Lesson video

Hi, I'm Ms. Chu.

And I'm super thrilled that you have joined me in this lesson today, because in this lesson, we are going to be illustrating descriptive scenes.

Yes, that's right, illustrating.

Get those fingers ready because we are about to start sketching.

Let's go.

Today's lesson outcome is, I can illustrate descriptive writing.

The key words for this lesson are here.

My turn to say them, then your turn.

Illustrate.

Descriptive.

Vivid.

And imagery.

Well done, you said those beautifully.

To illustrate is to create visual representations or images that accompany or enhance, that means make better, a written text.

Descriptive language is language that creates a clear picture for the reader that's often found in fiction texts.

Vivid means very clear, detailed, and intense.

A vivid image often creates a strong impression on the senses.

Imagery is a writer's use of highly descriptive and vivid language to paint a picture.

In today's lesson, we are going to be reading aloud and then we're going to be illustrating writing.

So let's start reading.

Choose a descriptive paragraph that appeals to your senses.

This could be a scene from your favourite book, a nature description, or something you yourself have written recently.

Here are two examples of books where you could choose a scene from, "Twitch" and "Finding Bear." Then I'd like you to read the paragraph slowly, just focusing on the vivid details, the details that really make the picture clear for you.

Identify the key elements such as colours, shapes, textures, and emotions that's conveyed in the text that you're reading.

Close your eyes and imagine the imagery described in the text.

And remember to think of the colours that the vocabulary is generating.

Is it closer to the greeny blue side of the colour scale or is it closer to the orangey red side of the scale? Just as a little reminder, the colours on the bluey greeny side of the scale should conjure up a calm and relaxed emotion.

And then the colours on the orangey red side of the scale should make you feel really intense emotions.

Let's do a quick check for understanding.

Which colour on the emotion scale represents an intense emotion? Is it the green part of the scale, the red, yellow, or the blue part? Pause the video and have a think about that colour scale.

Okay, get ready to point with me.

So the colour that represents an intense emotion is red.

Well done.

Now I want you to match four of the colours with their corresponding emotions and feelings.

So on this side we have blue, green, yellow, and red.

And then the emotions are on the other side.

And we have powerful and intense, content and happy, calm and peaceful, and nervous and worried.

Pause the video and do a matchy match.

Should we have a look at the answers? So for blue, I matched blue with calm and peaceful.

For green, I said that conjured up a content and happy feeling.

For yellow, I said that was related to being nervous and worried.

And for red, we'd already worked out it was an intense or powerful feeling.

There are some key things to remember when reading aloud.

I wonder if you remember them.

One is using an expressive voice.

Two is making sure you use the right or the appropriate volume.

Emphasis on key words and facial expressions.

Is it true or false? A reader should use a quiet and flat, I'll do a flat voice for you, a flat voice when they are reading aloud? Is this true or is this false? Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, let's have a look to see if this is true or false.

It is false.

Exactly.

Because a reader should use an expressive voice and emphasise the key words when they're reading aloud or a reader should use a loud voice all the way through, like shouting.

Hmm.

I think it is a, a reader should use an expressive voice and emphasise the key words.

Now let's read a paragraph together.

I need to remember all of these things.

To use an expressive voice, think about volume, emphasise keywords, and use facial expressions.

Okay, let me try and think of all those things when I'm reading this paragraph.

Can you just check that I'm doing those things? Okay.

Four things.

All around, the ominous, tempestuous storm howled like an angry beast.

Mercilessly, the blustery, icy wind tore through the trees that had branches outstretched in desperation.

Without a care in the world, the menacing, deafening thunder boomed a haunting melody and it raged its fury through the land.

Every few minutes, the sky was illuminated by electrifying, blinding lightning that danced like frenzied serpents.

The torrential, incessant rain, which splattered in every direction, poured down like heavy, sombre teardrops.

Did I remember to use an expressive voice? Give me a thumbs up if you think I did.

Oh, good.

Did I remember to think about the volume? Thank you.

Did I emphasise keywords? Maybe that's not sure.

And did I use facial expressions? Give me a thumbs up if I did.

Yeah, thank you.

Now we're going to underline the key words and phrases that capture the essence of the scene.

That means the mood of the scene.

How does it make us feel when we read it? And what that would really help us to do is think about what part of the colour scale those words are relating to.

Are they making us feel positive or negative? Are they making us feel calm and relaxed or are they making us feel an intense emotion? So I'm gonna underline the words that I think captured the essence, and you have to just check that I've got the right words and just have a think about why I might have underlined them.

