R.C. Gorman’s famous art design.
Lesson 4 Summary
The fourth lesson will have students read a short paragraph and complete the ending of the story using language associated with the five senses. Students will answer comprehension questions about the short paragraph and will work in groups to complete the story. I will make copies of the stories. We will analyze the story by identifying the five sentences that complete the story and discuss how we can make the story better. Students will then edit and correct the end of the story by adding more detail. To make the lesson culturally relevant, students will read about a fictional story of a Navajo code talker.
Lesson 5 Summary
The fifth lesson will have students read a short story, answer comprehension questions, and write the ending of the story. Students will be asked to identify the different plots of the story (characters, beginning, problem, solution, and end of the story). Students will be asked to write the solution of the story. Students will be asked to pre-write and create ideas for their story. Students will independently write the story. Students will edit the story to correct errors in punctuation, capitalization, grammar, use of five senses with descriptive words, and a plot.
Project
For the assessment project, students will have to write a narrative essay to describe a challenging journey using 275 to 550 words. Students will design and create a custom eBook in Canva. Once students edit and create their story, each one will create an eBook and print it to take home. They will have to use sensory descriptive words, have a plot, and use correct punctuation, capitalization, grammar.
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