Common Core State Standard: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details and well-structured event sequences.
Objective
Students will describe the setting for a short story they will write.
360° Learning Experience
Teachers present students with a 360° video that can be the setting of a story. Next, the teachers tell students to explore the video closely because they will be using it as the setting for a creative writing assignment. To prepare for the assignment, students are to draft 1-2 paragraphs that describe the video’s place, features, and other details. Students can similes, metaphors, and other devices as part of their description. In addition, students can write an outline for their story to help them plan how their characters will interact with one another and the setting.
Recommended Teaching Strategy
Example Description
This example is based on the Farm video below, and the parameters were for it be 4-6 sentences long and include one piece of personification and a simile.
That barn was cold even on hot summer days. Me, I never thought the barn was cold though, more foreboding, like a sunken ship on the bottom of the ocean, just waiting to be discovered. I’ve been in that barn summer, winter, spring, and fall days. The walls in that barn scream out when the weather changes, like they’re in pain. I know it because I heard it. The walls scream out and sound like they’re just asking to be torn down because of their age, but we don’t do that. The walls might be a faded brown color but it sits like an oasis next to our corn field, and that’s the way it’s always been and probably always will be.