Setting the Scene

Common Core Objective: English Language Arts Grade 4, Writing Standard

3:
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using
effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.
Objectives: Students will learn through visualization how to set a scene for
their short story, and how to describe that scene in their writing. Students
will be able to select a setting for their story and describe it accurately and
integrate the description into their writing.
Target Grade: This lesson is intended for 4th grade, but it could be modified
and implemented up to 6th grade if adjusted for intensity.
Background:
Students will already understand the elements of a story and be familiar with
short stories from various authors and how they approach scene description.
This lesson would be part of a short-story writing unit and would be near the
beginning, before the students actually draft their 1-2 page short stories.
Students must already have a good grasp of adjectives and descriptions and
be able to accurately and colorfully describe different elements of a scene.
Students must be able to identify how different elements of scene
description add to the vibrancy of their story.
Activity:
Students will brainstorm as a class and describe parts of a scene put up on
the board by the teacher. (For example, large trees, a small red house, a
white fence, soft green grass, noisy chickens, and a blue sky all made into
paper cut outs and posted on the board and described separately and
together.) The teacher will explain how each element of the scene can be
described and how those descriptions add to the overall feel of the scene.
Students will then use this experience to describe the setting for their own
short story.

Assignment: After the class scene description and discussion, students will
pick the main setting for their short story. Next, they will draw a picture of
the scene, adding as much detail as they can. Students will then make a list
describing different elements of their picture that they will use in their story.
After that, students will work with a partner and try to find three new ways

elements of their partners scene could be described and add to their lists.
Students will add any details they feel necessary and have a large arsenal of
description that they will use later in their short story composition.
Explanation: Students will not only have sentences and a list that they can
incorporate into their story, but they will understand how scene description
adds to storytelling. Students will understand that how a scene is described
can affect the mood of the story. Students will also be aware of how some
details are more important than others if theyre more involved in the story.
Students will be more aware of scenery in their reading of other texts, and
they will begin to understand how authors can use the scene to convey more
than just where the characters are. Students can experiment with scene
selection and details and see how it affect the feeling and flow of their short
stories.
Materials needed:
Large paper cut outs depicting a scene on the board
Paper for each student to draw their own scene
Markers, colored pencils, and crayons