Revising with the Five Senses: Bring a Flat Paragraph to Life

SubstitutePlans.com
English Language Arts · English 6-8
SP-ELA68-017 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 2
Revising with the Five Senses: Bring a Flat
Paragraph to Life
English Language Arts · English 6-8 · Grades 8 · 50 minutes
Time needed
50 minutes (one class period)
Prep
Copy the 2-page worksheet (one per student). Write the five senses on the board.
Technology
None.
Student
independence
High. Students work alone, then read their best new sentence to a partner.
Copies to make
One 2-page worksheet per student
Materials
Pencils, Worksheet, Whiteboard or chalkboard
Goal for today: Students will identify sensory details and revise a flat paragraph by adding at least three different
senses in a way that supports the mood.
Before the bell
☐ Copy the worksheet, one per student (2 pages).
☐ Write on the board: SIGHT - SOUND - SMELL - TOUCH - TASTE.
☐ Write on the board: Revising means re-seeing your writing and making it stronger. It is not just fixing spelling.
Say this to start
Good morning! Today you will be revisers. Writers do not just write something once. They go back and make it
stronger. You will take a flat paragraph about a football game night and rebuild it using the five senses so a reader
feels like they are in the stands. Everything you need is on the worksheet.

SubstitutePlans.com
English Language Arts · English 6-8
SP-ELA68-017 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 3
Run of show
Minutes
What you do
What students do
0–5
Take attendance. Hand out the worksheet. Read the five
senses and the board sentence about revising aloud.
Listen and look over the worksheet.
5–12
Tell students to read the flat paragraph and answer
questions 1–3 (which sense does each phrase use?).
Identify the sense in each phrase.
12–17
Read answers 1–3 from the key and answer questions 4–5
aloud with the class (true or false).
Check and fix their work.
17–25
Tell students to complete the Sense Planner table with one
new detail per sense and where it would fit.
Write a detail for each of the five senses.
25–42
Tell students to rewrite the paragraph in question 6. They
should use at least three different senses and not stuff
every sentence.
Rewrite the paragraph, adding sensory
details.
42–47
Tell students to complete question 7. Then invite partners
to read their favorite new sentence to each other.
Label the senses used and share a favorite
sentence.
47–50
Collect all worksheets and place them in a stack for the
teacher.
Hand in the worksheet.
If things go wrong
• If a student says, “I’ve never been to a football game,” tell them to invent details. A busy event, a market or a
concert would work just as well.
• If a student makes every sentence packed with detail, tell them to pick the three strongest and cut the rest.
• If students use taste when it does not fit, say it is fine to use only the senses that make sense in the scene.
• If a student finishes early, use the early finisher list.
Early finishers
• Choose a place you know well (such as the cafeteria) and list one detail for each sense.
• Revise one sentence from your paragraph by adding a comparison using like or as.
• Rank your five sense details from best to weakest and explain your top pick in one sentence.
Support and challenge
• Support: Provide this frame: “I could see ____, hear ____ and smell ____.” Students expand it into a full
paragraph.
• Challenge: Ask students to set the mood (excited, nervous or tense) first and choose only the details that fit
that mood.

SubstitutePlans.com
English Language Arts · English 6-8
SP-ELA68-017 · Free to print and use in your classroom · substituteplans.com
Page 4
Notes for the teacher (you fill this in)
Jot a few lines before you leave. A full Daily Sub Report is in the free Sub Survival Kit at SubstitutePlans.com.
How far the class got / what to pick up next:
Students who were especially helpful:
Anything the teacher should know: