Cwlp_Rauen

This lesson sequence will cover setting in fiction and nonfiction using
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson as a model text. My 6th grade honors
class has read pt 1 (the first 150 pages) and has been working on
writing personal narratives. Students have turned in drafts to me and I
have determined that they need help working on setting. The students
are very self-sufficient, and have found this narrative writing
assignment to be very stimulating.
Lesson 1: brainstorming setting
Essential questions:
How do authors decide how they will portray setting?
How does setting relate to character?
Unit UKDs:
Students will understand that:
Setting and character are tied together (U1)
Part of a storys setting is the language used to present setting
(U2)
Students will know:
Setting can reveal a characters inner state (K1)
Setting can reveal a characters passions or habits (K2)
Setting can reflect a characters historical or cultural
environment (K3)
The language used to present setting reflects a narrators
personality and attitude (K4).
Students will be able to (do):
Brainstorm details about setting (D1)
Draw inferences about a character based on setting (D2)
Develop settings for personal narratives based on knowledge of
character (D3)
Express sensory details about setting using figurative language
(D4)
Lesson 1:
10
Students will complete a Do Now exercise. The prompt will be:
min
Write about your bedroom at home. What details come to

5 min
5 min

10
min
10
min

10
min

5 min

5 min

mind (think of the five senses)? You may write in bullets or

complete sentences.
Students will volunteer to share what they wrote
I will give a brief lecture about setting, laying out my Ks. I will
give examples of each. For K1, I will use the clich of storm
clouds appearing in a story to indicate that the main character
is feeling angry, sad, or frustrated. For K2, I will give an
example of a decoration or item in someones bedroom that
indicates what they like to do. This could be a baseball glove,
an American Girl Doll, or a chess set
Now Ill ask students to discuss in their base groups how the
physical features of their bedroom reflect their unique
identities
Students will share their insights from discussion and I will
make a list on my computer (which will be projected on the
white board as I type) of ways that setting can reveal
characterization. I want to be sure the list hits K1-3. Ideally,
there will be many specific variations of those three general
principles. If it ventures into K4 I will ask the student to hold
that thought because that is the next lesson.
After the list is complete, I will direct students to page 13 & 14
of Chains where there is a description of Isabels room. I will
have a student read it aloud. Students will turn to their base
groups and discuss how some of the details described reveal
Isabels character or the conditions in which she lived.
We will debrief the discussions as a group. I want to make sure
every group noticed that Isabels belongings pointed to her
poverty and the way slaves were treated in the 18th century,
even in the north.
Students will write reflectively until the end of class. Given
what they have learned, how do the details about their rooms
they wrote at the beginning of class reflect their own
character?

Lesson 2:
15
Students will complete a warm up exercise. They will be
min
allowed to choose between a straight-ahead task and un uphill
task. After Isabel is sold early in the book, she gets a new
bedroom at the Lockton manor, but that bedroom is never
described. Given what students know about Isabels
personality and status, they will be asked to describe the room
in as much detail as they can. The straight-ahead students will
do this in simple exposition, but the uphill students will write it
from Isabels perspective.
PreThe weekend before the lesson, I will go to 7/11 or CVS and

class
10
min

buy a few handfuls of scratch and sniff stickers.

I will explain and model the activity. I will announce to the
class that today we are going to further develop our
understanding of setting. My lecture will go something like
this:
Last class we thought about how we choose details.
What do they tell us about a character? Just to review,
can I have three volunteers to remind me what setting
can tell the reader about a character?
Now, were going to think about how setting is
presented. Specifically, why and how do writers use
figurative language to talk about setting? Today, I have
a little bit of an unusual task for you yall. Were going
to learn how to describe smells. I will ask for students to
help distribute the stickers and accompanying worksheets
(Appendix A).
I will model an example on the overhead projector. It
might go something like this: This sticker sort of smells
like citrus. How would I describe it? Well, for one thing,
I can describe any sensation be it noise, sight, smell, or
something else by noting its intensity. The folks at the
scratch and sniff plant really piled on the chemicals, so
this is a powerful smell. Ill write Powerful. Next, Ill
think about how it makes me feel? I dont really like
citrus, but it reminds me of eating breakfast on Sunday
morning. It makes me feel refreshed like Ive just had a
good nights sleep. So Ill write refreshing. Now to think
about how it actually feels inside my nose. Its kind of
sharp, maybe it burns a little. Ill write sharp and
burning. How does the smell move? Well, I think it kind
of moves into my sinuses and fills them up. Ill write
slowly inflates inside my sinuses. Then for the last
part, I think the smell is sort of like a hot air balloon
because it burns my nose just a little and it inflates like
a balloon. Then, I will combine into a sentence. When I
entered the room, the sharp, refreshing smell of citrus
inflated inside my sinuses like a hot air balloon.
The kids will want to help make the model. I wont just
plow through this script. I will ask students for suggestions.

