Classroom Resource

Delicious, Tasty, Yummy: Enriching Writing With Adjectives and Synonyms

Subject Area

English Language Arts

Grade(s)

3, 4, 5

Overview

Students' vocabulary is expanded and their writing is enriched when they are encouraged to use a variety of adjectives to help readers "see, taste, and feel" what they've written. In this unit for grades 3 and 4, picture books are used as a springboard for helping students define, identify, and practice using adjectives and synonyms. They develop webbed lists and then put their new vocabulary skills to use by writing form poems.

English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

ELA21.3.R3

Expand background knowledge and build vocabulary through discussion, reading, and writing.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.3.R3

Vocabulary

  • Background knowledge
  • Vocabulary
  • Discussion

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Relating experiences through discussions, reading, and writing will help build background knowledge and improve vocabulary.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Connect new concepts to prior experiences to increase background knowledge through discussions, reading, and writing.
  • Construct the meaning of words through discussions, reading, and writing.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Background knowledge can increase by relating experiences to new ideas, topics, and words while participating in discussions, reading, and writing.
  • Vocabulary will increase by constructing the meaning of words while participating in discussions, reading, and writing.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

ELA21.3.14

Describe word relationships and nuances in word meanings, including relating them to their opposites and distinguishing shades of meaning in similar or related words, including nouns, verbs, and adjectives.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.3.14

Vocabulary

  • Describe
  • Word relationships
  • Nuances
  • Opposites
  • Distinguishing
  • Shades of meaning
  • Similar words
  • Related words
  • Nouns
  • Verbs
  • Adjectives

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Word relationships and nuances in word meanings.
  • Words with opposite meanings are antonyms, and words with similar meanings are synonyms.
  • A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea.
  • A verb expresses an action or state of being.
  • An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Describe the relationships between words and nuances in word meanings.
  • Describe how the meaning of words are alike or different.
  • Describe the nuances of words that have different shades of meaning.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Writers and speakers should carefully select words to convey specific meanings, ideas, and relationships.
  • Words have relationships with other words and words have subtle differences that can be distinguished within text.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 3

ELA21.3.17

Use grade-level academic and domain-specific vocabulary in writing.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.3.17

Vocabulary

  • Academic vocabulary
  • Domain-specific vocabulary
  • Writing

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Academic vocabulary is language that is more formal than spoken language.
  • Domain-specific vocabulary refers to words that are used specifically in school subject areas, like math, science, and social studies.
  • Academic, domain-specific vocabulary words should be used in writing to clearly communicate ideas.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Use third grade-level academic and domain-specific vocabulary words in writing.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Using academic and domain-specific vocabulary words in writing makes their writing more interesting and helps to clearly communicate their message.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 4

ELA21.4.R4

Utilize a writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.4.R4

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Draft
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Publish
  • Genres

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish.
  • Various genres of writing.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan writings in various genres.
  • Draft writings in various genres.
  • Revise writings in various genres.
  • Edit writings in various genres.
  • Publish writings in various genres.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The writing process is a set of steps that make writing easier.
  • There are different categories, or genres, of writing that can be used for different purposes.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 4

ELA21.4.10

Interpret words and phrases, including figurative language, as they are used in a text.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.4.10

Vocabulary

  • Interpret
  • Figurative language

Knowledge

Students know:
  • Strategies to identify word meaning in context.
  • Figurative language is a creative way to use words and phrases beyond their literal definition to explain or describe something.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Explain the meaning of words and phrases that are specific to the text.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • Words and phrases, including figurative language, can have different meanings in different texts.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 5

ELA21.5.R4

Utilize a writing process to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish writings in various genres.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.5.R4

Vocabulary

  • Writing process
  • Plan
  • Draft
  • Revise
  • Edit
  • Publish
  • Genres

Knowledge

Students know:
  • The writing process steps are to plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish.
  • Various genres of writing.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Plan writings in various genres.
  • Draft writings in various genres.
  • Revise writings in various genres.
  • Edit writings in various genres.
  • Publish writings in various genres.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • The writing process is a set of steps that make writing easier.
  • There are different categories, or genres, of writing that can be used for different purposes.
English Language Arts (2021) Grade(s): 5

ELA21.5.12

Interpret the meaning of words, phrases, and patterns as they are used in texts, including domain-specific and academic vocabulary and figurative language.

Unpacked Content

UP:ELA21.5.12

Vocabulary

  • Domain-specific vocabulary
  • Academic vocabulary
  • Figurative language

Knowledge

Student know:
  • Academic vocabulary is language that is more formal than spoken language.
  • Domain-specific vocabulary refers to words that are used specifically in school subject areas, like math, science, and social studies.
  • Figurative language is a creative way to use words and phrases beyond their literal definition to explain or describe something.
  • Strategies to determine the meaning of words, phrases, and patterns in text.

Skills

Students are able to:
  • Interpret the meaning of domain-specific vocabulary, academic vocabulary, and figurative language as they are used in texts.

Understanding

Students understand that:
  • There are multiple strategies they can use to interpret the meaning of academic and domain-specific vocabulary, including using context clues in the text, their background knowledge, the morphological structure of the word, and outside resources.
  • Words and phrases, including figurative language, can have different meanings in different texts.
Link to Resource
http://readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/delicious-tasty-yumm…

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

ReadWriteThink
Accessibility
License

License Type

Custom

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.readwritethink.org/util/legal.html

Approved Date

raulstoncg
ALSDE LOGO

This site may contain links to other websites or content belonging to or originating from third parties or links to websites and features in banners or other advertising. Such external links are not investigated, monitored, or checked for accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness by us. WE DO NOT WARRANT, ENDORSE, GUARANTEE, OR ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY INFORMATION OFFERED BY THIRD-PARTY WEBSITES LINKED THROUGH THIS SITE.
Alabama Learning Exchange © 2002-2023 by Alabama State Department of Education is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Design by Adaptive Theme