All around, the ominous, tempestuous storm howled like an angry beast.

Hmm, I'm going to underline ominous and tempestuous, because I think that creates, that tells me what the storm was like, that it was foreboding and that it was chaotic.

And I'm also going to underline howled like an angry beast because that tells me that the storm was aggressive.

Because when I think of an angry beast, I think of an animal that's ravaging something.

So again, those words are helping me to create that sort of negative image in my mind.

So I'm still on that orangey red part of the scale.

Okay.

Mercilessly, the blustery, icy wind tore through the trees.

I've underlined that because the adjectives that describe the wind are telling me that it's really, really cold.

And the way it was blowing was that it tore through the trees mercilessly without any mercy.

So those are really good words to describe the wind and how they moved.

The trees that had branches outstretched in desperation, so that's creating an image in my mind that the trees were sort of reaching out, and the wind was kind of tearing through them, and the branches are reaching out for help.

Yes, so that's creating that image of a human emotion or a human action.

Without a care in the world, the menacing, deafening thunder boomed a haunting melody and it raged its fury through the land.

So I've underlined menacing and deafening thunder, because, again, those adjectives, those words help me to imagine what the thunder was like.

Menacing, that doesn't sound good.

Deafening, that means that it was so loud it was echoing through the land.

And the word boomed, again, reflects that it was deafening.

I also underline raged its fury because, again, that's showing us how the thunder felt when it was booming.

It was angry.

So again, on that orangey red part of that scale.

Every few minutes, the sky was illuminated by electrifying, blinding lightning, I've underlined that, that danced like frenzied serpents.

And why have I underlined electrifying and blinding lightning? Because that really describes to me what I could see when the lightning was striking.

It was blinding.

It was so dark, it was stormy, but it just tore through the sky and it danced like frenzied serpents.

The torrential, incessant rain, which splattered in every direction, poured down like heavy, sombre teardrops.

So I've underlined torrential and incessant there because that describes how the rain was falling, meaning really heavily and nonstop.

Then I've also underlined splattered in every direction.

So it's showing me that the rain isn't just coming down, but it's really, it's wild, it's coming in every direction, so no matter where I'm stood, it's gonna beat me, it's gonna come down on me.

And it poured down like heavy, sombre teardrops, and comparing the rain to really sad tears.

Which of these noun phrases evoke strong feelings? So again, thinking about that orangey red part of the scale, the colour scale, which of these noun phrases makes you think that you're on that part of the scale? Still, gentle sea, menacing, deafening thunder, torrential, incessant rain, or gleaming, polished surface? Pause the video and have a think because there might be two, one, or two, or three.

Can't give it away.

Pause the video and have a think.

Okay, get ready to point with me.

So the noun phrases that sit on the red orangey part of the scale are menacing, deafening thunder and, was there another one? Yes, torrential, incessant rain.

Still, gentle sea evokes a feeling of calmness for me, and so does gleaming, polished surface.

That evokes a kind of stillness, and calmness, and gentleness, so I didn't tick those ones.

Task A, reading aloud.

The first part of a task is you're going to choose a descriptive paragraph that appeals to your senses.

Then you're going to read the paragraph aloud, underline the key words and phrases that create imagery, then finally, identify the emotions conveyed in the text.

Remember, the key words and phrases helps you to identify which part of the colour scale it wants the reader to feel.

Give me a big thumbs up if you think you can have a go at this.

Yes, definitely, I think you can.

So pause the video and press play when you're finished.

Okay, shall we have a look at a little paragraph that I've chosen? I've got, high above the vast ocean, the relentless, oppressive sun scorched like an angry dragon.

All around, the still, gentle sea glistened like polished glass.

Unknown to the world, the gleaming, desert island emerged like a jewel and it invited explorers with its mysterious allure.

I have read my paragraph aloud, and I have underlined the key words and phrases.

Should we look at the words that I've underlined? I underlined relentless, oppressive sun scorched like an angry dragon.

Now that's giving me what kind of emotion? Quite strong, intense emotions.

So I would say that this would come on the sort of orange-red part of my colour scale, because it's making me feel like the sun is really, really hot, scorching down like a dragon's breath.

Then I underlined still, gentle sea glistened like polished glass because this was creating an image in my head that the sea was really still and calm.

So then I thought this actually would be on the greeny-blue part of my colour scale.

I underlined gleaming as well and emerged like a jewel because that image described the island coming out of the sea like a jewel.

So that kind of created a lovely, positive image in my mind.

