1.1 Read About a Sense of Place

Introduction

Reading a good description is like looking through a window into another world. Through the use of careful examples or details, an author can create a scene that vividly describes a person, place, or thing. The best descriptive writing appeals to multiple senses at once ― smell, sight, taste, touch, and hearing. It uses imagery and literary devices that you will learn about and is found in both fiction and nonfiction.

In this unit, explore descriptive text "sense of place". Everyone has special places - places with deep meaning, memories, personal history, and cultural experiences that make a place special over time. People have memorable places where they have lived and places they may have only been to once but were left with a strong enough impression that place seems of importance. Through time, shared experiences, history, and stories help to connect places and people and to transmit a strong connection to place from generation to generation.

To what places are you or your family connected?

Through reading, viewing, and listening to descriptions, let's start our journey to some amazing places.  

Preview

So how does one describe and connect to place?

To what special places do I feel connected?  

Overview of Lessons:

1. Read about and view various places to explore the  idea of "sense of place" while learning about some parts of speech, literary devices, and reading strategies. 

2. Complete and submit the activities in the learning guide.

3. Choose and complete a reading project.

4. In the writer's workshop, you will go through the writing process to create a description of one of your special places.

Learning Targets:

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• describe the form, function, and genre of descriptive texts
• apply strategies good readers use during and after reading
• understand how descriptive text helps a reader visualize images in their mind
• know some parts of speech and literary devices that authors use to make descriptive writing come to life
• understand how you show you are an active listener
• use strategies you can use to generate ideas and share information clearly 
• take part in the writing process to plan, draft, and revise a descriptive piece of writing

Before Starting:

When you see the green "Learning Guide Activity" icon below, this means you will go to your print or computer learning guide to complete an activity. Sometimes, it will be at the end of a lesson and sometimes you will work in your learning guide throughout a lesson. Be sure to use the learning guide WITH the online lesson books. They work together! Don't try to go through one without the other. 

Go to your Learning Guide and answer a couple of prompts that will help your teacher get to know more about your communicating style, strengths, and needs.

1.1A Descriptive Text

What is the goal of descriptive writing? Where is descriptive writing used?

Descriptive text creates a world for the reader to live in!

Descriptive text is used in many kinds of fiction and non-fiction writing to describe a person, place, or thing. 

• A journalist uses descriptive text to take the reader into real world places or situations. 
• A science blogger uses descriptions to help readers make sense of the world or topic being written about. 
• A historical fiction writer uses description to help immerse readers in a time period in order to connect with and understand that place and time.
• An advertising agency wants you to visualize the product they are selling to entice you to buy it.
• A fantasy writer uses descriptive text so you can see the unicorns galloping in the water.

Imagery is an important literary device that creates a vivid description involving  the senses. We interact with our world using our senses, so it's the best way to convey to a reader what we are describing.

Your five senses refers to:

Check out this video. 

YOUR TASK: Imagine a school day without electricity or plumbing, where drinking water had to be brought from a neighbouring farm and the washroom was a hole in the ground in a shed across the schoolyard.  Imagine sharing a classroom with students of all ages, with brothers, sisters and cousins, and being taught year after year by the same teacher.  As recently as 60 years ago, this was the reality of the rural education system, which was so dependent upon the one room schoolhouse. What was it like? Descriptive text can help you to feel like you were there - to understand the sense of place that many older Canadians, especially from small towns, experienced.

 As you read "Inside Edam, Saskatchewan's One Room School", go to your Learning Guide and complete 1.1A: Experiencing Descriptive Text - Imagery.

1.1B Words Create Worlds

When you are exploring language, think of each word like a Minecraft block. Words are building blocks author's use to help readers understand their worlds - to develop a sense of place.

To be a top-notch builder, you should know about the tools and materials you are working with. 

Learn about some parts of speech (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs) and how they can be used to help build worlds with words!. 

1. NOUNS: Nouns are easy to identify.  A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea – and that’s what you are describing in descriptive text.