25
min

Next, kids will complete the worksheet for three different

stickers. Each one should take about eight minutes. Students
will work in groups of two or three. I will circulate to see who
needs help.
For the rest of class, students will revise their narrative scenes
and attempt to include this advanced figurative language into

10
min +

descriptions

Lesson 3:
8 min Students will complete a do now for the following prompt:
imagine that you are in class during one of Mr. Rauens
lectures. Its a little boring and you start to daydream.
Suddenly, the fire alarm goes off. In one sentence describe
how you perceive the sound of the fire alarm (hint: refer to
yesterdays activity)
I will pass back the papers so students can refer to their work
from the previous class.
10
min

10
min

10

To introduce the lesson, I will remind students that they know

what to write about setting and they know some good ways to
write it. In this lesson, theyll be learning how to logically
incorporate setting into their scenes. I will give a short lecture
on setting as a camera, using Burroways chapter as a guide. I
will explain the meaning of long shot, middle shot, and close
up, using the opening scene from How the Grinch Stole
Christmas (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrCYdGN878I) to
demonstrate how you go from one to another.
Long shot = description of broad setting. This can be a
landscape or cityscape, or even a broad expanse of time.
Something that describes the environment in which a scene
takes place. An example might be description of the school
building
Middle shot = this is the immediate environment, including
what the character can see and touch. An example might be
this classroom.
Close up = the character. Cameras move among these three,
never staying on just one.
At this point, I will show the clip. I will ask students to raise a
hand when they think it transfers from long shot to middle and
then from middle to close up. This will serve as an informal
formative assessment.
I will direct students attention to page 45. In this scene, Isabel
reveals the setting of the house to which she has just moved.
She starts by describing the outside, and then slowly reveals
the inside as she cleans it. We will have a brief class discussion
in which students will try to identify how Anderson switches
among long shots, middle shots, and close ups.
This discussion will lead into another short lecture. I will

min

20
min +

explain how some authors reveal setting as characters interact

with it. For example, the author reveals a grandfather clock
when Isabel notices its ticking. Sometimes it can be useful to
write a scene in which the character interacts with the
environment deliberately and extensively, as is the case when
Isabel cleans the lockton manor. Ill ask students to think of a
couple examples where they might reveal a detail about this
classroom by interacting with it.
The rest of class will be spent doing a joint construction of a
short scene that includes setting. The setting will occur in my
bedroom and will include some but not necessarily all of these
details:
Pillows (blue, fluffy)
Digital alarm clock
Board games (scrabble, khet, castle panic, star realms)
Papers lying on the floor
Microwave oven
Phone and computer charger (scuffed with tire marks)
Scooter plugged into wall
Drawers with pant legs sticking out (Im not too diligent about
folding)
Students should think about what the long shot might look like
(the outside of my apartment or the fact that Ive lived there
for several years), and the middle shot (the objects in the
room). They should also think about how I might interact with
those objects.
If this activity finishes early, we will move into the next days
activity, which is mostly revision.

Lesson 4: sweep up
Students will spend the whole class period revising their personal
narrative essays to include what I have taught in the last three lessons.
I will periodically call individuals or groups over to give mini lessons on
grammar mistakes that I noticed in the drafts students submitted
before this lesson sequence.

[Appendix A]
Names:
Identify the substance that you
smell:___________________________________________________
How does the smell feel? Is it smooth, abrasive, rough? Give at least
three words:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
__
How does the smell move? Does it creep, surround, push, etc.?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Compare the smell to something that will help describe it.
The smell is like:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Combine the best details you have written into a sentence that
identifies the substance and describes the smell. Imagine that you
have just entered a place and noticed this smell.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________

[This worksheet and the corresponding lesson were borrowed from

Smagorinsky 65