So again, that was more sort of on the greenish side of the colour scale.

And it invited explorers, so underlined mysterious allure.

So it's saying that the island was a bit mysterious and it was welcoming.

So again, that would probably be more sort of in the middle because I'm not sure what's about to happen.

It could be mysterious in a good way or a bad way.

Now we are onto the second part of our lesson.

We are going to illustrate writing.

How are we going to do that? Well, we're going to start by drawing a rough outline or layout of the scene.

We're going to pay close attention to the placement, where we put objects, and the overall composition of our picture.

Don't worry about the details just yet.

You're just focusing on getting the basic structure down.

Then, after you've done the basic outline of your scene, you're going to refer back to the text and identify the vivid imagery underlined.

Begin adding these elements into your sketch.

Remember to think about what mood or what emotion you are trying to get the reader to sense.

You can experiment with techniques by trying shading, colouring, or texturing.

So here, we've got a picture of someone's face.

And in that drawing, you can see that the person has shaded in the darker areas.

You've got a picture of some paints, and that's experimenting with mixing colours.

And then the last three pictures are of different types of material, because you might want to layer materials on top of your sketch.

You can experiment with various mediums and styles to find out what best suits the mood of the text.

What do I mean by mediums? Well, you can use a pencil, you can use paint, charcoal, chalk, colouring pencils, oil pastels.

You can use watercolour, basically any sort of medium you like, as long as it suits the mood of the text.

The success criteria for today is, I have drawn a rough outline or layout of the scene.

I have referred to the text and identified the vivid imagery described.

I have added details to my illustration.

And finally, I have reflected upon and improved my illustration to better align it with the descriptive writing.

You're gonna watch me sketch a scene.

This is the text that I've chosen.

I'm going to use a success criteria to draw a rough outline of the scene.

So first of all, I need to read again and just make sure that I capture the overall essence of the scene, what mood is it creating? Are there any things in the scene that really stand out that I can start drawing an outline of? Then, after I've done the outline, I'm going to go back to my writing, to the text, and I'm going to look at the underlined vocabulary, because that will help me to add detail to my illustration.

When I have done all of it, I'm then going to look at my illustration overall and compare it with the writing and see if it matches up.

And if it doesn't, I'm just going to put a few edits and tweaks into my illustration.

Are you ready to watch me? Let's go.

Okay, I've got my materials, I'm ready to go.

I've got my paper.

I've got things I'm going to draw and sketch with.

And then the medium that I chose was charcoal.

So I've got three different types.

I've got medium, hard, and soft, depending on what sort of lines I'm trying to create.

And I also have got some tissue paper to wipe my hands so that I can keep my paper as clean as possible.

So I've just reread my descriptive writing.

And the general mood, and feeling, and essence that I get from the writing is that I've got to create a storm that is really chaotic.

And because I can't draw the whole storm yet, I'm just gonna find a few things from my description that I can draw.

For example, I know that I can draw the trees, so I'm going to start by drawing some trees.

And then have the branches.

So remember, this is just a general outline at the moment of a few trees.

So I've got my tree there, and I've got my tree there, and these are the branches.

So I haven't quite done the detail yet.

And then I want to create a sort of rainy, windy scene.

But I don't think I can do that just yet, so what I might do at the moment is just focus on the trees.

I'm going to just grab one of my pieces of charcoal, and I'm just going to now start to put in the details.

So I need to think, I'm gonna refer back to my text, and it says that the trees had branches outstretched in desperation.

So I need to make sure that the branches look like they are reaching out.

Okay.

So I'm just starting now to add in a little bit more detail.

It's not by any means perfect yet.

Okay.

So I'm just going to add in a few more branches, like so.

Okay, so I've got my tree there.

And now I want to show, so I've done the part where they're outstretched in desperation.

Now I want to show the storm was very chaotic.

So I'm just going to add some lightning perhaps? This is something that I learned.

If you press with a stick, so don't choose a pencil because you don't want to make a mark, but if you get a twig or a stick like this, you can make some lightning.

Press hard on the paper, like this.

Ooh, what a funny sound it's making.

Like this.

Ooh, I don't really like that squeaky sound.

If you press hard on the paper and you make the little indent on the paper, if you get your charcoal then and go over it, hopefully you should see some white lines.

Can you see there some faint white lines? And that is showing me the lightning.

So can you see I've now moved onto the side using the long edge of my charcoal because I'm trying to shade now.

I'm going to shade parts of my paper to show that it's dark, it's ominous, and it's a bit chaotic.