In your Learning Guide, complete the activity titled, 1.1B Properly Print Proper Nouns.

2. PRONOUNS: 

A pronoun can be used instead of a noun. 

Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

In your Learning Guide, complete the activity titled, 1.1B Keep an Eye on Pronoun Use.

3. ADJECTIVES: 

An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. It helps build a stronger picture of the person, place, or thing in the reader’s mind. 

golden compass                               Halq'eméylem language 

bright-eyed owl                                electric wheelchair 

Adjectives are often right before a noun (but not always), and they are usually after the verb to be when describing a pronoun. 

Examples:

• The pottery is fragile. (fragile describes the noun pottery.)
• It is fragile. (fragile describes the pronoun it.)

In your Learning Guide, complete the activity titled, Adjective Riddle Challenge.

4. VERBS: 

Think of a verb as the engine that makes a sentence go. Verbs help take your readers on an exciting ride. A verb is an action or a state of being. Action verbs are say to find. The state of being verbs (is, are, was, were) is trickier.  

EXAMPLES:  

• The driver slammed on the break, and the car screeched to a stop. 
• The students jumped up and down, hurled their caps in the air, whooped with joy, and hugged each other. 
• I am a dinosaur fan.

Every complete sentence has either a noun or a pronoun and a verb. 

5. ADVERBS:

An adverb describes a verb or another adverb. It tells you how something is done. It can also tell you when or where something happened. Adverbs often end in –ly.

Example: The orca whale dove quickly after the fish. (adverb quickly describes the verb dove)

Example: The orca whale dove very quickly after the fish. (adverb very describes the adverb quickly)

Example:  Nyall is travelling to Kamloops tomorrow. (adverb tells you when Nyall is travelling)

Example:  All the answers you need are here. (adverb tells you where the answers are)

In your Learning Guide, complete the activity titled, Help the Weak Sentences. Then complete the "1.1B Parts of Speech Quiz".

1.1C Literary Devices - Similes and Metaphors

Did you complete 1.1B Parts of Speech Quiz? It is online. Complete it now if you did not complete it at the end of last lesson.

Similes are a way to compare two things using the words like or as.  

Using a comparison helps readers visualize better. Check out this sentence without a simile.

My dog is smelly. (This works, but it’s pretty basic.)

Check it out after it has been spruced up with the addition of a simile.

My dog is as smelly as dirty socks.

How does a simile work?

We know that dirty socks smell badly. In fact, many of us have memories of having smelled dirty socks. Yuck! By comparing the dog to dirty socks, the reader knows that the dog smells that badly! 

You can make the sentence, My dog is as smelly as dirty socks, even more descriptive by adding more details to make your simile even more descriptive. Take a look: 

My dog is as smelly as dirty socks marinating in rotten onion juice at the bottom of a full garbage can.

Here is a catchy song that is overflowing with similes! Listen to it over and over to help you remember what similes are.

Read the following excerpt from Lemony Snicket that reflects a strong sense of a place called "home".

Before reading, connect: Does your home have a special smell or feel to it? Do you have a place in your home that gives you comfort?

This next excerpt really shows appreciation for "home". As you read it, notice the similes that are highlighted. What is home being compared to?  

"There is something marvelous about returning home at the end of a long day, even if there is tuna fish for dinner... It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches. One's home is like a delicious piece of pie you order in a restaurant on a country road one cozy evening--the best piece of pie you have ever eaten in your life--and can never find again. After you leave home, you may find yourself feeling homesick, even if you have a new home that has nicer wallpaper and a more efficient dishwasher than the home in which you grew up, and no matter how many times you visit you may never quite cure yourself of the fluttery, homesick feeling in your stomach. Homesickness can even strike you when you are still living at home, but a home that has changed over the years, and you long for the time--even if such a time existed only in your imagination--when your home was as delicious as you remember. You may search your family and your mind--just as you might search dark and winding country roads--trying to recapture the best time in your life, so that you might cure your homesickness with a second slice of that distant, faraway pie."  

Source: (Lemony Snicket. Horseradish : Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid. New York, Harpercollinspublishers, 2007.)

In your Learning Guide, complete the Simile Search

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS TO THE SIMILE SEARCH

A metaphor is a direct comparison between two different things. It does NOT use like or as.

A metaphor provides a strong visual. For example:

The voters are kettles screaming with anger and shooting off spouts of steam.

The comparison helps you to see how angry the voters really must be. They are likely screaming and spouting off angry words. 

Metaphors are often used to describe abstract nouns - things like love, kindness, and anger. They provide a concrete noun to help the reader visualize what you are talking about. For example:

Love (an abstract noun) is a spring bloom (a concrete noun) after the rain.

(This helps you visualize a flower just blossoming after the rain as a way to see what love is.)

For example:

Kindness is a well-thrown boomerang – it always comes back.

(When you throw a boomerang right, it comes back to you - and this comparison is saying the same thing happens with being kind to others. A simile would say "kindness is LIKE a well-thrown boomerang." A metaphor says "kindness is a well-thrown boomerang.")

In your Learning Guide, complete the "Metaphor Search".

Sometimes people get metaphors and similes mixed up. How can you remember which is which?

• Similes use like or as in their comparisons.
  • For example: Shania is as smart as an army of geniuses. (SIMILE)

• Metaphors make direct comparisons.
  • For example: Shania is her own army of geniuses. (METAPHOR)

Watch this video for more examples.

In your Learning Guide, complete Metaphor Search and Comparisons and Emotions.

CHECK YOUR ANSWERS TO THE METAPHOR SEARCH

1.1D Harry Potter's Places

1.1E Different Perspectives

One person's palace may be another person's prison. A sense of place is based on interactions with that place. Thinking of a certain place can bring about strong emotions. A sense-of-place poem strives to do the same. Words do more than just provide a description of a particular location, such as a childhood home, a park or an entire city, and makes the readers believe they have been there. The words create a mood.

In Harry Potter, Harry and Dudley have very different opinions of their shared home on Privet Drive. Harry found it horrible and Dudley, who was spoiled and treated like a prince, found it delightful.

Before reading about another place, let's add to our language toolbox. Author's can use tools like imagery, similes, and metaphor to bring life to their writing. Another tool is alliteration.  

Alliteration is using words that start with the same sound near one another in a phrase or sentence. Alliteration is like a pop of sound that grabs your attention. It creates a rhythm of sounds your ears tune in for - and it helps bring your writing alive for your reader.

Tongue twisters like the following are good examples of alliteration. For fun, practice saying these tongue twisters as quickly and as clearly as possible.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Roberta ran rings around the Roman ruins.

Four furious friends fought for the phone. (Notice how phone is underlined too. Alliteration is based on starting with the same sound – not the same letter.)

After watching the video below, go to your Learning Guide and complete the activity, Alliteration Alphabet Fun.

Do you remember what good readers do when they are exploring text?

• First reading: 
• Try to get the "gist" of the text - a sense of what it is about and a sense of how it may be read. 
• Try to make a picture or visualize in your mind to help you understand what you are reading. 
• Ask yourself questions. 
• Stop and predict what you think will happen next. 
• Look for big ideas! 

• Second reading: This is usually a slower read, where you try to understand the text better. You may take notes beside the text, write down questions, notice imagery and literary devices, and make connections.
• As you read, find and record examples of imagery (a vivid description that involves using the five senses), similes (comparisons using like or as), metaphors (comparisons without like or as), and alliteration. 

• Third+ reading: This reading may be to answer specific questions, unravel clues, and infer for deeper understanding. You can be a sleuth by going back to the details in the text to find evidence or specific details. 

Go to your Learning Guide and complete the first, second, and third reading activities as you read "Two Contrasting Points of View".

1.1F Walking Through Words in British Columbia

A sense-of-place poem strives to evoke strong emotions. Words provide more than just a description of a particular location, making the readers feel like they have been there; the words create a mood. 