So I haven't put in the rain yet, so maybe that's something I should do now.

And maybe with the rain, I'm going to use a much harder, I'm going to use dashes to show the rain.

(charcoal tapping) I'm going to use a harder bit of pressure on my paper so that I'm showing that the rain is incessantly falling.

And I need to show that it's coming in every direction.

So at the moment, it's sort of coming in one direction.

Maybe I could do this as well to show that it's coming from another direction.

I don't know if that would be a good effect.

(charcoal tapping) Perhaps I can use my finger now to just smudge some of the charcoal, or if that's not working, can just use the side of my charcoal again just to create that sort of chaotic, stormy, windy, very windy scene here.

(charcoal rustling) And that the rain is still falling down.

(charcoal tapping) It's very, very chaotic.

I'm now gonna just go over the branches again, just so that you can really see that outline.

And you see, at the moment, it's not perfect.

I'm just going to just add a few more details to my picture.

The outstretched arms. And maybe they're going that way as well.

Okay.

And that way.

Great.

And then we'll continue on this side.

And can you see, it's okay that my lines aren't perfect, because, remember, I'm trying to create this chaotic scene.

And it doesn't have to be a literal interpretation of the description.

It can be an abstract interpretation.

That means that it's just what the mood of the description is creating.

Okay, maybe I need to just do some gnarled trunks, just to show that the tree is old.

It's withered.

It's been through a storm.

It's not happy.

So some of these textures and lines.

And I've got maybe another branch there.

We feel like it's lacking a branch.

And then maybe another branch out there.

Let me just go back to the text and check that I've got everything.

So if I've shown that there's, I can't really show the icy wind, but I can show that the trees are out, the branches are outstretched in desperation.

I can't really show the thunder booming.

And then my little lightning, you can't really see it as much there.

Maybe what I need to do to make it stand out is I just need to actually draw in the lightning.

Okay, there's my lightning, blinding, electrifying, and then the rain that's splattered in every direction.

Maybe I need to just do a little bit more rain.

(charcoal tapping) And then maybe I can do this to show the wind by making sort of swirling effect in and around the trees, because they feel like that shows us that the wind is howling and tearing through the trees.

I don't know if that's created a better effect.

And then here we've got the ground.

Maybe just need to do that a little bit more, a bit darker.

Smudge it.

And then just put some more lines here just to really emphasise the trunks, 'cause now it's all sort of merging into one.

And then hopefully, if we just add a bit more detail, I'll be happier with my illustration.

Just need to make sure that I don't lose the definition of the branches in and amongst my storm, 'cause that would be a shame.

It needs to depict the outstretched branches that is showing how desperate they are to reaching out for help in this awful storm.

Okay, I think I might be happier with that.

And then I just might do a few more.

Is this the right one I've got? Yes.

I'm just gonna do a few more lines of rain.

(charcoal tapping) And then I think I'm happy with my stormy scene.

What do you think? Wow, okay, now it's your turn to illustrate a piece of writing.

The first thing you need to do is you need to gather and get all the materials that you need.

You need some paper or a notebook.

You need to get some drawing materials.

So you need a pencil to sketch.

You might want to use coloured pencils or markers.

And then you need to get your descriptive paragraph from a book or your own writing.

Use your success criteria and descriptive paragraph to illustrate.

There is the success criteria.

It's going to help you to illustrate your paragraph well.

When you're ready and you've got all the things that you need, you can pause the video and start illustrating.

And I cannot wait to see what you have done at the end of this.

Okay, hold up your drawings for me.

Wow, they look fantastic.

You did such a great job there.

Now what I would like you to do is I'd like you to just tick off your success criteria.

So have you drawn a rough outline or layout of the scene? If you have, give a tick.

Have you referred to the text and identified the vivid imagery described? If you have, again, give that a tick.

And did you add detail to your illustration? Okay, so tick that one.

And then finally, at the end, did you try and edit your drawing to make it better aligned with your descriptive writing? If you did, well done.

If you didn't, don't worry, you can have a go at doing it now, and then you can tick it after.

But if you did, good job, and tick it off.

To summarise, creating visual representations or images can enhance a written text.

Highly descriptive and vivid language helps to create a clear picture for the reader.

When reading aloud, we need to think of using an expressive voice, using the appropriate volume, emphasising key words, and using facial expressions.

Illustrating descriptive writing is not just about drawing, but it is also about interpreting words into visual art.

I absolutely loved teaching you this lesson today.

And in particular, I loved looking at your illustrations.

So well done to you.