Before delving into the following, let's think about listening and viewing skills. When watching videos or listening to audio, the same before, after, and during strategies as you use when reading or viewing apply. This video is focused on listening, but you want to be "whole-body viewing" too.

Here are some more very important tips for active listening:

There are some videos you have to watch in this course, and you want to do more than sit in front of the screen. You want your brain engaged. You want to be whole-body listening. Watch Cookie Monster as he demonstrates (because you can NEVER be too old for cookie monster!). When you watch videos, listen to audio, or even listen to another person, you can also use the same strategies.

Go to your Learning Guide and complete the reflections on Listening.

Shane Koyczan, Canadian poet and spoken-word artist, was born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, to a French mother and a father of First Nations heritage. He grew up in Penticton, British Columbia. Koyczan has been winner of both the individual champion title at the National Poetry Slam and the Canadian Spoken Word Olympics. He performed his poem “We Are More” at the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Millions of people have viewed the youtube video of his anti-bullying poem, “To This Day,”; Koyczan has even given a TED Talk on bullying and created a free anti-bullying smartphone application as part of his "To This Day" Project. 

His poem, "Walking Through Words", is a powerful poem about the wild within British Columbia, Canada. The poem was turned into a video by Destination BC (a company that promotes tourism). Follow Koyczan as he travels through the lush rainforest of Meares Island and explores the beach of Vargas Island, all in BC. 

Before viewing:

Go to your Learning Guide and complete the Before You View activities.

Review the steps for first and second viewings: 

• First viewing - sit back, watch, listen, and enjoy.: 
• Try to get the "gist" of the text - a sense of what it is about and a sense of how it may be read. 
• Try to make a picture in your mind of what is happening. 
• Ask yourself questions. 
• Look for big ideas! 

• Second viewing: Try to understand the video better. Take notes, write down questions, notice imagery and literary devices, and make connections. You may stop and start the video as you listen and watch. 

Go to your Learning Guide and complete the First, Second, and Third Viewing activities as you enjoy the video below:

1.1G The Networked Beauty of Forests

Imagine if the natural beauty we've been reading and hearing about was destroyed? 

Today, global warming and climate change are HUGE issues. Deforestation causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all trains, planes and automobiles combined. What can we do to change this contributor to global warming? In "The Networked Beauty of Forests", Suzanne Simard describes to students how the complex networks of our forests mimic our own neural and social networks -- and how those connections might make all the difference. As you view, pay attention to how Simard uses emotional appeals to show how much she cares about the forests and how she compares forests to both neural (brain networks) and social networks to show how everything is connected. 

While viewing, remember to 

• Connect what you hear to personal experience.
• Ask yourself questions.
• Use visualizing to help you pull ideas together in new ways. 

Remember to use your active listening and viewing skills - the ones Cookie Monster learned!

Go to your Learning Guide and complete the activities as you enjoy the video below:

1.1I Communication Reflections - Reading, Viewing, and Listening

1. At the beginning of this unit, you were asked to think about your own communication.

You were asked:

• How do you like to take-in information for learning? (reading, videos, looking at visuals, listening / podcasts, hands-on and learning T doing) Which is your least favourite? 

You have now explored paragraphs (one room school, a Lemony Snicket excerpt about returning home, two points of view about a lakeside location), part of a story (Harry Potter's impression of Hogwart's), a spoken word poem by Shane Koyczan, and Suzanne Simard's description of the networked beauty of trees. 

Think about which descriptions appealed to you the most. Why? 

2. You learned about how to actively listen. What part of listening is easiest for you? What is difficult? How can you improve your listening skills? 

Go to your Learning Guide and complete your  Communications Reflections.

If needed, review simile, metaphor, and allliteration in your Learning Guide. Then complete the "Literary Devices Quiz".

Finally, submit your Learning Guide in the dropbox to complete Unit 1.1 Read About a Sense of Place.